Acceptance, if not love, at second sight

Rating: 5/10 (22 January 2012)

When I first watched this film, I hated every minute of it. The story is full of clichés, the main character is unlikable and the mythological figures are distorted almost to the point of being unrecognizable.
I re-watched the film a while ago after having seen the knockoff "Almighty Thor" and it was then that I realized how bad this film could have been but wasn't.
I realized that this film isn't actually that bad. The portrayal of Asgard and its inhabitants - you can call it distorting or you can call it original. Sure, giving the goddess Sif, whose golden hair symbolizes ripe wheat, *dark hair* (that's the colour of mouldy wheat, FYI) isn't exactly a touch of genius. Transforming the god of fire into an ice giant is more than a stretch as well. And the way they presented the giants was just lazy. Why should beings intelligent enough to seriously threaten the gods live in a kind of rubbish dumb surrounded by debris? But on the other hand, Asgard really did look pretty epic. I can't get over the electric rainbow bridge, but other than that it was really beautiful. And most of the gods looked a lot like I had always imagined them, especially Frigg was spot on. Heimdallr being black and Thor having a Japanese friend didn't bother me at all. I mean, why not? Lots of mythologies have gods with animal heads, a different skin colour is ordinary in comparison. Gods don't have to look like the people who believe in them. Asgard having more ethnic diversity than Midgard was strange, but that was a fault of the Midgard arc, not the other one.
The part of the story that took place in Mdgard was what dragged the film down anyway. I didn't care for any of the human characters and I thought Thor became very unlikable as soon as he lost his hammer. Maybe that's a hidden superpower of his weapon. In contrast, I liked Loki a lot... but not in a good way. He didn't come across as a real villain at all. He didn't seem evil and menacing, he just seemed smart, lonely and under-appreciated. My impulse wasn't to be wary but to want to hug him. From what I hear, he'll be the big baddie in the upcoming Avengers movie - he'd better be a little less relateable there because this kind of villain makes the protagonists come across as cruel. I'm used to rooting for the villain but I have rarely felt so sympathetic towards one.
All in all, this actually is an engaging movie, if not a very smart one. It looks good, it is well acted and it has its moments. 5 out of 10 stars.