I'm not going to lie. I was, at one time, a humongous Thor fan. So even though I am currently a "DC Leaner" and am currently living vicariously through Green Lantern comics, the prospect of a Thor feature film was thrilling to the child in me. 2011 seemed to take FOREVER to get here ever since I learned that Thor, Captain America, and Green Lantern were all coming out in the same Summer! Can you say "NERD-GASM!!!!!"
My expectations of the final product were tempered somewhat by my knowledge of the director (Kenneth Branagh had never done anything remotely on the scale of this film before); my knowledge that Natalie Portman (one of the co-conspirators in the villainous plot to murder the Star Wars Franchise) was going to be the female lead; my lack of knowledge concerning Chris Hemsworth (before this past weekend he was simply "Captain Kirk's Dad" from the Star Trek remake), and the knowledge that Marvel was going to be VERY hard pressed to even come within the same ballpark of greatness that was the first and second Iron Man films.
I'll start with what was good about the movie. First, the direction was much better than expected. this wasn't, as I feared, a glorified Shakespearean film. Branagh was very faithful to the source material and adhered to it as much as humanly possible. Second, Natalie Portman did not drag this movie down with her clunky acting the way she helped Hayden Christiansen drag down the Star Wars franchise. In point of fact, Portman probably played her best performance of her career in this film (which, I know, isn't saying much, but it does bear saying). Thirdly, Marvel Studios did a great job of concealing Asgard from the trailers because when the Realm Eternal was finally unvealed before my eyes (in 3D no less!), I was utterly breath-taken and speechless!
In fact, the visual elements in the film were, unsurprisingly, one of the best features of Thor. Compared to dull, dusty, deserted New Mexico, Asgard was like everything one imagines Heaven would look like. I found myself looking forward to every Asgard scene more than the scenes which actually contained Thor in them!
The supporting cast was SUPERB in this movie! Each actor played off the other without missing a beat or coming off as artificial, and just about everyone was faithful to the source material in playing those characters. I was a bit put-off by the casting of "the Token Black Guy" as Heimdall (he's one of my favorite Asgardians), but even that actor blew the role away and completely owned the part! I forget his name as of this writing, but I suspect we'll be hearing more from him in later movies. He was THAT good! Sif was gorgeous, and, I know I'm biased in this opinion, but I would have liked for the romantic undertones between her and Thor to have been brought to the fore just a little bit further. Maybe a moment of feminine tension between Sif and Jane Foster would have spiced things up a bit. Then again I'm a sucker for Love Triangles (it's my ultimate fantasy to be fought over by two beautiful women).
I thought Loki was just a little too "handsome." I know, this is a nitpick, but in the comics Loki is not exactly a good-looking dude. It actively annoyed me that the girls sitting a row in front of me were cooing over how "dreamy" Loki looked. Loki is just not a dreamy dude... er-God. Although, I saw him as a CHICK, and I must say he was far more easy on the eyes in that form. I can't complain about the acting performance though. Tom Hiddleston (another actor I never heard of who, IMHO, "broke out" with this movie), was fantastically evil, yet altogether a sympathetic villain what with his identity issues. It was also apparent that while he did undeniably take advantage of Odin's slumber and tried to kill Thor, he still loved his adopted parents, particularly his father, enough that he never made a direct attempt on their lives. I actually found myself thinking at the end that it was too bad Loki let himself fall into the abyss because you almost got the sense that, had he listened, he could have been perhaps talked back to the light. But then again Loki wouldn't be Loki if he became a good guy.
Not to mention it would have punctured a huge hole in the upcoming Avengers plot.
I have to mention the humorous parts of the movie because the jokes were, for the most part, subtle and well-placed. I laughed out loud whenever Thor started loudly proclaiming his mighty greatness and got embarrasingly interrupted by such puny Human inventions as a Tazer Gun or Sodium Pentathol. Somehow I just can't envision that happening in the Comics, but it worked for the film. It really did.
I was tickled to death by the "Hawkeye" cameo though this is one of those things where I would have loved to see him be more involved in the scene where Thor breaks into the S.H.I.E.L.D. facility. I mean, Clint Barton doesn't even shoot ONE ARROW?! Blasphemy!
