Thor (2011)

The Thor franchise is one of the comics book series' that I know literally nothing about. I don't follow or read any comics/graphic novels, but being on the internet a lot, you tend to absorb a lot of info by osmosis and get general understandings of the big ones, but Thor slipped through. Anyway, it's pretty much your standard superhero movie and doesn't deviate from the template much. That's not necessarily a bad thing though, it's a good standard film.

I'm not too big on the whole cyber-nord feel you get from Asgard and its residents. It's just weird that these nordic, viking gods live in massive towers of shiny, polished metal and not a great, big longhouse-tavern in the sky. That said, it's just the art direction that I don't agree with, the execution was still pretty good and both Asgard and Jotunheim looked great. The contrast between the other realms and small town America was pretty nicely done too.

Something I could really get behind was the humour. I hate it when superhero films try to take everything dead seriously all the time, especially when you've got some guy running around in spandex and a cape for half the film. I loved all Thor's confusion with this new world he's just been dropped into. Scenes like when he first wakes up in the hospital and the scene in the cafe were perfect. Chris Hemsworth really pulls off the brash, no holds barred leader of the pack. This is the first I've seen of him, but I can see him bagging a few more big leading roles in the future.

Not to mention Natalie Portman. But I tend to love everything she does anyway, 'cos she's just cool as f*ck.