Thor

Thor is one of those weird movies that feels as if it wants to be more than a lighthearted action movie, but somehow never fulfills those ambitions for greatness. The movie has its foot in two worlds, the realm of Asgard where Odin banishes his son Thor for his arrogance; and the other foot is here on earth where a Natalie Portman believably plays an astrophysist who discovers Thor post banishment in the middle of the New Mexico desert. The major problem with this approach of having a split story is that neither narrative feels satisfactory, and truthfully the best bits and most squandered potential of this movie is that it didn’t spend more time in Asgard. The movie does succeed in spite of itself, Chris Hemsworth is very charismatic as Thor and Tom Hidddleston plays Loki as someone deserving sympathy and gives the character some depth; but the movie never pauses to catch its breath. There is no moment for the camera to linger on the wonders of the golden hall of Woten. It rushes to its story beats at full force never making the audience feel that the title characters redemption is earned. Somewhere in this cgi heavy movie there is a story about a father whose misplaced desire to protect his kids ultimately screwed them up; that is the movie I wanted to see