It will blow you away.....unless you are dead!

Rating: 8/10 (5 May 2011)

I had very low expectations for this movie when my daughter dragged me to the 12:01am showing of "Thor" on opening night here in the States. After all, I've never read the comic and there didn't seem to be all that much publicity concerning this film--and I just thought it would be one of Marvel's lesser films. However, when the film began I was absolutely blown away. It had to be the most beautiful and mind-blowing superhero film ever--with gorgeous visuals of other worlds that even sci-fi films haven't come close to matching. And, combined with nice 3-D effects and an exceptional score, you just turn off your brain and absorb it all--like some sort of mind-altering drug! And speaking of the score, while the "Iron Man" soundtracks were great (with LOTS of great AC/DC tunes among others), "Thor" chose instead to mostly use original compositions--and they were gorgeous.
Fortunately, in addition to the gorgeous visuals and music, the film had a very good story, nice acting and great direction--by none other than Kenneth Branagh (yes THAT Kenneth Branagh). I also admire the script--it had a lot of excitement and occasional humor that made the film more than just an action film crammed with amazing stunts. Well done--and hopefully the film will catch on--it deserves to do very, very well. I'd say this one was about on par with "Iron Man" and "The Dark Knight" in quality and entertainment value--proving that even film snobs like me can enjoy some good escapist entertainment now and again.
By the way, I did have one complaint about the film. It had among the most obvious and annoying product placement I've ever seen. I got absolutely sick of seeing 7-11, Southwest Airline and Kashi crammed onto the screen. Could Paramount Studio do any worse to whore out this film?! For shame, as the film was terrific but was cheapened a bit by this crass corporate decision. Oh well, at least they weren't paid to place laxatives or hemorrhoid creams in the film!