Thor Mightily Disappoints

This was supposed to be the one--the comic book movie that pulled the genre out of summer blockbuster status and hurled it into critical acclaim among all viewing audiences. To do what The Dark Knight couldn't--capture a Best Picture nod. All of the pieces were there: a well-respected, top notch Director (Kenneth Branagh), a cast of award winning Shakespearean actors, and a script that promised to appease both fanboys and the Academy. The result: a giant thud. The film tells the story of Thor (Chris Hemsworth), the Norse God of Thunder, an arrogant, impetuous warrior that is set to succeed his father (Anthony Hopkins) as King of Asgard. After starting an unnecessary war with the Frost Giants, Thor is cast out of his realm and sent to live on his own on Earth. There, he meets astrophysicist Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) and learns to be less of an ass. After his quick transformation, he heads back to Asgard to take on his brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston), who has taken over the realm and is stirring up trouble. Branagh does his best to make this more of a character piece than a plot driven one, but it fails miserably. It's difficult to really get in Thor's corner. He's arrogant and foolish for half of the film. And his transformation from this immature man to a kingly character comes quickly and is unbelievable. Foster and her team of scientists are concerned only with their research, leaving little room to show empathy toward them. And the bad guys--the Frost Giants and Loki--just aren't bad enough. They're just ho-hum. With Loki, there is little suspense with his character. While he's Thor's brother, we know from the start that he's going to turn bad. Even for viewers unfamiliar with the Thor story, it's easily recognized. The chemistry between Thor and Foster is laughable. Porter's Foster has a schoolgirl crush on Hemsworth's Thor, and that's the extent of it. Multiple times throughout the film, I kept being reminded of Porter's crush on Timothy Hutton in Beautiful Girls. It was the same performance for Porter, just 15 years later. Oh, and why the 3D? Note to Paramount: if you're going to take my extra money for 3D, please actually make the film 3D worthy. In all, I was highly disappointed. I expected more--much more. The one positive I took from the film is that it should be very interesting to see how Thor interacts with Tony Stark and the other characters in the upcoming Avengers movie. Check back on Comicbook.com tomorrow, as one of my fellow writers will share his very different opinion on the Thor Movie.