At first I thought that huge black dude Thor fought in the mud was somebody important, but it turned out he was just a nameless henchman. Too bad, I was actually entertaining the crazy thought that he might have been fighting with Luke Cage or something there for just a second. THAT would have been supremely cool and would have REALLY got my geek-juices flowing!
The musical score was strictly okay. Nothing really memorable like the soundtracks to Star Wars or Superman. It's too bad too, because an epic musical score would have been one of the things that could have put this film over the top.
Which leads me to the downers that left me thinking this movie could have been a lot better.
It stinks that the "Action Climax" of the film occurred only twenty minutes in (I'm referring to the Frost Giant battle on Jotenheim). Because everything action-wise that happened afterward was a ginormic letdown for me personally.
When I saw in the previews that "The Destroyer" was going to be involved, I got chills down my spine because I knew that The Destroyer was a powerful weapon made specifically to destroy Gods and the potential for a "Battle of the Century" was there for the taking. Hell, The Destroyer even KILLED THOR at one time in the Comics. Imagine my disappointment when, after a brief tussle with Sif and the Warriors Three, his fight with Thor amounts to little more than Thor summoning a mighty Tornado to defeat him. Whoop-de-flippin'-doo!! You know, it wouldn't have killed the film to maybe stretch that little battle out for about, oh... just five more minutes!! In fact, it would have enhanced the experience significantly to have somewhat of a payoff for the long stretch of time in which Thor was very "un-God-like" in powers.
In spite of the dearth of mindless action sequences, the plot moved along quite briskly. Almost too briskly in some parts. The biggest problem I had was the budding romance between Thor and Jane Foster. Maybe "budding" is too "slow" a word for it. In fact it was almost like a firecracker lit off. The two meet, meet again, drive around together through the desert and have a brief conversation, sit and chat about the universe under the stars, run around evacuating the town together, and then... suddenly they're lovers? I've gone through it over and over in my head a dozen times since walking out of the theater and Thor could not possibly have been in New Mexico for longer than a weekend (two days at the most)! How does a God fall hopelessly in love with a Mortal in the space of a weekend?? It's not like Jane Foster was THAT extraordinary of a person. Especially when the woman Thor has known all his life, Sif, was in my opinion much better looking and far more awesome. And what was up with the lack of romantic interaction between those two anyway?! I distinctly remember there being genuine romantic tension between Thor and Sif whenever the two were together. The way Kenneth Branagh directed the film though, you'd think the two were SIBLINGS! The romantic subplot would have been a lot more interesting with a little underlying jealousy thrown in. It certainly can't be accused of being REALISTIC. I mean... who falls madly head-over-heels in love with someone in a matter of hours?! This isn't a cheap romance novel, it's THOR!!!
Another problem I had was the whole "humility" subplot. You know, the whole reason Odin backhanded his son down to Earth in the first place. The film spent so much time and effort building background to the main storyline that it almost neglected the main plot itself! Again, Thor could not have possibly been on Earth for more than 48 hours, yet suddenly he learns to be a good person who doesn't seek mayhem and mindless battle in that short span of time? Where was the catalyst that caused his character transformation?! Where was the moment of clarity?! Was it when he tried to pick up his Hammer and found that he suddenly couldn't? How could that be when he wasn't around when Odin put that particular spell on Mjolnir? There was no way Thor could have known it was his lack of humility and grace that was preventing his picking up the Uru Mallet. Otherwise he wouldn't have gone after the darn thing in the first place, he would have spent time working on his manners. Was it when Loki told him Odin was dead because of Thor? This has to be it, but again, a person doesn't just change his stripes overnight. I don't know. More time could have been spent on this, but then again I know that the film had time constraints and all that jazz. It's tough. I just thought it was all a little rushed.
If I had to assign a star rating to Thor, I would probably give it a solid four out of five or eight out of ten, depending what scale you like. It did exceed my expectations, so I can't find any reason to not like the movie. I'm just a little disappointed because it could have been better! Just a few little tweaks here and there and this movie would have been unbeatable. Instead, I'm still going into the Summer thinking that both Green Lantern AND Captain America are probably going to be the best of the year in terms of CBM's. Of course, I'm also worried about the OPPOSITE problem happening with those two: I am, of course, referring to being disappointed as a result of my own sky-high expectations of those films.
All in all, Thor was a great “appetizer,” but I'm more than ready for the “main course,” (GL) and “dessert” (CA)!