Impressed

Rating: 7/10 (2 February 2012)

There have been so many superhero flixs churned out of the Hollywood factory this past decade. So much so that it has made my head spin.
I have high expectations when it comes to superhero movies. While they rely heavily on special effects, I also expect a great storyline and a believability factor to go along with it as well. With that said, few superhero films over the past decade have lived up to my expectations. While most films have nailed the special effects criteria, they just can't seem to get the plot thing down so well. The Dark Knight was by far the best of the bunch and I did enjoy the X-Men trilogy, but felt the Wolverine spin-off fell short. Unlike most other people I didn't really care for the highly successful Iron Man and Spider Man franchises. They made Robert Downey , Jr's character Tony Stark in Iron Man overly comical and Spider Man was too slow throughout the series. Both Hulk movies, Batman Returns, Superman Returns, Electra, Daredevil, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and Fantastic Four were all major disappointments. I could add more recent superhero films to the list, but you get the point. It shouldn't be a surprise to tell you that, as with other superhero movies to grace the big screen this past year (Captain America, Green Lantern, The Green Hornet), I had no interest whatsoever in seeing Thor. The only reason I did see it was because my best friend rented it and pretty much forced me to watch it. I'm glad he did.
This was a surprisingly entertaining movie with some interesting plot twists. The war scene that kicks off the movie is a little too dark so it's hard to make out what's going on, but that soon changes once we get into the meat of the storyline.
What can you say about Anthony Hopkins? He's a great actor and gives nothing less than a great performance here as Odin, king and God of Asgard. He's also the father of Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and Loki (Tom Hiddleston), although we learn things are not as they originally appear with this family.
The best part about this movie is it has a believability factor to it. The characters are well developed and the overall plot works well. I would have given this film a higher rating but there were a few elements to the story that were confusing or just stupid. The fact that we didn't see Hemsworth shirtless more throughout the film is one of them. With a body like that you don't need dialogue!