Thor (played by Aussie actor Chris Hemsworth) is the narcissistic successor to the king-god Odin (played brilliantly by Anthony Hopkins) and the legendary warrior of Asgard. As the movie starts off, we meet Thor first as he's poised to assume the throne from Odin. His brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston) must remain waiting on the sidelines.
When Frost giants decide to take back the Casket that Odin took from them long ago, Thor becomes enraged and at the encouragement of Loki, gatherings his pals Sif (Jaimie Alexander), Volstagg (Ray Stevenson), Fandral (Joshua Dallas) and Hogun (Tadanobu Asano) and heads to Jotunheim, where the Frost Giants reside, Hammer Throwing and Sword Swigging ensues.
Upon being saved from death by Odin, the group return to Asgard, Odin strips Thor of his powers and his hammer, Mjolnir and sends him to Earth (Midgard) to learn of humility, this event turns Loki from 2nd in line to 1st in line for the throne. Upon landing on Earth, Thor runs into (Literally) astrophysicist Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), her colleague Dr. Selvig (Stellan Skarsgård) and her assistant Darcy (Kat Dennings).
Once Thor is up and about, he attempts to retrieve Mjolnir from where it landed on earth, although S.H.I.E.L.D, led by , Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg) have intercepted it and set up a base around the hammer. Thor breaks into the base and beats a whole heap of agents up, while being watched form a vantage point by Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner). But the break-in was useless, as Thor is not yet worthy of Mjolnir yet.
After a run in with The Destroyer that left Thor all but dead, he finally earns his powers back, leading him to fight with The Destroyer, which ends too quickly I think. upon returning to Asgard, Thor and Loki do battle on the Bifrost ending with Thor smashing up the Bridge, leading him to not be able to return to Earth and Jane. I found it amusing that Thor used his hammer to weigh down Loki by placing the hammer on his chest. Blowing up the Bifrost ended up with Thor and Loki hanging on for dear life over an endless void, only to be saved by Odin, awakened from his Odin Sleep.
Most of the movie is based on Earth, which means for some pretty funny interactions between Thor and earthlings. This is basically a Fish out of Water tale, although we are spared a lot of the ridiculous things that are usually accosicated with it. Outside of these occasional moments of humour, director Kenneth Branagh keeps the focus squarely on Thor's arc. Thor's scenes with Loki and Odin ooze with intensity and emotion lacking in the earth scenes.
The visual effects are very good, especially the Asgard and Jotunheim sequences, these scenes are really nicely polished. The Destroyer was a little disappointing, but still very cool, although the Destroyer fight with Thor could have been longer, being the Guardian of Odin’s trophy room, Thor took him down with relative ease .
The biggest problem I had with this movie is the romance between Thor and Jane Foster, while only spending about 3 days together, we are meant to believe that Thor formed a loving bond with Jane
When it comes to the acting chops of the cast, everyone delivers, especially Tom Hiddleston as Loki, Tom does such a good job as the God of Mischief, delivering every line with such commandment, the same can be said with Anthony Hopkins as Odin. Chris Hemsworth on the other hand offers up a great acting as Thor, as a fellow Australian only seeing Hemsworth in Home and Away and Ca$H, Thor definitely shows off his acting chops. Natalie Portman actually made me believe her to be an astrophysicist, seeing as she studied the role quite in-depth. While they don’t have that much screen-time, Jaimie Alexander, Ray Stevenson, Joshua Dallas, Tadanobu Asano, (The Warriors Three and Sif) all stand up with Chris and the other cast.
The small cameo by Jeremy Renner as Clint Barton/Hawkeye way entertaining, with him hanging above Thor waiting for Coulson to give the word to shoot.
Thor is a solidly entertaining Comic Book Movie, I rate it 9/10
SPOILERS AHEAD!!
As for the After-Credits scene... I'm going to say 4 words: Dr. Selvig, Nick Fury, Cosmic Cube and.....LOKI