Thor (2011) – Chris Hemsworth and Natalie Portman

It’s far from the busiest movie, but Thor (2011) is still one of the best action hero movies from Marvel. Not an overly simplistic plot, but far from complicated. The script is well made and the screenplay is well executed. It’s emotive in its mix of realism and fantasy, with good patience and momentum around its points of climax.

Every member of the star studded cast acts very well in this movie, including Chris Hemsworth as Thor, the main protagnoist… Natalie Portman as Jane Foster, an independent researcher from Earth who becomes Thor’s girlfriend… Anthony Hopkins as Odin, the original King and benevolent father of Thor… Tom Hiddleston as Loki, who is Thor’s treacherous adopted brother… Idris Elba as Heimdall, the guardian of the gateway between planets… Stellan Skarsgård as Erik Selvig, a fellow researcher and colleague of Jane Foster… There is also strong CGI around the antagonists in the movie – the Frost Giants – so much so that it’s not really evident which actors are behind them…

All in all, I rate this movie on a similar level to Black Adam – a great modern movie from DC which has a similar mix of CGI-powered fantasy to human-based reality, a similar level of simplicity of plot, a similar level of plot twisting, a similar strength of cast, and a similar level of atmospherics. Both movies are comfortably rewatchable every year or two, although the longer you leave it, the more effective it is.

Sequels

Since Thor was such a hit, it had many sequels.

The immediate sequel was Thor: The Dark World (2013) which is a respectable movie, following the same cast and genre of the original, but was a lot messier in script, and lacking in the area of patient & powerful scenes. As such, I’d rate it a clear couple of levels below the original.

The third movie in the series was Thor: Ragnarok (2017) – it’s on a similar level to the previous movie in the saga, perhaps a bit more going on, and a cheesier vibe, but equally weak in terms of building and sustaining the moment of powerful scenes, to the point of even playing irritating pop music during Thor’s most active moment near the end. This movie momentarily features Dr Strange, plus The Hulk has a significant role here. The main antagonist (Thor’s forgotten evil sister) is played quite naturally by Cate Blanchett, and Jeff Goldblum played a cheesy bad guy role on another planet Thor was on for a while. Tessa Thompson did well as the lead female (aside from the main antagonist), who initially captures Thor but eventually assists him – she has vibes of Rihanna.

The fourth movie in the series was Thor: Love and Thunder (2022) – this is about as messy and cheesy as the last one, but with a weaker plot.

All in all, I rate the original Thor (2011) as a very good action hero movie, and its three sequels are all mediocre action comedies. Of the three sequels, Ragnarok (2017) is probably the better one, while Love and Thunder (2022) is probably the worst of them all.

Léon: The Professional (1994) – Jean Reno and Natalie Portman

7.5/10 — An assassin movie with a twist. Starring Jean Reno as the master assassin, and a young Natalie Portman as his unexpected sidekick.

If you can forgive the inappropriate Lolita-style undertones (it probably inspired that movie which was released just a few years later), this is otherwise a pretty good assassin-themed action movie. Reno and Portman both act very well, and Gary Oldman does a decent job as the main antagonist and a senior DEA agent.

It’s a simple plot, zeroed in on certain things, and generally made to high standards with strong performances by lead cast members – kind of like The Transporter in this way. However, Léon director Luc Besson was widely accused of inappropriate innuendos, and Natalie Portman retrospectively has mixed feelings about it, summing it up as ‘complicated’. Some people consider it a cult classic to this day. Feel free to make up your own mind about it. All in all, I give it a decent 7.5/10 rating but must advise it is liable to offend some people due to indecent innuendos.