Drama 101.

I went to see Thor last weekend, and whenever this came up in conversation during the course of the week, people would ask the standard question: "How was it?" I'd answer in greater or lesser detail, depending on my evaluation of the questioner's knowledge of and interest in comic book characters, but all of my answers started with the same basic evaluation:  "Oh, it was pretty good."

And it is pretty good, as to as comic book movies go, even without the added appeal of 3D.  It has a good lineup of acting talent, with Anthony Hopkins taking the role of Odin Allfather, and relative unknown Chris Hemsworth does an impressive job with the part of Thor. Thor is very definitely a larger than life character, and Hemsworth plays it as such, but with absolutely no self-consciousness or winking at the camera.  Tom Hiddleston is a bit of a scene stealer as Loki, but it's not a bad thing to have a strong actor in the role of the villain. 

It also contains the usual callouts for long-term fans, such as references to Don Blake, who was the original secret identity of Thor in the early days of the comic, a brief appearance by Clint Barton aka Hawkeye, bow and all, and a variety of iconic Marvel Comics items such as the Infinity Gauntlet and the Eye of Agamotto* that have somehow found their way to the treasure room of Odin.

And, icing on the cake, it's directed by Kenneth Branagh, presumably added to the project in order to provide a sort of Shakespearian gravitas to the whole package.

 

Anyway, a pleasant experience, bit of fun for a Saturday afternoon, but not a great movie, not an astonishing movie.  But why not?  As I've already said, everyone does a good job**, it's in 3D, Good triumphs, Evil fails, why does Thor miss the mark for greatness?  After some thought, I decided that there's a very basic problem that all of these comic book movies share, along with their source material:  lack of dramatic tension.

But what exactly are we talking about here?  Dramatic tension?  What does that mean, anyway?  It's a very simple answer - dramatic tension is what you get if the audience doesn't know what's going to happen. 

Most comic book movies - in fact, far too many science fiction and fantasy movies as well - suffer from a disheartening degree of predictability.   Once the stage is set, there seems to be a limited number of boy-meets-girl, boy-loses-powers, boy-kills-villain, boy-blows-up-Death-Star, boy-dies-then-comes-back-to-life gambits that writers are willing to use.

As a good example, I cried a little when I heard rumours of a sequel to Inception.  I don't know if, oh, The Dark Knight is a better or worse movie than Inception, but I guarantee that no one walked away from The Dark Knight trying to figure out what the ending really meant.  People argue about the ending of Inception - can you imagine anyone sitting down to argue about the ending of Iron Man 2?

It also doesn't help that Thor, along with the upcoming Captain America, the Iron Man movies, and the Hulk reboot, are all in some small way teasers for the upcoming Avengers movie being released in 2012.  How innovative can your plot be if the character in your film has to end up as part of a supergroup next year?

But there's hope:  the Avengers film is being written and directed by Joss Whedon, one of the least predictable and most creative talents in the realm of pop culture.  Let's hope that the man who kept audiences guessing for seven seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, five seasons of Angel (and one short mis-managed season of Firefly) can find a way to pull a rabbit out of his hat for The Avengers.

Actually, given that it's Joss Whedon, a rabbit is the last thing I'll expect to see.

- Sid

* I leave it to the individual reader to either a) trust me that these are iconic items or b) look them up. Same with Hawkeye.

**  Okay, almost everyone.  What, was Rene Russo the only person who showed up for the audition for the role of Odin's wife, Frigga Allmother?  Because that's pretty much the only reason I can come up with to explain how she got the part.