As you well know, Chris Hemsworth played Kirk’s dad in the powerful opening of Star Trek 2009 (how many times have you read that?), but this is his first true opportunity to stand out as a leading man. Luckily, he attacks the role of Thor with gusto – there’s a lot to love about Hemsworth’s performance. The fish-out-of-water comedy on Earth is fun, plus the character’s complicated relationships with Odin and Loki develop into fairly involving plot threads later on.
While too many of the Asgard scenes see the actors resorting to all-purpose, Brian Blessed-esque bellowing to underline the drama (Hopkins and Hiddleston are both frequently guilty of this), Hemsworth gets the perfect balance for the voice of Thor. This performance is exactly how it should be in relation to the character’s comic book origins. You can’t ask for a lot more than that (although, in an unrelated note, his physique puts the rest of mankind to shame).
Hiddleston (who resembles a young Nicholas Lyndhurst via Slytherin house) does a decent enough job as a suitably snotty Loki, yet he is a one-dimensionally irritating antagonist. We’d be able to take Hopkins a little more seriously, too, if he wasn’t wearing what appears to be a woman’s formal dressing gown for the duration of the film. This is representative of the stylistically OTT depiction of Asgard. It’s maybe a bit too Masters Of The Universe for our liking, despite the stunning visual impact that certain elements within that world have.
Other cast members end up being a little wasted. Natalie Portman, now in possession of a Best Actress Oscar for Black Swan, really should be doing a little more in a movie than pining over Thor, just because he has a far superior body to the rest of us brainless slobs. She’s a love interest and little more – the romance between Jane and Thor is unconvincing and brief. This isn’t the fault of Portman, who offers a solid performance, there’s just no nuance to her character. Idris Elba is underused as Heimdall, the gatekeeper of Asgard, given his growing reputation as a leading man in Hollywood. Likewise, Stellan Skarsgård absorbs a lot of time just being Scandinavian and doubting Thor’s background. That’s basically all he does. These are the types of actors that deserve better roles.
