Kenneth Branagh adds heavy dramatic depth to an already quite-unusual superhero flick

Rating: 6/10 (6 May 2011)

Alright, back when this was into preproduction, I (and so many comic book fans) were surprised when Branagh was slated to direct. Here we have Thor the god of lightning and his mighty hammer, directed by a man who works mostly around William Shakespeare plays.
Thankfully, this helps. A lot.
Almost every superhero movie (Marvel, lately) focuses on more action instead of character development. Sure, they may look awesome, but you get used to it. Branagh bravely steers away from this predicament and directs the actors with such skill and flair you may mistake this film for yet another Branagh/Shakespeare costume epic.
Make no mistake this is still a superhero film, with some nice special effects and a stylish production design for Asgard, but there's a nice human twist to the story - that of dueling brothers, or gods, or god- brothers... you get the idea. Chris Hemsworth looks just about right for the part and shows some charisma as well as the hero. Branagh has assembled an interesting mix of actors - we have the great Anthony Hopkins, the cute Natalie Portman, Stellan Skarsgard, Kat Dennings, Idris Elba and even Rene Russo. Tom Hiddleston however steals the scene as the mischievous brother Loki.
Here's another good thing about the movie - the story and acting outweigh the special effects and action sequences. For a superhero film, this is extremely rare. Branagh deserves kudos for the effort, however some parts do not gel in nicely and there's some action bits that are not too well-filmed.
All is forgiven though - "Thor" is an above-average superhero movie, not extremely exciting, but definitely intriguing. Fans of both comic book films and costume dramas will certainly enjoy this.
Two words of caution - one, keep an eye out for some cameos, both during and after the film. Two, for goodness sake do not watch it in 3D. I saw it in normal 2D and that's fine enough by me. I didn't see anything worth watching in 3D in it.
Overall rating: 68/100