It may not objectively be the worst film in the octilogy, but 2011’s Thor was for me what Green Lantern seemed to be for everyone except me (I’d take Peter Sarsgaard over Asgard any day, sorry haters). The weird space opera beginning didn’t grab me, nor did the whole fish out of water sequence of Thor trying to understand life on Planet Earth that seemed to never end. How does a toaster work? What is this roll of soft tissue in the bathroom for? Oh, what a world!
I can’t stress enough how much of this could be due to the fact that I only watched the movie once, and the whole time I couldn’t help but think of how lame it was that this guy’s weapon was King Arthur’s sword except instead of a blade it was a magic hammer. Then I couldn’t stop singing that Beatles song in my head about the serial killer who sneaks up on people and smacks them with a hammer. So I can’t say that objectively the tone of the movie didn’t line up terribly well with the material, but for me, it didn’t at all.
On top of this was the depressing fact that Natalie Portman was reduced to basically a pair of eyes whose only requirement was to glossily stare up at Chris Hemsworth’s big face when they weren’t firmly fixed on his chest. Director Kenneth Branagh seemed most interested in Loki, and rightfully so, but that just made Thor himself a distraction from what was actually interesting about the movie named after him.
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