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Created Jul 30, 2011 10:56PM PST • Edited Jul 30, 2011 10:56PM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Really Great 4.5

   My first thought when I heard they were making a Thor movie was, “That will be cool to see, but it’s not going to be very good. It will flop.” As a character, its hard to get Thor right because he is a God. You need to make him relateable, but still put him in a fantastic storyline. Hard balance to achieve, even in the comics.

   I was very pleasantly surprised to find that they freakin knocked this movie out of the park. With a phenomenal cast, incredible direction and a great design this movie got everything right. With a fairly straight forward origin story mapping out the journey, we get introduced to an arrogant, spoiled child who through one very bad choice is forced to become and adult. The reason this movie works so well (and gets better the second time through) is the acting. The big three gods deliver stellar, human performances that suck you in to the movie. Great setup for not only the Joss Whedon helmed Avengers next year, but hopefully future Thor movies as well.

4. Acting

   Perfect 5.0

   If you’ve seen the trailers, then you have seen how pitch-perfect Chris Hemsworth is as Thor – at least physically. What the trailers don’t show you is that he is perfectly cast in terms of acting as well. As the movie begins, we see Thor as an arrogant, hot-tempered God who is always looking for a fight. He doesn’t really take things seriously because, well, he’s freakin Thor. As the movie goes on, however, you see a man broken and humbled. Cast out of Asgard to Earth, he finds what it is like to be tossed aside – and it kills him. Hemsworth delivers a soulful performance that makes you feel that hurt. There is a part where his brother Loki visits him and Thor looks up and says, “Can I come home, brother?” It will break your freaking heart to see that.

   Sepaking of Loki, Tom Hiddleston was also perfectly cast as Thor’s mischief making brother. He is sneaky and selfish, looking out always for himself. You get to see, though, the human side of why he is the way he is. Living in Thor’s shadow his whole life, he has been twisted by always being second best.

   Rounding out the big three is Anthony Hopkins as Odin. He is able to carry the weight of being the Allfather and you believe that he has seen some stuff go down. He is wise, but that wisdom has come with a price. In Hopkins eyes you can see a love for Thor, and you see that love turn when he is betrayed and the pain that it brings to cast his son out of Asgard.

   Natalie Portman put in a good performance in this one. It was not wrought with emotion like Black Swan, but she was a good love interest and more than anything you absolutely believe she is smitten with Thor. The smile and the laugh are what convey that so well.

5. Male Stars Perfect 5.0

6. Female Stars Perfect 5.0

7. Female Costars Perfect 5.0

8. Male Costars Perfect 5.0

10. Film

    Great 4.0

    Getting a classicly trained Shakespearean actor like Kenneth Brannaugh to direct this movie was a fantastic idea. While he may not be the best action direct, he knows characters. He knows what moments to capture and to place importance on the the development of the story. This movie works and it is largely due to Brannaugh.

    My only complaint about the visuals of the movie (I have heard people say the design was poor and it looked like a computer game, but I disagree) was the Rainbow Bridge. It was too simple. It felt like it should have more to it. What that “more” would be? I have no idea. It just didn’t feel right to me – it felt like a data cable brimming with information rather than a bridge. If that makes any sense.

11. Direction Great 4.0

12. Play Great 4.0

13. Music Great 4.0

14. Visuals Great 4.0
15. Content

16. Edge

    Risqué 1.8

    Some good fights, some decent violence. No real edge to it outside of Chris Hemsworth with his top off and you got that much in the trailer.

17. Sex Innocent 1.0

18. Violence Fierce 2.5

19. Rudeness Salty 2.0

21. Reality

    Fantasy 5.0

    Complete fantasy. Not only in that a God is cast out of Asgard with a magical hammer, but also in that an astrophysicist is as pretty as Natalie Portman. Sorry, doesn’t happen.

22. Circumstantial Fantasy 5.0

23. Biological Fantasy 5.0

24. Physical Fantasy 5.0