Thor Odinson, the Thunderer.

I saw Thor this weekend. And, well, I have mixed feelings about it. Let me start with it's problems.

#1 "Have at Thee!" This was Thor's tagline, which was ommitted entirely from the movie (even though there were a few places it would have worked). In fact, he never said "thee." Or "aye," "nay," "verily," call Earth its proper Norse name "Midgard" or many other words that are common Thor language. The writers thought that the MTV generation is too stupid to understand Old English. While it is true that I despise Shakespeare, that has more to do with it being stupid and not caring. However, a modernized Old English is Thor's iconic language. Forget the MTV generation. Appeal to the nerds. After all, we nerds are the ones who actually have money and show up to midnight showings, as well as blogging about movies that we watch. So I say to thee, nay. Nay to your dumbing down the language of Thor.

#2 Helmet. Ok, this may seem like a little one, but he only wore his iconic winged helmet for a grand total of three seconds. Even when he became Thor again, the rest of his clothes appeared, but not the signature helmet.

#3 Natalie Portman. Seriously? Why did you have to have her? No one takes her seriously as an actress anymore, and so this detracts from the movie. It's partially not her fault. Blame George Lucas. He's the one who wrote crappy dialogue like "I truly... deeply... love you (for no reason other than it says so in the script)" and "Killing younglings?" And to get out of being trapped by her roll in the Star Wars "George wants more money" Prequel Trilogy, she did movies like "No Strings Attached" and "The Black Swan" which shows that she has basically no morals whatsoever. So again I say to thee, nay.

#4 Jane Foster. She was a nurse, not a conspiracy theorist in the comics. Thor fell in love with her because he could see her desire to help the mortals despite their frailty. Now, he fell in love with her for no reason other than it says so in the script. Again, dumbing it down for the MTV generation.

#5 Driver's liscense. Ok, again, this is nitpicking, but he had a fake liscense when Foster and company were trying to break him out. It was for NY. It should have been for Detroit, MI. Part of Thor's uniqueness is that he was the only Detroit-based superhero ever (at least until joining the Avengers in NYC).

#6 Asgardians. Again, this is nitpicky, but two of the Asgardians didn't fit. I understand they were trying to be PC, but a black guy and a chinese guy don't exactly look Scandinavian.

#7 Frost Giants. Again, nitpicky, but the "giants" weren't that much bigger than the humans-sized gods.


Now for the plus side.

#1 Mjolnir. At least they did call Thor's hammer by the proper name.

#2 Donald Blake. They refered to Thor as Donald Blake for his fake identity. It was first introduced when Foster gave Thor clothes, with a Dr. Donald Blake nametag on it. This was for the nerds. Thor asked who he was, and Foster replied "an ex boyfriend." I mentioned Jane Foster was a nurse in the comic. In the comic, when Thor angered Odin, Odin didn't just cast him to Midgard and make him mortal. He put him in the body of Dr. Donald Blake (and wiped his memories of being an Asgardian), a disabled man who was an MD in MI who helped people. It was by this that Thor learned to care about others, and he and Jane fell in love. In times of danger, the good doctor would turn into the Thunder God, and slowly regained his memory, though now gaining Blake's character (Blake's cane would turn into Mjolnir). Once Odin knew that Thor learned his lesson, he again seperated the two beings. I knew that they weren't going to have this side story, so verily I thank thee Marvel for including the reference.

#3 Anthony Hopkins and company. No one could have made a better Odin that Anthony Hopkins. Their Thor and Loki were also great. For my money, whoever did the casting only made one mistake (above) which I'm guessing was the studio's decision, believing she would be a draw (again, the opposite for my money).

#4 Cameo. SPOILER ALERT! I loved the surprise cameo of a particular SHIELD Agent. When Thor was trashing a SHIELD outpost, Agent Colson asked for an eye in the sky. An agent goes in and looks at the guns, then reached up and grabs a bow. Agent Clint Barton, aka Hawkeye. Hawkeye was raised in the circus as a trick bowman, then recruited to SHIELD as an operative, eventually partnering with Black Widow. Hawkeye has a rebellious streak and hates taking orders. Eventually Widow sets Hawkeye up as a supposed double agent, when in fact she was working for Hydra (the criminal organization behind Nazi rise, Capt's foe, and the arch-enemy of SHIELD). Fury ordered Hawkeye to let it go after he proved his innocence and her guilt, but he went off to get her anyway, which ends up with him joining the Avengers. This cameo was a surprise to me, and is almost enough to make up for not having "HAVE AT THEE!" in the movie. Almost.

#5 Asgardians. What is not to like about the Norse gods? I mean, anything Viking has got to be cool. Ninjas are a tired cliche. Pirates lost their coolness when the later two POTC movies made everyone Captains (especially Orlando Bloom and his lamo girlfriend. My favorite of the franchise is still Barbosa). Vikings are still cool.

Overall, I give it a B+ (though my negative list is longer, the pluses outweight it). Yes, I will get it on DVD. If you are nerdy enough to like comic book movies, but not so much as to care about the lack of his signature line, you should like it. If you ask me if you should see it, I say to thee, "Verily, aye," for both Asgard and Midgard!