Directed by Kenneth Branagh
(PG-13)
**
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“If this is a harbinger of the season to come,” may the gods help us, said Joe Morgenstern in The Wall Street Journal. Marvel Studios’ slightly premature entry into the summer sweepstakes is a “ponderous” behemoth whose “oafish action sequences” can do nothing to save its wandering, comic-book-inspired story line. As the titular Norse-god superhero, Australian actor Chris Hemsworth at least proves to be a “generically pleasant slab of beefcake,” said Dana Stevens in Slate.com. Natalie Portman also acquits herself well enough as the earthling who becomes Thor’s love interest after he’s cast out of his heavenly birthplace. Still, you can’t help thinking this movie has “little more on its mind than winning the first weekend and making its money back overseas.” Director Kenneth Branagh might as well have worked from a checklist, said Andrew O’Hehir in Salon​.com. First, drag the audience through a “great, gray, greasy lump” of a backstory. Next, add “family drama,” as a father and his sons “yell, sulk, and brood in their ridiculous costumes.” A reel or so later, “Thor kisses Natalie.” And so on—until another competent but “slightly disappointing” movie is complete. “Welcome to summer!”
