Thor

First Hit: This attempt at complicating a simple story resulted in a thud.

Kenneth Branagh has never been an actor or director that touched me with his work. I found his work pretentious and felt I could see through his acting. This attempt by Branagh to make money will probably succeed, but for storytelling, it just was overwrought – like Branagh.

The overt complicating of stories or characters doesn’t make great acting or directing. Clarity of vision with clarity of execution does tend to make good and watchable films.

In Thor (played by Chris Hemsworth), the arrogant namesake acts like most cocky kids, strong, idealistic, and quick decision making. Experience and wisdom, which cannot be willfully passed on through generations, is what he lacks. He has a brother, Loki (played by Tom Hiddleston) who obviously is not of the same blood, that Thor truly loves and admires.

Their father, Odin (played by Anthony Hopkins), banishes Thor and his hammer to Earth for his exuberance in killing people and displaying his power. Because of the 9 vectors in space (yeah right), he gets banished to Earth via a wormhole. After Thor is banished, Odin falls into a coma like sleep and Loki decides to seize the throne from his father.

Loki plots to have his father assassinated by the Ice Giant people who are from another planet. But his real plan, we think, is that he wants to be seen as saving his father at the last minute from this assassination. This act, he believes, will make him worthy of the crown. Loki also discovers that he is originally from the Ice Giant planet that his father conquered years earlier. Odin found Loki as a baby and saved him as an act of humanity. 

All the while, Thor meets up with some scientists who are studying phenomena in New Mexico. The scientist, Jane Foster (played by Natalie Portman), finds Thor roaming the desert. He happens to speak English, as do all the characters do no matter what planet or solar system they reside, and continues with his arrogant ways on Earth. The havoc from Thor and his hammer landing on the ground bring in a secret government agency to find out what is going on.

The government agency steals Jane’s materials, Thor likes Jane so he tries to get the materials back, Loki visits Thor and tells him Odin is dying, Thor gets humble and saves the day by fighting an all metal flame belching 20 foot tall robot sent by Loki to kill Thor, Thor goes back home through the wormhole promising to return but ends up killing Loki by destroying the wormhole machine.

Finally, Odin wakes up from his coma, is proud that Thor learned his lesson, and they are all sad that Loki ended up being dead because of his lust for power and wanting to prove to Odin he was deserving of being King.

Hemsworth made a good Thor. Being well built and self-effacing enough, he did a good job with a screwed up story. Hiddleston was OK and was a good enough villain. Hopkins was a great king and ruler of their kingdom – simple voice inflections and inner strength made his character work. Portman was not very believable but funny enough in this throw away role. Ashley Miller and Zack Stentz wrote a screwy script. They could definitely take some lessons from other Marvel stories which have been more interesting and fun to watch. Branagh doesn’t really know what to do behind the camera and his intelligence should have given him a better feel on how to make this character and story come alive.

Overall: Some nice special effects but beyond this the film is a flat liner.

Pirate Radio

First Hit: This is a really fun film if you are a baby boomer and liked the music of 1966.

Philip Seymour Hoffman and Bill Nighy star as an American DJ and a renegade seaborne radio station producer respectively.

The station is a ship off the coast of England because rock and roll was only allowed on the BBC radio for 1 hour a day in 1966. Therefore ships were anchored off-shore which flooded England's air waves with rock and roll 24/7.

On this particular ship, Hoffman plays The Count a DJ with a certain bold panache while numerous other radio personalities each present their own style on their shows on this 24 hour a day station. The DJs and the radio crew live on the ship and have a very close camaraderie and belief of what they are doing is the right thing.

However, the British Government, especially Kenneth Branagh (playing Sir Alistair Dormandy), hate rock and roll and thinks it will hurt society, therefore they want these offshore pirate stations shut down. However, there were no laws to prevent these ships from existing and playing rock and roll.

Eventually the government creates a maritime law and at midnight one new-years-eve they are supposed to shut it down. But the group on this ship say "to hell with it" and continue to broadcast. They eventually have to move their location and then the ship gets a big hole in it and starts to sink. Will they survive, will the music live?

Nighy is outstanding and wonderful as Quentin the producer of this seaborne Pirate Radio station. Hoffman is strong and fully American in his attitude among his British peers. Everyone else in this film is very good in their parts and are to be commended. However, the real star of this film is the music. I loved it.

Overall: This was a good time movie and filled fun music which brought up great memories. If you are a boomer and liked rock and roll go enjoy this film.