A Nordic Adventure

I just watched Thor last night (thanks to a treat by Tsem Rinpoche) and although before watching, I was not too thrilled because I was expecting some silly blond guy in Viking armour wielding an oversized hammer. Well, it turned out to be exactly that but this Viking guy turned out to be a Nordic god. 

It was an adolescent superhero movie after all but the involvement of gods and divine beings kinda makes up for a mundane movie experience. I love Heimdall! He is the black guardian of the Bifrost bridge. His stature, his skin colour – black, his piercing gold eyes, omniscient sight and booming voice makes him a rather interesting god. I didn't really think much of the other characters and unfortunately, that included Odin Allfather, played by the great actor,  Anthony Hopkins. 

The storyline is simple and engaging. The banishment and exile of the young Thor by his father, Odin for being reckless and war-mongering was heart-tugging and I resonated with his struggles of disorientation of being a mortal on earth and his subsequent failure to retrieve his powers when he tried to reclaim his war-hammer. Anyway, it was great entertainment but a friend said that the movie was not epic enough. I asked why and he said that there were not enough epic scenes within the movie. It was not grand enough for a movie on gods. Well, I liked the movie anyway and look forward to its sequel.