An average movie with some stunning visuals.

Rating: 5/10 (21 May 2011)

I never really wanted to see this movie in the first place...I thought it looked stupid from the early trailers, but then I thought it looked funny from the later ones. Needless to say, I had low expectations going in. My coworker said it was good so I went to see it.
I'd give it a C.
The film doesn't "fail" at anything it tries to do, but it aspires to so little. It's your typical superhero-being-discovered story. The necessary elements are all there, and arguably they are carried out adequately...and that's all this film is, "adequate." I saw no spark of character in anyone or anything in the story. Yeah, it's a comic book, it's going to be cliché, but at least make it your own. Except for the Norse names, every line of dialogue felt like it had been heard before a hundred times. Seriously.
None of the actors gets a chance to do much...the entire movie feels like it could've been done in one episode of Xena. Loki and the (gatekeeper?) bothered to show some depth and it was noted. The big bad ice guy (yeah, I don't remember his name) was to me the most compelling of the entire cast. Still, this is all based on physicality...their dialogue never moved me one way or the other.
The one thing that made this film stand out is art direction. The outer-space fantasy elements are quite stunning (if not overly CG), and some of the costumes are also really good.
The action in the movie was also fairly by-the-numbers. Except for Thor's hammer, there's nothing new here.
Lastly, I thought this movie would be funny (like Scorpion King), but not so much. There were a few laughs to be had, but the film mostly takes itself seriously...which is too bad. I would've much rather preferred a film that makes more fun of itself...especially in this case.