The God of Thunder is Simply Electrifying

Rating: 8/10 (6 May 2011)

As a big comic fan, I understand that movies cannot be based exactly on events in the comics-its not very practical. Some say that this takes away from the story, and the movie is never as good as the comic itself. That being said, I really enjoyed Thor and it was a lot of fun. Being a comic reader, I like the little things the writers threw in as a little nod to the fans, like Thor inquiring about the name tag on the shirt Jane Foster gave him, and how it said Donald Blake, and she claimed it was her ex. Really liked the inclusion of the Warriors Three as well. But what impressed me the most was that everyone was really good in their roles! Chris Hemsworth was quite good as the cocky, yet brash God of Thunder. Tom Hiddleston portrayed the deceitful God of Mischief Loki very well, too. Anthony Hopkins was great as the wise and proud Warrior King Odin. Very good character choices, I thought.
I was also quite pleased that the feelings Jane Foster and Thor had for each other was kept as a small plot point instead of taking a much larger role. They kept things focused on Thor and trying to return to Asgard, as they should have. Well done.
Problems? Well, only a couple of minor things, really. They really should have explained what the Odinsleep was, because without knowing about it from reading the comics, a normal movie goer would have just seen Odin collapse, and then be told he couldn't continue on as the King of Asgard because he was "in the Odinsleep". Considering that being in the Odinsleep was the whole basis for Loki becoming King and thus causing a lot of the plot to commence, it really did bear some explanation. Also, I found that some of the fights were rather short. They were good, but when you see Thor, Loki, Sif and the Warriors Three take on a ton of Frost Giants and beat them pretty easily, and those are supposed to be some of the big villains in the movie, it kinda makes you take them less serious. Same with Destroyer. I was so stoked that he was in this movie: in fact, it was probably what I was most excited for. He decimated Sif and the Warriors Three, and then gives Thor a good smack, and then suddenly Mjolnir returns to Thor and Thor beats Destroyer in about 2 minutes. And the same happened to Loki. Loki manipulated everyone, masterminded the whole plan about getting the Frost Giants into Asgard through a secret passage and was playing both sides against the middle. He starts taunting Thor, and then when Thor finally fights him, the fight lasts about 5 minutes. A couple of blows back and forth, Loki makes some mirror images of himself and then its pretty much over. Had they made at least some of the fights go on a bit longer, particularly Loki, it would have gone a long way towards cementing the villains as really worthy opponents. At least Destroyer annihilated the Warriors Three and Sif, which made him seem pretty damn worthy, but Thor turning around and beating him pretty easily took away from that, I found.
Aside from that, it was an entertaining film. There are lots of laughs to be had, (particularly the fish out of water type, as Thor has no clue how to properly act on Earth), the acting is very solid and the story is pretty good.