Underwhelming, Poorly Paced But Definitely Had It's Moments...

Rating: 7/10 (27 May 2011)

Thor wasn't a bad film, there was definitely a brilliant film in there somewhere but poor pacing, bad editing and marvel studios obsession with trying to shoehorn in avenger references ultimately left me feeling underwhelmed and somewhat disappointed.
To keep this simple i'll start with the characters/actor, then the plot and finally the directing.
Characters - Thor in my opinion was perfectly cast, hems-worth not only looks the part but acted the part. He played cocky, vulnerable, angry all perfectly well and it was a treat to see him on screen and see him develop across the duration of the film (all to brief).
Loki stole the show by a long shot although I didn't quite feel they captured entirely the mischievous nature of his character. Hiddleston gave the best performance by a mile and you could genuinely feel his pain and anguish and it was hard not to root for his cause, he was just a boy looking for the acceptance and respect of his father.
Odin played by Hopkins carried scenes with the most gravitas, i got chills when he hissed at Loki and banished Thor,in fact any scene he was in would always get a smile from me. Hopkins is by far my favourite and most resilient actor working today.
The biggest let down of this film was Natalie port man, she has acting chops but unfortunately she didn't show them here, i couldn't really fully believe her character.
As for the rest of the cast they were mostly forgettable, with idris Elba's character shining through the most but he was criminally underutilised. Stellan skaarsgard should be given a tip of the hat, he played his character brilliantly and was very likable but nothing astounding here. Let it also be said that Kat dennings character was totally pointless and very irritating. She bought no humour to the film even though she was supposed to.
The plot was on of the high points for me, this film wasn't a story of good vs evil to save the world, it was a story of two boys both fighting for th affection and adoration of their father one which touched me, and i can say it was different to what i was used to.
The film was directed brilliantly and you can tell branagh was inspired bu del toro and snyder in scene in asgard and Dunham/ice giant locations. For his first foray into high budget films this was an admirable effort. I don't know who's to blame but i was really disappointed with the pacing of this film and it was definitely cut to keep it;s running time below 2 hours which is a shame because this truly could have been epic. The action scenes were fantastic which is why its such a shame that everything else was so cut so half arsed, rushed and poorly paced.
Asgard could've felt more populated, the scenes of Thor on earth were quite bland and uninspiring and i cant say i really felt anything hems worth and portmans relationship.
All in all its a brilliant summer romp but i recommend you Don't see it in 3d, because the 3d is rubbish.
7/10