Chris Hemsworth makes an imposing, good-humoured Thor... but the motor of the film is Tom Hiddleston's complex, conflicted Loki.

| Jul 10, 2018

Witty, charming and very current, the big screen adaptation of Thor is sure to catapult its star Chris Hemsworth (whose wife, Elsa Pataky, ironically stars in Fast Five) to leading man status.

| Original Score: B | Sep 8, 2017

Let's hope Branagh was well-compensated, at least. To quote his favorite author: No profit grows where is no pleasure taken.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Apr 12, 2013

Thor is on much safer ground here on Earth. The tone is immediately different: more relaxed; comic, not cosmic.

| Apr 12, 2013

Director Kenneth Branagh, for all the Shakespearean fruitiness he imbues into some of his A-list performers, never forgets that Thor is ultimately an FX-driven film designed to sell popcorn.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jun 16, 2011

Marvel's Thor may be silly, but that doesn't make it any less entertaining.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jun 3, 2011

There is pleasure to be plundered from some of the battle scenes, especially when Thor is confronting ice monsters with blood-red eyes, and from the culture clash that resounds when he descends to present-day Earth...

Full Review | May 16, 2011

The story might perhaps be adequate for an animated film for children, with Thor, Odin and the others played by piglets. In the arena of movies about comic book superheroes, it is a desolate vastation.

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | May 12, 2011

Thor is such a joyless affair that writing even this much about it is nearly as exhausting as sitting through the movie.

| May 11, 2011

A merely adequate introductory saga coated in hammy regality by director Kenneth Branagh.

| Original Score: C+ | May 9, 2011

Thor continues the trend of weakly jumpstarting a franchise based on a Marvel comic with an instantly forgettable origin story.

| Original Score: 2/4 | May 9, 2011

A giant notch up is Hiddleston, who'd make a good Edmund in King Lear: You register the chip on his shoulder rather than the villainy.

| May 9, 2011

This is eminently missable, though the mosaic design of Asgard, Thor's mythical realm, is pretty cool.

| May 6, 2011

I approached this new lollapalooza with an open mind that was quickly addled by loads of back story and front story and an ear-splitting avalanche of special effects.

| Original Score: C+ | May 6, 2011

Nothing against the buff, blond God of Thunder, but Thor just doesn't have a built-in wow factor among the nongeek brigade.

Full Review | Original Score: B | May 6, 2011

[Kenneth Branagh's] Shakespearean chops add texture in scenes that require the care and feeding of literature's grander themes: pride, paternity and honor.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | May 6, 2011

Essentially, when the movie comes down to Earth it's pretty good. But when it spends time across the universe -- and it spends a lot of time across the universe -- it's pure geek fare. Which may thrill geeks but leave others yawning.

| Original Score: C+ | May 6, 2011

For those with a taste for the genre, Thor is a worthy addition to the pantheon.

| May 6, 2011

The visuals are breathtaking without it, all swirling cosmic nebulae and mythic cityscapes of the Norse-god capital Asgard.

| Original Score: 3/4 | May 6, 2011

Thor seems to have little more on its mind than winning the first weekend and making its money back overseas, which it probably, predictably, will.

| May 6, 2011