Alright, back when this was into preproduction, I (and so many comic book fans) were surprised when Branagh was slated to direct. Here we have Thor the god of lightning and his mighty hammer, directed by a man who works mostly around William Shakespeare plays.

Thankfully, this helps. A lot.

Almost every superhero movie (Marvel, lately) focuses on more action instead of character development. Sure, they may look awesome, but you get used to it. Branagh bravely steers away from this predicament and directs the actors with such skill and flair you may mistake this film for yet another Branagh/Shakespeare costume epic.

Make no mistake this is still a superhero film, with some nice special effects and a stylish production design for Asgard, but there's a nice human twist to the story - that of dueling brothers, or gods, or god- brothers... you get the idea. Chris Hemsworth looks just about right for the part and shows some charisma as well as the hero. Branagh has assembled an interesting mix of actors - we have the great Anthony Hopkins, the cute Natalie Portman, Stellan Skarsgard, Kat Dennings, Idris Elba and even Rene Russo. Tom Hiddleston however steals the scene as the mischievous brother Loki.

Here's another good thing about the movie - the story and acting outweigh the special effects and action sequences. For a superhero film, this is extremely rare. Branagh deserves kudos for the effort, however some parts do not gel in nicely and there's some action bits that are not too well-filmed.

All is forgiven though - "Thor" is an above-average superhero movie, not extremely exciting, but definitely intriguing. Fans of both comic book films and costume dramas will certainly enjoy this.

Two words of caution - one, keep an eye out for some cameos, both during and after the film. Two, for goodness sake do not watch it in 3D. I saw it in normal 2D and that's fine enough by me. I didn't see anything worth watching in 3D in it.

Overall rating: 68/100

Plain and simple - when the humans show up the movie dies a slow death.

It's a superhero movie so you know what the plot is. Hero comes to Earth to help humans. They're basically riffing Superman to the Nth degree here. But on to the important stuff...

What the heck is Natalie Portman doing in this movie. I mean that in two ways. First why is she even in the movie? Second, what did she do other than stand there and let her hair be blown around by the off screen wind machines? It felt like all of her scenes were filmed in one day and she looks so bored in all of them. Chris Hemsworth was fine as Thor and Hopkins played a good Odin, but it was the human characters that kill this one.

At least Branagh threw in Skarsgard for the Swede inside joke. But as usual Stellan Skarsgard is totally wasted. After Insomnia I was just in awe of what the man is truly capable of and here in the states they always use him as a window curtain.

I didn't mind the first act all that much, but for a movie about the GOD OF THUNDER, it comes off surprisingly meek.

It is crazy to see how much Thor has changed since his first movie. Talk about a character arc! From arrogant, bleached eye-browed man to one of the most loveable personalities. I like how this focused mainly on Thor and Loki's relationship, but also feels a little corny when he is on earth.