A film of two halves

Rating: 5/10 (1 May 2011)

Whoever thought Kenneth Branagh, the man who once gave us a 4-hour long 70mm adaptation of Hamlet, would take a stab at a comic-book movie? I've never read a Thor comic in my life, nor have I been exposed to any other Thor material, so walking into this movie was my introduction to the character. As an outsider to this side of the Marvel universe, I have to admit that the opening 20 minutes are very hard to follow. But as soon as Thor is banished from Asgaard and dumped on Earth, things pick up considerably.
There's plenty of fun to be had (in the vein of Crocodile Dundee) as Thor bumbles his way through human life, encountering the underused and sort-of miscast Natalie Portman, the awesome Stellan Skarsgard, and the cute Kat Dennings. But any time the film cuts back to Asgaard it stops dead. The conspiracy involving the Frost Giants was boring and nearly incomprehensible. I'm disappointed that this is the best story they could come up with to carry the movie. It just didn't hook me.
I'm growing tired of comic-book movies, but at least Thor didn't have to go down the old 'origin story' path, it gets a few extra points for that. But I'm afraid the fun of the Earth-bound half of the film is crippled by the dull Asgaard plot.
And the converted 3D is awful too. Stick with the 2D version people, you'll save yourself a headache. It might have been worth it if Kat Dennings got her ample cleavage out, but she doesn't!