One of the Better Comic Adaptations

Rating: Null/10 (27 April 2012)

Thor (2011)
*** (out of 4)
After going against his father's wishes and starting up a war, the arrogant Thor (Chris Hemsworth) is sent to Earth by his father (Anthony Hopkins) but while he's gone his brother turns enemy and tries to destroy the kingdom. While on Earth Thor meets a young scientist (Natalie Portman) who tries to understand where he comes from. I will admit that I've never read a single Thor comic and I'll admit that I find a lot of these comic movies to be rather bland with more action than brains. I really wasn't sure what to expect from this film but I will admit that I was really confused when I learned that someone like Kenneth Branagh was going to be directing. Well, color me shocked to nearly my death because this is actually a pretty solid movie that has some brains, plenty of action, great characters and some wonderful special effects. I was really caught off guard by the screenplay being able to make some interesting characters and this covers everyone from Thor to his father, the scientist, her friends and just about everyone else in the story. It's strange but I found even the smallest of the supporting characters to be people you could connect with and this certainly helped the story. I also thought the performances were extremely well by everyone involved. The arrogance that Hemsworth was able to bring the part was pitch perfect and I thought Portman was fun and believable in her bit. It certainly doesn't hurt when you've got someone like Hopkins giving it his all. Rene Russo is pretty much wasted in her brief role but it was still nice seeing her. I've always said that I'm not a fan of CGI because more often than not it just looks so fake to me that I have a hard time getting caught up in the world it's trying to create. That wasn't the case here because I thought the picture was visually stunning. The opening bit with the space travel looked amazing and I thought the director did a remarkable job at blending the CGI with the story so that it was never distracting. THOR is certainly one of the better comic book adaptations out there.