886. Thor (2011)

Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Natalie Portman

Director: Kenneth Brannagh

Running Time: 115 mins

Thor is an American film and the fourth film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. A young and arrogant would-be-king god is banished from his home planet and exiled to Earth, where he becomes a great defender as a usurper of his throne threatens to destroy the planet of the humans.

This film has got some good ideas, but to be honest, it’s less of a superhero movie and more like Lord Of The Rings in space. It’s got a really uninteresting origins story, along with some pretty dull action throughout, so the only saving graces are its strong wit and good performances that happen in the middle of the film.

Let’s start with the start here. Basically, apart from the first two minutes, this is a half an hour long origins phase where we learn about the character of Thor and what’s going on in his home world. Now, I wouldn’t have minded it if this didn’t go on for so long and at such a slow pace. We pretty much learn everything about Thor in one shot about five minutes in, so the continuing characterisation is pretty repetitive, whilst the creation of the politics and wars that his home planet has was really dull.

Also, the only real drama in this whole film happens in the space of about two minutes towards the end of this first period, where we learn about the main antagonist and what’s at stake for Thor, so that leaves the rest of the film pretty empty of any unpredictability, and with more room for some mindless action.

Now, some long-winded action sequences can be good, and Marvel can pull it off pretty well, like in The Winter Soldier, however this film, once it gets into the fighting, gets really boring and lifeless. Apart from a bit of a forced love story in the middle of the film, there’s little emotion and consequently little excitement in the action parts, and seeing as that does take up almost the whole of the last 45 minutes, it’s really tough to keep your interest.

On the other hand, this film does have some good points to it, namely the humour that comes with Thor’s adjustment to life on Earth. Whilst the first and last parts of this film are pretty dry, the middle is enjoyable and full of laughs as we see an arrogant god strutting around an inferior planet, yet having no idea what’s going on, which was a lot of fun to see.

Also, there are some pretty decent performances here. Chris Hemsworth is fantastic as Thor, and Natalie Portman puts in a typically strong turn as his love interest, but still manages to make an interesting character out of her despite being someone that isn’t very exciting in truth.

Overall, I’ll give this a 6.3, because despite its strong wit and good performances, this film is on the whole pretty dry, boring, repetitive and lacking in real drama or entertainment.