Eyebrows were raised upwards on the announcement that Kenneth Branagh was to direct Thor, Marvels latest instalment of its Avengers series. Everyone’s favourite luvvie is currently as far from the Hollywood majority as he has been in his career for quite some time, not having acted in a film for three years or directed one for four. Has Marvel’s gamble paid off? Of course it hasn’t. It looked like an odd choice on paper and the reality plays out that concern. In fact, it’s hard to see any justification behind the decision at all. Nothing against Ken himself, but this was hardly going to be the perfection fusion of director and material was it? So that’s the director issue mentioned, what about the second most important person attached to the production, that of Thor himself? The role is taken by (relative) new comer Chris Hemsworth. He’s got the muscles, but can he act? He has plenty of chance to show us what he can do as Branagh’s camera hardly ever leaves him as we follow Thor’s journey from being banished from the heavily CGI’d realm of Asgard to his re-emergence as a protector of, err, a heavily CGI’d Earth. Hemsworth isn’t all that bad but he does look pretty lost on occasions, thanks in no part to a story line that is total gumph. Natalie Portman appears as the world’s least convincing astrophysicist in her continued attempts to appear in just as many bad movies and she does great ones and the less said about Kat Dennings awful performance (acting like she’s in a High School indie film or something) as Portman’s assistant the better. Sorry Ken, you’ve got to take the blame for this one, especially when you’ve seen some of the awful continuity mistakes that litter the film, including an utter classic “One moment he’s here-edit-the next moment he’s there” mess up at the end. I’m sure this isn’t what Ron Burgundy was talking about....
The OC Film Sting Final Verdict
Was this doomed from the start? Probably, but even still this could have been better if less effects and more thought had been applied. Rating: 5/10
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