As strange as it seems now, Thor was one of the bigger gambles for Marvel Studios. Breaking away from the more science fiction, grounded characters of Iron Man and Hulk, Thor was going to need to incorporate more fantasy and magical elements. In a world before The Avengers, this wasn’t so guaranteed a success. We would need to get some history of Asgard, background in the lore, some insight into this foreign world, mixed with fun action and the type of humor Marvel is known for.

On the most part, they work it all in pretty well. Yes, the opening requires your traditional voice over narration explaining most of these things. That’s not too different than your typical fantasy film. Visually, the fantasy side of the equation stands out. The world of Asgard looks great, the costumes are gorgeous and telling, and the make-up for the frost giants is incredible. Laufey has a menacing presence, just as Odin has one that provides steadiness.

It is no surprise that Marvel brought on Kenneth Branagh to direct. Much of the Asgardian drama plays like a Shakespearean play. There is intrigue, family drama, murder plots, deception, war, and lots of theatrical acting. Despite the strange over-reliance on dutch angles, Branagh brings out among the best acting seen even to this day in a Marvel film. Anthony Hopkins and Tom Hiddleston play off each other so incredibly well, it’s almost as if you were sitting in a British playhouse.

The fantasy elements work surprisingly well. Asgard is pretty intriguing a place. While the fish out of water story with Thor on Earth provides some entertaining and very funny moments, the dynamic between Thor and love interest Jane Foster leaves a lot to be desired. They seem to connect so quickly. Indeed, one of the problems is just how fast the film moves.

We sort of have to talk about Jane for a moment. In the blu-ray featurettes, Branagh explains the reason for casting Natalie Portman, saying that they needed someone believably super smart. Given  that Portman is herself an Ivy League graduate, this is good casting. From the very get-go, Jane Foster is a smart, confident, driven scientist that cares deeply about her work. The problem is that she has one of those arcs wherein she basically stops being a person once she sees the handsome, hunky Thor.

The handling of female characters is, suffice it to say, disappointing. Lady Sif doesn’t get to do all that much despite being set up as a fierce warrior. Thor’s mother is barely in it. Kat Dennings provides comedic relief, but contributes to the sexual gawking of Chris Hemsworth. It is Portman’s Jane Foster that fairs the worst. Here she is, one of the premiere scientists of her field, dedicated to the work and confident that she is right. Yet once she sees abs, she can barely speak in sentences! She stares and gawks and can barely stay focused. Even the first moment she sees Thor, she seems momentarily lost in his eyes.

It’s not even that it kind of sets female characters back a lot; it’s that it creates a sort of unrealistic dynamic between her and Thor. They have so little time to actually grow. In fact, the primary reason they wind up together is that she basically suffers from “love at first sight.” It’s hard to see any real chemistry between the two. Whether that is simply the writing or just how Portman and Hemsworth play off of each other is a bit hard to tell, but it doesn’t really work. It is understandable that the two might show curiosity in each other. Thor literally fell out of the wormhole Jane was studying. Jane is the Earthling Thor has the most time with. It feels rushed, and the product of a superhero film genre a little bit unsure of its own footing.

And to be sure, there is nothing inherently wrong with writing female characters that become attracted to a male character. The problem here is that that is effectively all Jane Foster is here for. Upon gazing at his chiseled frame, she immediately stops being herself and loses focus. It is all instantaneous. The handling of it here is just too clumsy. Given that she has no real impact over the story or its conclusion, it really feels like she is just there to show how women love a hunky man, and that they can barely function as people if you’re super cut.

Easily the strength of the film is Loki. By far the most interesting villain in the first phase of Marvel, Loki comes off as more complicated a figure. Even his motives are a bit confusing. Of course, he is the god of mischief, so perhaps he truly is unknowable. In that way, he is in a similar category to Heath Ledger’s Joker. Still, Loki’s pain feels real and relatable. Yet he never really comes off as particularly “evil” as previous villains. He is behind the initial infiltration from frost giants, which leads to Thor’s expulsion from Asgard. At the same time, he never set out to prematurely put Odin into his slumber and is clearly upset when his father falls into it. Given where Thor was at the start of the film, he was even right to be concerned about the reign of his brother. Certainly, war would have broken out if he had been king. Though he sets off to kill Thor and is willing to destroy that town to do so, he is not actually interested in them. Thus, when Thor agrees to sacrifice himself at the guaranteed safety of the town, Loki goes along with it.

Arguably, the film might have been better if it had simply stayed in Asgard, or spent less time on Earth to showcase more of the Odinsons’ childhood and relationship before the events of the film. What we get, though, is compelling enough with what is there. The personal family conflict gives the film a more dramatic sense, with stakes specific to Thor and his people.

There isn’t necessarily a lot below the surface, however. Perhaps that was what was needed to introduce audiences to the God of Thunder. He was, after all, from a different realm. While much of the Thor world would fall to the wayside later, the film did sort of change a lot of things. Between showing that audiences would accept more fantasy elements and more unusual characters, it could even be argued that Thor not only set up The Avengers; it also opened the door for Guardians of the Galaxy. And as Nick Fury said in the team-up, everything in the universe changed because of him. So, too, did the Marvel production schedule.

Reductive Rating: It’s fine.