"Thor" - in theaters

I am way behind on posting, so once again, you all must suffer me to post many times in a short time span. But since about 3 people actually read this blog, I'm not too worried about the consequences.

So... "Thor"...

I'll just put this out there: I love me a damned superhero movie. Give me some hot guy who kicks ass and gets the girl, and I am chomping at the bit. It's a bonus when the movie is actually GOOD on top of that. And that is what "Thor" is, much to my surprise.

"Thor" centers around - you guessed it - a guy named Thor (Chris Hemsworth), whose part of a supernatural race of beings who live on Asgard, and act as protectors of the entire universe. They are legends in Norse mythology, who swooped in and saved the Norse people from the Frost Giants back in the day. The king, Odin (Anthony Hopkins), was the one who eventually brokered peace with the Frost Giants, and took their main weapon so that they couldn't harm other realms.

Fast forward to the present day, where Thor is about to take over for Odin, while Loki, (Tom Hiddleston), his brother, watches from the sidelines with a suspicious look on his face. Through a series of events, Thor isn't crowned king, and instead does something incredibly reckless. You see, the Frost Giants broke in to Asgard to try and steal back their beloved weapon, interrupting the crowning ceremony. So Thor decides to get revenge by invading the Frost Giants home and killing as many as possible. Naturally Odin's pissed, and when he finds out, decides to take away Thor's hammer (tee-hee), and casts him down to Earth.

But luckily for Thor, the moment he lands on Earth's soil, he runs in to Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), a physicist who is researching all of the weird aurora-type happenings in the sky. Jane and her team, Erik (Stellan Skarsgard) and Darcy (Kat Dennings), take Thor under their wings, so to speak, especially once they find out that Thor actually came from one of those strange events in the sky.

It goes on from there, and is actually quite complex. I applaud the director, Kenneth Branagh (I know, I know, THAT Kenneth Branagh), for integrating so much of the legend of Thor into the plot, and for trusting the audience to be smart enough to keep up. I loved how he went so easily between the drama of what was happening on Asgard to what was taking place on Earth.

This movie makes me hungry for "The Avengers" for several reasons, and it was a great way to introduce the character of Thor. I almost peed when I saw Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) for a few moments during one of the scenes, and the casual mention of Tony Stark and Bruce Banner just got me all a-twitter.

Yes, I know. I'm a nerd. Get over it.

So on the CWeave scale, I give this movie a solid 8.5. I am serious here - great special effects, a decent show on the acting front, some electric chemistry between the two stars (Chris and Natalie), and a solid story to boot. You can't ask for much more in a superhero flick!