Thor Review

After a great deal of waiting that extended well beyond the titillating tease for a Thor movie in Iron Man 2 a Thor film was finally released in 2011. To this day I still sadly can't help but be underwhelmed by the final results with Thor being the second weakest Marvel Studios film thus far. To be clear, Thor is not a bad film like I found Iron Man 3 to be and still remains enjoyable, it however is in many ways also a wasted opportunity.

The strength of Thor is most notably the comedy and the film contains many extremely funny moments. The visuals are also simply stunning, though the scenes that take place on earth do fell dull and lifeless especially when they are are compared with Asgard. The 3d, which was yet another conversion at times displays the cardboard cut-out effect and clearly was not taken into consideration by the film makers. Put simply the 2d release of Thor is the version to see.

The main issue however resides with the pacing and forced love story. To put it simply whilst both Chris Hemsworth as Thor and Natalie Portman as Jane both give strong performance their is little chemistry between the two and as a result the love story present fells forced and completely unnecessary. This is particularly an issue as Thor fells overcrowded with little to no breathing room and could have likely benefited from either a longer run-time or the removal of a the forced and contrived love story. Likewise whilst Stellan Skarsgård provides a good performance he fells underutilized and once again unnecessary and is seemingly included for his more pertinent role in The Avengers.

The whole angle of the 'villain' also doesn't carry the emotional impact that the film-makers seem to have been aiming for which leaves the ending rather anticlimactic. Admittedly Tom Hiddleston as Loki provides for what is easily the strongest performance and also the most interesting character present. It is just a shame we get a tired, predictable and unneeded love story instead of a more in depth look at Loki and his relationship with his brother Thor and father Odin.

Thankfully the humour is successfully enough to overlook some of Thors more obvious flaws and the action scenes are generally exciting and keep everything moving forward at a brisk pace. Sadly the humour and action isn't enough to overlook Thors wasted potential. Thor is a film that I would have no hesitation recommending to fans of comic book films and those who like large doses of humour in their action films. For those less ecstatic about such films Thor is by no means a film that is likely to change their mind on the genre and thus comes tentatively recommended.