My Thor review

Director Kenneth Branagh pulls off a pretty neat trick with "Thor."

While the film includes all the usual changes and updates from the comic book original (Jane Foster is now an astrophysicist, not a nurse) that you might expect in a film adaptation, all the elements that made the Stan Lee-Jack Kirby Thor unique are intact: A mind-blowing, Kirbyesque version of Asgard; the Warriors Three and Lady Sif; Heimdall, the Rainbow Bridge, and plenty of father-son and sibling-rivalry melodrama.

However, the characters and story are completely accessible to non-comic book fans as well.

What makes it all work are appealing performances by nearly everyone involved. Chris Hemsworth is immensely likable in the lead role. His Thor is grandiose, a bit self-obsessed, but also charming, funny and warm: Just as you might expect a towering, powerful-but-wise Norse god to be.

I've never found Natalie Portman very warm or likable on screen before, but here she's both. And Kat Dennings, as goofy comic relief character Darcy Lewis, is a blast to watch. She's featured in just the right amount.

The storyline won't surprise anyone who's read a few classic Thor comics: Dad (Odin, given weight and dignity by the esteemed Anthony Hopkins) gets mad at son, mainly because of the ulterior shenanigans of blacksheep brother Loki (nicely and deviously portrayed by Tom Hiddleston), and gets booted to Midguard or, as we call it, Earth.

Left temporarily powerless, Thor befriends a few humans, falling in love with one of them, and redeems himself--becoming godlike again. I appreciated that most of the action takes place in the New Mexico desert, not some huge, waiting-to-be-smashed urban metropolis, as in most superhero films. And, even though, there's plenty of wreckage, it's nice to see a drama that's based mainly on human (or rather, godlike) relationships, not on the scheming of a stereotypical super villain. While we may lack mystical hammers and superpowers, each of us has family members, and can relate the challenges of getting along with them. Lee and Kiryb recognized this in their plots and scripts and Branagh and his collaborators wisely recognized that it's this element, not all the flashiness, that is at Thor's heart.

The whole movie zips by in just under two hours and leaves you wanting more, which is good, because Thor will be appearing soon in the Avengers along with Captain America, Iron Man, the Hulk and more. A Thor solo sequel is also planned.

"Thor" raises the stakes for Marvel's other films this summer, "X-Men: First Class" and "Captain America: The First Avenger," which will have to deliver loads of fun and great performances to match up to this.