This movie is a testament as to why I hate movie trailers. They frequently trick me into seeing shitty movies as much as they trick me into not seeing movies that are totally awesome. Thor serves as an example of the latter.

Before seeing trailers for this movie, I never even knew there was a superhero called Thor, or that he was part of The Avengers (whatever that is). So going into this movie I knew basically nothing, except that the trailers made it look dumb. Oh how wrong I was...

First of all, Thor is amazing as a character. Totally badass, but flawed. I always love impulsive, aggressive characters who act before they think and have it come back to bite them in the ass, so it was a given that I would love Thor. But it doesn't stop there. His brother, Loki, is also a great character and a legitimately great villain (which is a rare thing in superhero movies, in my opinion).

And that's one other thing I loved about this movie. I wouldn't even really call it a superhero movie. It sure didn't play like one. The god aspect and other-worldliness of it was a welcome departure from the typical superhero origin story you see from Marvel films.

And the humor! Whether it be from Jane's wise-cracking friend or just the juxtaposition of a god in our modern world, the laughs were frequent, but didn't detract from the epic nature of the movie. And I feel that this is a time when that over-used word is actually applicable. (Honestly, the Asgard sets alone make this movie worthy of the adjective 'epic.')

Definitely my favorite Avengers lead-in, and my favorite Marvel movie outside of Spider-Man and the X-Men movies.

Grade: A+