Thor

Our Review

Kenneth Branagh brought his Shakespeare training to the God of Thunder and it mostly works. Thor opens in Asgard with golden spires and Anthony Hopkins booming like a stage king, then grounds itself in the dirt of New Mexico, where a banished prince learns humility from a ramshackle research team and the woman who keeps hitting him with a van.

Chris Hemsworth is the whole engine. He plays arrogant early Thor with real comic size and earns the sincerity later without ever winking at the material. The romance with Natalie Portman’s Jane Foster is thin, more mandate than chemistry, but the friendship with Kat Dennings and Stellan Skarsgard keeps the Earth scenes light on their feet.

The reason this one endures is Tom Hiddleston’s Loki. Written as a jealous brother, played as a wounded child with a god’s power, he became the franchise’s foundational villain by accident of performance. The Destroyer attack on the small town is solid blockbuster staging, and the rainbow bridge finale still looks expensive.

A solid origin with one all time great villain performance. Our score: 6/10, stronger in memory than in the rewatch.