Nice looking but seriously lacking depth

Rating: 5/10 (17 May 2011)

When I saw the previews of this movie, I thought it was going to be awful. When it came out and I read some positive reviews, however, I was hopeful and so I walked into the theater expecting something pretty good; some reviews put it on the same level as Dark Knight and the first Iron Man.
It is not even close to either level. I found the entire thing to be lacking any real character development and I thought that the plot, considering some of the character's innate traits, could have done a lot more to be less cookie-cutter predictable fairytale stuff.
Thor spends most of his movie time on Earth stripped of his powers (as you know if you have heard anything about it) and it is on Earth that he is supposed to become less hard-headed and fight-hungry. Well, he does; but the methods by which this happens are not obvious and in my opinion, not traumatic enough to actually induce change in what is supposed to be a stubborn and strong-willed character. One second he realizes he doesn't have the same kind of power he had back in Asgard and the next second he's cooking breakfast for the crew alongside a seriously underutilized Natalie Portman. Thor's change is apparently a light switch; he just decides to change his demeanor because he met a (very) pretty girl.
Don't get me wrong; if I met Natalie Portman and she was remotely interested in me, I would probably decide right then and there to change a whole lot of things about myself too. But it would make for an unsubstantial movie-going experience. Nobody was challenged in the movie; every sacrifice was made without hesitation or anything less than absolute determination. For a comic hero movie that is not unforgivable, but for a movie that is supposed to be tracking the momentous changes of its main character, it is.
Here's to hoping Green Arrow will be better...