Thor - 3 stars out of 10

Thor - 3 stars out of 10

One of the great aspects of superhero movies from the past decade is that they have taken normal people, given them some sort of super power by feasible means, and then told the story of how their life has changed.  Peter Parker, Tony Stark, Bruce Wayne - these characters have made superheroes in our society believable.  "Thor" is not any of the aforementioned things.  When I saw the Marvel Comics intro start to role, I was not expecting to immediately be transported to another planet, especially not for the first quarter of the film.  The special effects were great but Thor immediately seemed like the odd man out amidst good modern superhero films.  So about Natalie Portman... fantastic dramatic actress, does well in comedies, but not the greatest love interest in a superhero.  Especially when the love story is underdeveloped (bordering on being overlooked) in a film that could have easily been extended to accomodate better chemistry.  Anthony Hopkins did his best but this was just a bad role for him, while Stellan Skarsgard was better than average.  Overall, the acting wasn't anything earthshattering, and neither was the script.  Probably the best part of this film were the references in preparation for "The Avengers" like Jeremy Renner, the reference to Tony Stark, and the bonus ending.  Thor will make a good character in the compilation film but probably should not have any more stand-alone films.  This film is subpar when compared to the highly positive output by Marvel over the past decade.  Stick to humans that develop super powers and stay away from other world characters in laughably goofy costumes.