Thor (Chris Hemsworth) is the prince of Asgard, a magical kingdom in space. It looks like an underpopulated, golden version of Oz. Thor is an arrogant hothead, resented by his bother Loki (Tom Hiddleston) and soon finds himself stripped of his powers and banished to New Mexico by his father Odin (Anthony Hopkins). Why New Mexico? I guess it's cheaper to shoot there.
Down in New Mexico we meet Jane (Natalie Portman) and her research partners played by Stellen Skarsgård and Kat Dennings. They're all out in the desert scienceing things as hard as they can when Thor drops from the sky. Meanwhile, not far away Thors mighty hammer also lands and gets stuck in a rock King Arthur style. Odin has sent the hammer down in case Thor ever becomes worthy of his powers again (spoiler alert: he will). Soon S.H.I.E.L.D., everyone's favorite shadowy government agency, shows up to secure the hammer and steal poor Jane's research.
The movie cuts back and forth between Earth and Asgard where Loki is trying to take over the throne. The back and forth cutting is good because, despite some dazzling special effects, Asgard is one of the duller fantasy universes I've seen in some time. Most sci-fi and fantasy movies try and give their villains impressive names to fit their fearsome visages. Names like Voldemort, Balrog and Stormageddon: Dark Lord Of All. Thor is content with simple descriptive names like Destroyer and Frost Giants. Sorry, but "Frost Giant" doesn't exactly fill me with dread. The whole world of Asgard feels like that — generic and undefined. We never really learn the rules, things just kinda happen.
The best parts of the film are the Earth segments. A series of decent jokes are made of Thor's fish-out-of-water situation such as Thor going into a pet shop and demanding a horse or smashing mugs of beer and demanding more "sustenance." Hemsworth is quite charming in the lead. But as good as he is, one can't shake the feeling that he's just not that interesting as a character. Tom Hiddleston is pretty good as the conniving Loki and Hopkins leaves no piece of scenery unchewed. Portman is fine but she's too qualified for the role. Idres Elba is fun as a gatekeeper who wins the Action Figure I Want The Most award.
Branagh is the closest thing these movies have gotten to a true A-list director. It's easy to see why he was chosen, having previously mounted big-budget productions of Hamlet and Henry V give him experience with the sudo-Shakespearean language they speak in Asgard. His mostly forgotten Frankenstein means that he has experience with pulpy material. But his treatment of this material is mediocre all the way. His love of canted angles borders on self-parody (though, more self-parody would have been welcome). Action scenes are good enough I suppose but lack urgency. The best one involves Thor attacking S.H.I.E.L.D. agents in a vain attempt to recover his hammer (he was not yet worthy). The worst involves a giant knight called Destroyer who likes to... well, I don't want to spoil it. It's all kinda dull and predictable. Is Thor the god of thunder? Perhaps. Is his movie interesting to watch? Not really.
Through the magic of corporate synergy Thor has more references to Avengers lore than any of the other films. Tony Stark is name dropped, Hulk is alluded to and Agent Coulson (Clark Gregg) after sitting on the sidelines of the first two Iron Man movies, finally gets a beefed up role as the head of the S.H.I.E.L.D. task force investigating Thor's hammer. Thor's brother Loki is also set up as the big bad in Avengers and super archer/Avengers teammate Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner)gets an introduction here. We also get Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) in the post-credit stinger. Also in the stinger is the Cosmic Cube which will be important in the next Marvel film Captain America and possibly in the Avengers as well.
All and all Thor isn't really a film as much as it's a link in a chain. Like the other films in the series it exists to set up Avengers just as much as it exists to tell it's own story. It does this better than Iron Man 2, but the mythology it's short changing just isn't as interesting as Iron Man's.
Grade: C+
Previous installments in this series:
Iron Man
The Hulk and The Incredible Hulk
Iron Man 2
Future installments:
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