Great visuals, yet a shallow film, lacking substance.

Rating: 3/10 (5 May 2011)

You might think that Viking Gods, hammers of mass destruction, 'Frost Giants', and rainbow bridges to outer space would make for a pretty awesome movie. I thought that too. Damn. Thor, directed by Kenneth Branagh, seemed ready to blow my mind with awesomeness. It didn't. Based on the Marvel comic of the same name, the film focuses on Thor, one of the Gods of Asgard (an intergalactic paradise), and the son of Odin, King of Asgard. (Played by Chris Hemsworth and Anthony Hopkins, respectively) After being enraged by Thor's continual arrogance, Odin decides Thor is not ready to be King yet and exiles him to Earth, where -stripped of his power- he must learn to live as a mortal. Thor's scheming brother Loki attempts to take the throne in his absence and Thor must fight battles on both worlds in order to reclaim his rightful place in Asgard.
I found Thor extremely shallow, and without a sense of depth. The film is never placed in the context of reality; half of it takes place on a different world, the rest takes place in a tiny fictional town in New Mexico. Thor lacks a sense of scale, its events are too isolated. I found it hard to relate to, as the film never truly enters 'the real world'. On top of this, Branagh asks the audience to suspend their belief much more than they should have to, and to believe the ridiculous proposition that all of the events in the film happen over the course of one day on Earth. The film takes itself seriously, yet the events contained therein are so far fetched that it is hard for the audience to do the same. The character of Thor is ridiculous enough without Hemsworth making him even more contrived, and poor scripting does nothing to save the characterisation. The supporting characters are just as shallow as the film itself, and Branagh uses them as pawns to drive the plot forward, rather than actually developing them. Thor does at least have some awesome visuals, and special effects to boot, but it is ruined by the unbelievable and far-fetched story, poor scripting, horrible characterisation, and a terribly unsatisfying ending. Lacking both substance and depth, the film left me feeling thor.