Definitely agree with all of this. I really liked this version of Asgard, and while I understand their fears of leaving the majority of the audience feeling like it was way too bizarre to relate to, I found myself caught up in it all rather quickly. (This does seem to be a point that splits viewers though, as the people who prefer the fantasy segments and the people who prefer the Earth segments seem to be split with a substantial amount on each side.)





SHIELD was worked into this story far better than they were worked into Iron Man 2, where the subplot felt completely disconnected from most everything else. Here they play up the old "government agencies as an obstacle to the benevolent alien on a mission" angle, but they took it in new directions. SHIELD isn't unreasonably hostile towards Thor, and don't hunt him down relentlessly... Instead, when he falls under their notice they decide to cut him loose and see what happens. It was a refreshing twist, I thought.






I thought the Asgardians looked good, and all were fun and well defined for the size/importance of their roles. Heimdall certainly looked imposing, as any good guardsman should. I liked Thor's helmet for the one scene it showed up in. My one complaint is that the woman who played Sif is very attractive, but the way they designed her look she seemed more like she was there to play sports than be the goddess of war. She was just a little too practical looking with her simple, tightly pulled-back hair, which certainly makes sense but "practicality" wasn't the watchword for any of the other godly designs. She needed a little more "oomph".

Perhaps in any sequel they will play up her relationship with Thor and pull back on the kid-sister vibe they gave her this time out.





I liked that one, and I think the addition of Loki to it put a lot more meat on the bone than the Fury-centric ones of the past.





I didn't mind how they handled this. Some people felt they tried to make everything too technological, but to me the only thing that seemed at all based on technology was this version of the Rainbow Bridge. Loki is suspected of sneaking the Frost Giants into Asgard by the Warriors Three because "a master of sorcery could find a way to avoid Heimdal's watch" or something like that. Odin seemed pretty magical in everything he did, never having to resort to fiddling with technology to accomplish any number of wonders. I think they threw the science line out there for the people who would have a problem with magic and then proceeded as normal, which was fine by me.





I agree, especially in that a nurse having to treat the wounded and dying would probably have a lot more to teach Thor about the cost of war. It would have necessitated a more grim dimension to the middle act, but then a little more weight wouldn't have been a bad thing, in my opinion.

These Marvel films keep shying away from the moments that make their characters so powerful in fiction: saving innocents. I liked that Thor and the others scrambled to save the townspeople from the Destroyer, but the danger wasn't much more realized than your average episode of "the A-team" style mayhem. However, I was eager to see the Frost Giants get an ass-kicking in the opening prologue where mothers and children were running in terror and being cut down by ice... When Odin and the Asgardians appeared to stop them, it was rousing. The strongest point of any of Marvel's films yet has been Iron Man's showdown with the terrorists attacking the village. They need to let the audience see some injustice, and then offer them a hero when they want it most. Otherwise, it's just two guys fighting between themselves.





My problem with the Ultimate Nick Fury being used, and Sam Jackson being cast as him, is that there's no character there for him to play. He's playing someone conceived of as a near-parody of himself (or at least his stereotypical screen persona.) It's like writing Reed Richards to resemble and act like Jeff Goldblum in his various scientist/smart guy roles (The Fly, Jurassic Park, Independence Day), and then cast him to play it. Is there any of the Reed Richards character left in there?

Now, had they cast a different actor to play the Ultimate version of Nick Fury, then I could imagine something actually coming of it. But hiring a person to play a thinly veiled version of "their usual" just leaves them nowhere to go.





Yeah, that scene plays as very odd. If I were Branagh, I would have at least had Hopkins go down a little more dramatically so that audiences could assume a heart-attack or seizure or some kind of ailment. Rene Russo does give some explanation of it after the fact, but not in a very straightforward way.





This one is tricky, as I admire a movie that doesn't lay everything out for you, but I also feel like this was far too ambiguous for a film that wasn't exactly subtle the rest of the way. On the other hand, I love the complexity of the question and his actions... He finds out he's the natural son of the Frost Giant's king, stolen(?) as a child. Not only does he manipulate the situation so as to murder his natural father directly under the gaze of his adoptive father, he tries to wipe out the entire Frost Giant race. That's a fascinatingly desperate attempt to cut all ties that separate him from his adoptive family.

In a more subtle film, I would leave the audience to puzzle out that motivation themselves... but in this film, I think the dialog could have been honed to better showcase this desperation and fear of rejection and perhaps emphasize a self-loathing in Loki that he projects directly onto his Frost Giant ancestry.






See my notes above about what Marvel films have been missing in the big hero moments, but I obviously agree. The Frost Giant invasion of Earth at the start of the film remains the more interesting conflict because of the obvious stakes involved. Here, the stakes are very personal, which is good, but they would have been better served to do a "Return of the Jedi" climax and intercut the dueling individuals with scenes of a larger struggle.

Overall, however, I really enjoyed the film myself even if I found it a bit ramshackle in construction. I've read that Branagh sent a letter to the award-winning actress who apparently played the owner of the New Mexico diner, apologizing for her role being cut out of the film completely. So, apparently, there's plenty of footage that didn't make it into the final film. I'd be curious to see a longer cut of Thor and find out if the film were improved by a longer (but as a result, quieter) exile on Earth.