Thor,,, yes another review!

Now, as this is my first review I apologise for any offence caused by anything i have to say but this is only my opinion. (apologies done)

Now having had a few days to really digest the movie and compile my thoughts i feel its time to share those thoughts. For any of you not familiar with the character or just a casual fan you find yourselves in the same position as I was in. The hype prior to the trailer got me excited, the initial teaser trailer got me turned on and then the full cinematic trailer deflated me (this was not helped by the fact a frend pointed out the similarities with the Masters of the Universe - Dolph lundgren movie). I approached this movie wanting it to be great and fearing it would fail but thankfully my fears were unfounded.

Firstly the film itself, whilst i felt the ending was a little rushed, on the whole was very good. The transitions from earth to Asgard were great, especially the fish out of water stuff with Thor. Branagh's interpretation of both were spot on both visually and in terms of the tone. I am however looking forward to seeing Thor let rip in the big city rather than the small desert town where all the earth stuff is set. The grand scale of asgard, the home of the gods is beautiful and combines things lifted directly from the comic books with a landscape to rival avatar. We also find ourselves within some of the other realms but this is one of the only dissapointments of the film. It's nothing to do with anything the guys on the movie have done as they only have a couple of hours to fill but you want to see more of this world. The earth stuff is great though, ramming this big character into a small town puts him even more out of place.

I have read enough stuff about the comics and the film to be aware of the struggle to base a character based in myth and magic into a film series based in comic book interpretation of reality. Brannagh and all the guys on the film passed this test with flying colors. The combination of science and magic is done in a way where it does not confuse or get too detailed. The balance between the humour and action works and the film is very toneally similar to iron man 1.

The in refernces for the hardcore fans are a nice touch.

The characters and performances are all sound with the stand out surprise being Hemsworth himself as the title character. Having seen home and away, i was not expecting great things. I was aware of the faith seemingly put into him following a stella performance in star trek but was worried four minutes of sound acting does not equate to carrying a movie. He does this brilliantly with not only the action stuff but also the emotional stuff. I would have liked the transition from hot headed warrior to wise superhero to have taken a little longer but again, only 2 hours to work people. Hiddleston is brilliant as Loki and unlike what i've read in other reviews i like when he finally gets to let rip as full on panto villain. Natalie Portman (future wife) is good, but not great, she does a job but nothing stand out but i'm not sure anything other than that is needed. Stellen Skarsgard(dr selvig)'s role was bigger than i thought which was a happy surprise as he is excellent and his scenes with Hemsworth are really good.

I could go on for quite a while about this movie as i am in love with lady Sif and the warriors three, and have a man crush on clark gregg, who's bit parts as agent coulson in all these movies are sound and tie all these movies in nicely. Added to this is Idris Elba who i wish had got to let rip more.

I will now however sum up. The movie is a great comic book movie, it's entertaining and holds your interest and nearly a week later i want to see it again. It's balance of action, humour and story are in line with the first iron man movie and i feel it only slightly falls behind this as Marvel's best outing to date. Well done boys....

The only down sides are you find you want more from a few scenes that feel a little rushed and knowing what members are the cast are returning takes away the worry about their characters a little.

Go and see the film and when the lights come up and the cleaners role in power through to the end of the credits and hold your nerve....