Review of Thor (2011) by Anthony K — 20 Jan 2016

I always defended this movie as being the "funny" Marvel movie, the one that thankfully didn't take itself too seriously. In retrospect, that doesn't really work in its favor. The dialogue is atrocious, the jokes are hammy and out of place, and the half-hearted attempt to pass off magic as science is innane and (like Iron Man 2) feels ripped from the fan fiction of an 8-year-old.

There are quite a few named female characters here, but they're given remarkably little to do. Natalie Portman's physicist does next to zero science in this movie and instead fawns over Thor the minute he shows up. Forget the fact that the two of them have no chemistry and their romance is completely unearned. Kat Dennings is also about as funny and appealing as Jar-Jar Binks. What I thought was quirky five years ago now makes me want to bang my head against my desk until she stops the awkward one-liners. Seriously, why do these world-renowned scientists keep her around? She contributes nothing.

Loki is by far the best thing on display here, but Tom Hiddleston struggles to elevate the corny dialogue and Snidley Whiplash scheming into something of a viable villain. He only half succeeds.

In terms of the Marvel CU, "Thor" seems to be the moment they decided to stop telling self-contained stories that were compelling (if silly) and leaned heavily into making feature-length trailers. 4.3/10.