Thor

Based on the Marvel comic book series, Thor follows the title character (Chris Hemsworth) as he’s exiled from his home planet of Asgard and sent plummeting to Earth – where he must team up with a scrappy scientist (Natalie Portman’s Jane Foster) to inevitably save the universe. There’s little doubt that Thor gets off to an almost astonishingly underwhelming start, as filmmaker Kenneth Branagh offers up a disastrous opening half hour, which is predominantly set on Asgard, that’s simply not engaging in the slightest – with the majority of such scenes infused with an uncomfortably larger-than-life sensibility that’s exacerbated by an overuse of computer-generated special effects. (There is, for example, a battle between our heroes and hordes of vicious creatures that’s rendered incoherent by the quick editing and pervasive darkness in which it unfolds.) The less-than-enthralling atmosphere is compounded by the lack of wholeheartedly compelling characters, as scripters Ashley Edward Miller, Zack Stentz, and Don Payne have populated the proceedings with one-dimensional stereotypes that simply never become developed enough to engender the viewer’s interest. (This is especially true of Thor’s merry band of sidekicks, as each of these figures have been painted with oppressively broad strokes.) It’s not until the action shifts to Earth that Thor improves slightly, with the initial emphasis on Thor’s fish-out-of-water exploits infusing the proceedings with a breezy, inherently compelling sort of vibe. (it is, for example, impossible not to derive some enjoyment out of the scene in which Thor charges into a pet store and demands a horse or something big enough to ride.) But such moments prove to be short-lived, as Branagh destroys the movie’s tenuous momentum by continually cutting back to the Shakespearean drama on Asgard – yet, despite the presence of solid performers like Anthony Hopkins and Rene Russo, these scenes fall impossibly flat on an all-too-regular basis. (That most of this is unfolding on laughably chintzy sets certainly doesn’t help matters.) By the time the overblown, frustratingly incoherent climax rolls around, Thor has certainly established itself as a missed opportunity of nigh epic proportions – with Hemsworth’s admittedly charming work standing out as the film’s one consistently agreeable attribute.

** out of ****