Devin is a raging DC fanboy really though. I expected him to give Thor a negative review. And i expect him to praise Green Lantern as a masterpiece. The "fairely tolerable" remark is nonsense. It reeks of pretentious and bias twaddle, in all honesty.
Anyway, saw it last night. Really enjoyed it. Hemsworth, Hiddleston and Elba are the standouts.
I also thought Hopkins was great. He seemed really sincere in his performance, and i was expecting him to just ham it up and phone it in. The scene where he banishes Thor is a masterclass in acting. You could really sense both the ferocious anger and the heartbreaking pain that Odin felt there.
Hemsworth really nailed down the likable obnoxiousness/arrogance. And also the childish naivety. Because really, that's what Thor was before he learned humility; a spoilt, man child. And he was convincing with his child like naivety. He seems to have a natural comedic flair, too.
Hiddleston was amazing. I really felt for Loki's plight. The scene where he and Odin are arguing in the vault was so well acted. Again, like with Hopkins' in the scene where Thor was banished, you could really sense the anger yet at the same time the pain in the character. Loki is now my favourite comic book movie villain. There is a fine line between making a villain sympathetic... and going completely over the top and mushy with it (Sam Raimi i'm looking at you!)
Elba as Heimdall was bad ass. Period. So much presence and subtle power in his performance. I loved his commanding, monotone voice. You could really sense that even Thor knows Heimdall isn't one to be ****ing with.
Everyone else was decent. I really liked Selvig. The scene with him and Thor in the bar... competing to down those big jugs of beer was brilliant. He was actually a pretty well defined character, whereas I expected him just to be generic.
Portman as Jane was surprisingly not that annoying. I liked how she played her as intelligent, but still kinda ditzy and scatty. And I genuinely believed she really liked Thor (i imagine a lot of that wasn't even acting, to be honest). Although her line "Oh.my.God" was pretty cringe worthy.
The Warriors Three were pretty corny, but I guess that was the intention. I thought Stevenson as Vosltagg was brilliant though.
The story was solid. I thought they did well with Thor's journey in the 2 hours running time. But for me, Loki's story running parallel was much more interesting though IMO. The conflict between the two brothers, the whole love/hate thing was very well played. Highlighted in the end when despite Thor realizing his brother had betrayed him and Asgard... he still showed pain and anguish when Loki apparently fell to his doom.
SHIELD played an important role, they actually seemed more welcome in this movie. The idea of a secret government agency investigating all these strange goings on makes sense. Fits with the plot. Although the Hawkeye cameo was pretty pointless. He should have taken Thor out with a tranq arrow or something, make his appearance actually worthwhile.
The action scenes, hmm, I was kinda disappointed to be honest. The first scene in Jotumheim was great. But I felt the Destroyer battle was anti climatic and Thor beat it far too easily. The Destroyer in the comics is nigh on invulnerable. The finale was very emotionally charged, but the actual fight between Loki and Thor was a bit of a let down.
Overall i'd give it a solid 8/10. Not as good as Iron Man, but definitely the second best movie Marvel Studios has made.
