on the con side:
The film obviously suffers from too many writers. There were no less than 3 opening sequences and one of them assumed I (or any audience member) was an idiot.
The love interest storyline reminded me of a made for TV movie where Battlestar Galactica found Earth. There were two male characters meant to sort of be like Starbuck and Apollo. When they got to Earth shenanigans ensued involving a girl. Suddenly at the end without any buildup or insinuation the girl professed her undying love for one of the characters.
Thor wasn’t quite as bad as this, but the relationship does hang on one conversation, one offhand comment, and a few ‘beefcake’ shots, which tell us why Jane was into Thor, but not why Thor was into Jane. I think we were supposed to feel that Thor liked her because she believed in him when no one else did. However, this contradicts his arrogance. By the point in the movie when Thor expresses any hint of humility several of the characters believe in him. I would’ve bought the relationship more if there was some ‘cheesecake’ to balance the ‘beefcake’ along with at least 2 moments where Thor genuinely got something emotional out of the relationship with Jane. I think the closest we had to this was a night spent explaining Yggdrasil, the world tree.
There are a handful of side characters that aren’t needed, and again feel like people who had a bigger stake in earlier versions of the script. The story tries to be too big before we understand the world, and that is it’s major flaw.
On the Pro side:
I totally bought Thor, his relationship with Loki and Odin, as well as the character turns of the movie. Not only did they deliver a living breathing Thor, but they delivered his arrogance with his charm. The story about brothers and their father was both simple and powerful. Well played.
The main point of the movie really worked, and delivered the big emotional impact all were hoping for. My wife loved it. Though I would add that there were 2 sides to theme at play, (the theme was something about family and the games a father plays when he is trying to teach his children. Both Thor and Loki needed to learn humility) and while Thor’s arc was solid, Loki’s was less so. I wish his story had been more well thought out.
I really liked conceptually what they tried to do with the multiple antagonists. It was clever, deceptive, and felt more real than many movies where the antagonist felt manufactured (the antagonist is usually just a bigger badder version of protagonist, ala Hulk, Iron Man, whatever…). In this case it was really a film about an internal conflict with outward ramifications. All external conflicts were there to drive the story, but they were not the story. The story was Thor learning humility. Interestingly, it was also about Loki learning the same, but again, that needed more thoughtfulness and clarity.
The teaser after the credits was fun. Unlike some of the previous Iron Man teasers it was nice to see one that both hinted toward the future and gave some insight as to what we just watched.
Most of the issues would probably have been solved by simply using fewer writers.
Bottom line: good but not great. 7.5 out of 10.
