I've got the aether, nothing can stop me now. Oh...

Rating: 8/10 (19 February 2014)

I can't lie, I enjoyed watching the film. The great special effects, especially at first when the dark elf (yeah, that happened) space shuttles attacked Asgaard, the ridiculously cool Idris Elba, Loki's tricks, Thor's pathetic heroism and Stellan's craziness, the native brutality that Eccleston can radiate with so much ease (screw Doctor Who, I'll just destroy everything, LOL!), they all had something to do with it.
But the story was not good, there so many holes in it that Swiss cheese would laugh at it. I don't want to spoil the movie, but in retrospect, Odin's plan was a lot better than what Thor did, not to mention the effect it had in the end. Jane's character is a helpless damsel in distress, although considering the other protagonists, it actually made sense. Thor's friends started cool, but then they ended up less than support characters. Thor himself does nothing but speak with a really deep voice and look pretty. Odin seems fickle and mean, I guess being king of the universe does that to anyone. Renee Russo is a queen, her character made the most sense to me.
If one character stole the spotlight, it had to be Idris Elba's. He freaking destroyed an invisible space shuttle by jumping on it and stabbing it! Thor just swung his phallic symbol around. It was nice to see science triumph (after all, it always does) but the mambo jumbo spear like thingies that detect and also cause stuff were really too much.
Chris O'Dowd is in this film, too. He is right in his element, as Malekith wanted to restart the universe to fix things, as it were, but has a really small role. Benicio del Toro appears as the mysterious collector at the end (wait until after the first credits to see him). He looks really cool. And if we are to praise the support characters, Zachary Levi looked interesting as the calm gentlemanish swordsman with great skill. Perhaps an offshoot of Thor, featuring Thor's friends rather than himself, would be a good idea, no?
Also, after all the credits there is a funny scene with the Gwoemul- like monster that people forgot on Earth. Yeah, kudos if you were wondering what happened to it in the end :)
Bottom line: you can make a thousand How It Should Have Ended parodies after this film, but that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy it. It hurts to think of the exquisite beauty the graphics people created for a movie that had the story of a fairy tale book for three year olds and how much more coolness a great story would have gotten out of the film. Too bad three year olds seem to be a target demographic for the American film industry. After all, I would rather eat bread than starve, but a steak now and then doesn't hurt, does it?