Official San Diego Comic-Con Marvel THOR Trailer

As expected, Marvel finished off last week’s Comic-Con Hall H festivities with the biggest sneak peeks of the week, featuring Thor and Captain America (with a little Avengers assemblage at the end for good measure). While the Avengers cast gathering stole the show, the Captain America teaser (with a glimpse of Chris Evans in costume, throwing his shield at the camera) and footage (featuring a pre-red-faced Red Skull played by Hugo Weaving) made a big impact considering they’ve only been shooting for about a week. The Green Lantern panel couldn’t even show footage of its star in costume (probably due to the negative backlash to the image revealed on the cover of Entertainment Weekly). It even included visual references to Thor (what appears to be Odin’s tomb and artwork depicting Yggdrasil, the Asgardian tree of life, as well as a reference to the larger Marvel universe – a cosmic cube?!). However, the meat of the Marvel event was the Thor footage and chat with director Kenneth Branagh and stars Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, and Hugo Weaving. The footage, for me, hit all the right notes and actually kind of surprised me. Here, check the official (non-bootleg) video to see what I mean…

Oops. Looks like they pulled it. Hope you saw it while you could. If it becomes available again, I’ll re-post it.

It is easily the riskiest of the Marvel stable of films due to its mythological and magical origins trying to mix into the “real” world that Marvel is establishing. One would think it would clash with the more “realistic” science we’ve seen in the Iron Man films. What I love about the trailer is that it doesn’t shy away from that fact; It embraces it. Asgardian “magic” is simply a type of ancient, forgotten science that even we haven’t been able to tap into over the centuries. But that’s just the mythology part of the trailer that I love. Sure, the quick cameos of Heimdall, Hera, Fandral, Volstagg, Sif, and Hogun the Grim are a nice touch as they appear to play prominently into the film, not just as inside reference nods for the nerds. Of course Odin and Loki get their moments (always happy to see Anthony Hopkins in anything). But it’s the moments with Thor that will be essential to build upon if this film is going to succeed with the fanboys and the moviegoers in general. Tony Stark was just as or even more appealing than Iron Man. Yes, you wanted Iron Man to blow stuff up as much as possible, but Robert Downey Jr as Tony Stark in any scene are the best parts of the film. And since most of us don’t know Chris Hemsworth from Adam (except his tiny but moving scene as the self-sacrificing father of James T Kirk in JJ Abrams’ Star Trek last year), he’s got to earn our love and respect. Mumbling, “ugh, this is Earth, isn’t it?” after rebelliously shouting down the all-powerful Odin is a great peek into this flawed character’s story (he’s not just a powerhouse with a hammer). My favorite part is when he tries to reclaim the hammer from the holding facility as Odin recites the words engraved on the hammer “whoever wields this hammer, if he be worthy, shall possess the power of Thor” and fails miserably. Thor is not worthy of being Thor. That’s just awesome and it’s at the core of the character’s origin, even if considerably changed (yes, we’re assured, Dr Don Blake makes an appearance of sorts in the film). And therein we get the redemptive quest of the Odinson: after being a spoiled brat and kicked out of Asgard, forced to be human, he must regain his place of power and his name by learning humility and responsibility for his actions. It also sort of speaks to the challenge of the movie earning its place in the pantheon of Marvel heroes that will gather in the Avengers who isn’t Iron Man. He’s going to have to do some big hammer smackdowns if they expect him to fit in with the rest of the team come 2012 (I think he’ll do fine).

To me, it looks like great fun and I’m eagerly looking forward to taking my seat in a theater next May 6th when Thor premieres in theaters.