‘Thor: God of Thunder’ Review
Stars: Daniel O’Reilly, Vadim Brunell, Eva Ceja, Myrom Kingery, Vaune Suitt, Neli Sabour, Tyler Christopher | Written by Steve Doucette | Directed by Noah Luke
Thor: God of Thunder is the latest “mockbuster” from The Asylum and their second film about this hammer-wielding Norseman. There’s no connection however between this and their 2011 film Almighty Thor, thank Odin for small mercies.
This time out Loki (Daniel O’Reilly; The Girl on the Mountain, D-Railed) has escaped captivity in Asgard. Who can blame him, his guards Ivar (Vadim Brunell) and Halstein (Eva Ceja; 4 Horsemen: Apocalypse, Aquarium of the Dead) are late with his meals and eat all the olives out of them. He proceeds to kill them and run Odin (Vernon Wells; Commando, Tales from the Other Side) and heads to Earth to awaken the giant wolf god Fenrir and destroy Yggdrasil – The Tree of the Nine Realms. The usual evil diety stuff.
Odin manages to hold on until Thor (Myrom Kingery; The Time Capsule, Devil’s Triangle) arrives. He tells him the only way to stop Loki is to find the halves of The Amulet of Varga. Loki has one half, nobody knows where the other half is. A typical heroic quest. Of course, a quest requires companions and Dr. Grace Choi (Vaune Suitt) and Dr. Adrian Quinn (Neli Sabour) archeologists who just happened to be excavating Fenrir’s prison can fill that role.
Writer Steve Doucette and director Noah Luke (Moon Crash, Jungle Run) certainly don’t give us anything new, but at least they keep Thor: God of Thunder moving and have something, a swordfight, an earthquake, or a giant wolf appearing happening every few minutes to keep it from becoming a talkfest like so many other Asylum films.
While there was obviously a bit more money put into Thor: God of Thunder than a lot of other The Asylum’s other films there still wasn’t enough to do it right. One minute a quake is bringing down overpasses, the next everything looks fine with not so much as an empty shelf or a mess on the floor. And while it is nice to get some action so early in the film, the first fight between Thor and Loki looks like an excerpt from a Black Metal music video.
Thankfully, as he did in Jungle Run, Luke manages to give Thor: God of Thunder enough low-budget charm to keep it interesting in the way most of their films aren’t. As a result the film’s first-hour breezes along nicely. And some noticeable bloopers, such as Thor rowing a Viking boat with what looks like a kayak paddle that is obviously not going near the water, get a chuckle rather than ruin the scene.
Unfortunately, the final act does bog itself down with a long motivational conversation about not giving up that’s rather cringy. And the final battle is really hurt by the laughably bad CGI used for Fenrir. Not only does he look like an escapee from a kids’ cartoon, but at times he looks more like a bear than a wolf. And that’s a bit of a surprise because the scenes of Asgard, as well as an earthquake and a tsunami hitting Los Angeles, are more than acceptable. The less said about the green screen work the better though.
While still pretty rough by normal standards, judged by Asylum standards, Thor: God of Thunder isn’t bad at all. It’s one of the better things they’ve done recently and their fans should be delighted. More casual viewers should enjoy it for the energetically cheesy style it shows for most of its length. And soap-opera fans can enjoy seeing Tyler Christopher from General Hospital and Days of Our Lives as Dr. Choi and Quinn’s boss.
***½ 3.5/5
The Asylum will release Thor: God of Thunder in a handful of US theaters from July 8th to the 14th, followed by a VOD and Digital release. In the UK the film is out now on digital from High Fliers.
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