Surprisingly Good

Rating: 7/10 (12 May 2012)

The powerful but arrogant warrior Thor (Chris Hemsworth) is cast out of the fantastic realm of Asgard and sent to live amongst humans on Earth, where he soon becomes one of their finest defenders.
I have enjoyed Thor as a supporting and humorous character in the past -- both in "Adventures in Babysitting" and one of the early Hulk movies. But I was never convinced he could be the leading character... his story is a strange one outside of Norse mythology.
But here, I think it worked. For me, the biggest concern is how do you reconcile Thor being a god with the other gods of the world? For Christians, there is only one god, so calling Thor a god calls everything into question (in the Marvel Universe). But they made it work here by strongly suggesting he is not, in fact, a god, but was merely seen as one by the old Norse people because his strength was so superior to theirs. Nice save.