In all honesty, I didn’t have high expectations when I went with the family to see ‘Thor’ over the weekend. The movie has been getting some middle-of-the road reviews, and I’ve always found Thor to be one of the less appealing of the major Marvel superheroes, so I was ready to be disappointed. However, I’m happy to report that ‘Thor” the movie was actually a lot of fun.
It helps that the movie dives right into the absurd aspects of the mythology immediately, so you know that you have to jump on board right away and accept the whole concept of Asgard and Odin and the Rainbow Bridge. Once you’ve gotten past the inherent strangeness of it all, it’s a fun little movie.  I was even surprised how much my non-comic reading family members enjoyed the show.
A lot of the credit has to go to Chris Helmsworth, who makes Thor into sort of a likeable blockhead (in a good way) and Tom Hiddleston as evil brother Loki who really gives the movie a strong, believable villain figure. Apparently the upcoming Avengers movie will bring back Hiddleston as Loki to act as a major bad guy, and I have to mark that down as a real plus for that movie as well.
There are a lot of bonuses for the serious comic fans, ranging from the Stan Lee cameo, to the brief Hawkeye appearance, to the Thor as Dr. Donald Blake reference, and of course the appearance of the Warriors Three.
As far as rankings go, for an average viewing audience, I would give ‘Thor’ 3.5 stars out of 5. For a theater full of Comic Book Geeks, I’d give it a 4.5 out of 5.
