Many critical eyebrows were raised — including my own — when it was announced that Kenneth Branagh would be directing “Thor.” The elegant British director is best known for putting Shakespeare on celluloid in films like “Henry V”; “Thor” is a Marvel property set to become another comic book smash. Even those cast in the film thought it was an odd pairing. “Kenneth Branagh doing ‘Thor’ is super-weird, I’ve got to do it,” is how Natalie Portman described her reaction on being cast. The result is as mixed as you’d expect. “Thor” is a coming-of-age story, a refresher in Norse mythology and an exploration of the qualities needed to be a good ruler, interspersed with by-the-book, jump-cut fight scenes and big special effects that guarantee the film will make many millions.
The first part of the film drags as it gives us the necessary backstory. Odin (Anthony Hopkins) has brought peace to Asgard and neighboring Jotunheim by defeating the Frost Giants, taking away their source of power and brokering a truce. Asgard became “a beacon of hope shining out against the stars.”
