Thor: Too Big for Two Hours

Stories come to us in various sizes, and they don’t always fit into the box we want them to fit into. Take the recent moving “Thor”. It was a decent movie in many ways but afterwards my wife and I both analyzed it (that’s what we do after we watch a movie) and came to several conclusions. The primary difficulty with the movie (in our opinion) is that it was far too rushed.

Plot: Thor is arrogant and needed to go to Earth to learn lessons in humility, and a lovely scientist helps him to see the light.

This could have worked by itself. But we spent a lot of time setting up the rules of the universe and developing Loki’s character. Loki was complex because he was an adopted child from a hated race of frost giants. When he learned his true origins he had trouble coming to grips with learning he was of the evil race. We also needed an introduction to Thor’s companions. As a result, none of these elements got the attention they needed. The romance felt forced, Thor’s learning his lesson was almost instantaneous, and Loki’s actions didn’t quite make sense. IMHO, this story would have worked better as a mini-series, or with fewer elements.

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