I'll freely admit ignorance with regard to Norse myths and the Marvel version of Thor (and it may be that the movie is totally consistent with the comics), but Neil Gaiman in 'Sandman' had Odin fearing final battle as everyone was going to die and while fighting is good living forever is better Naturally he also had Thor hitting on women by saying that if they rubbed his hammer it would get bigger, so I'm not sure it was a fully accurate take on the characters regardless.

^ I concur, in fact now I feel like I kind of need to see it, just to get in on the conversation.

so how would we go about fixing the Earth section of the movie?  I think a good place to start woul be to put Thor in the body of Donald Blake like Odin did in the comic.  That way you can establish Jane as a compassionate nurse who cares for those less fortunate, again, like in the comic.

Very interesting discussion. My thoughts are similar to Eddie's, except I've read quite a few Thor comics and am a huge fan of the characters (Conan, Thor and Punisher are the only ongoing comics I get these days). That doesn't make me an authority, I'm just pointing out that I had a lot of expectations going in.

I enjoyed the movie alot, but when it ends there's definitely a sense of 'wait, is that it?' It feels truncated, like we're watching an action-focused cut rather than a complete story. It feels like we go from arrogant Thor to making breakfast Thor too quickly.

What the film needs is for Thor to want to change himself to make Jane want him. As it stands, his arrogant and cocky nature are almost attractive to Jane, so he doesn't have to change to get the girl. Thor never has that 'this woman I like doesn't like me, why?' moment of self-reflection. He never truly realises that he's arrogant. His transformation is only that he becomes self-less. That to me is only half the arc. Thor isn't worthy to be king because of a number of character flaws, but the story doesn't tackle them all.   

What the film also needs is to get rid of the pseudo-LOTR opening and the presentation of the frost giants as one-dimensional orc-like beings intent on wanton destruction. They need to have a valid story of their own. The war with the Asgardians needs to be more about a pre-determined fate than about good vs evil. With the relevation that their King does know about the infiltration mission at the start, any hint of them being a race with their own problems is thrown out the window. As a result, Odin's reluctance for war seems odd, and the audience is left questioning why Thor shouldn't go off and bust heads. They don't see why Thor was wrong. If you can't really agree that a character is flawed, it somewhat undermines the ensuing transformation. And as others have said, Thor's turnaround to not wanting that race destroyed is made puzzling because at no point have we had any hint that the frost giants are redeemable. Thor hasn't had a revelation that they aren't the boogeymen he's grown up wanting to fight. There's a definite disconnect there, as if his experience with humans should have informed him of the worth of other races. Considering there was a line in a trailer where he says something like 'oh no, this is earth isn't it', I suspect that there are some deleted scenes that perhaps could make this whole thing make more dramatic sense.

All the problems I feel come from the story though - the acting, directing, art design and action were all great. Some of the Odin-Thor-Loki stuff especially was great. The whole Loki character and his story was probably its strongest point. It took unexpected turns and for me was geniunely moving and sympathetic.

There's a masterpiece in there somewhere. I really hope that there's a director's cut coming.

Would you prefer it to be The Lion King, mayhaps?

I'm referring to the development of Simba when he has to leave the kingdom and discovers the joys of not-being-there, structure wise.

Yeah, I think we're all in agreement over what didn't work, I think its just a matter of some other things working better for.

Okay, here's the only thing that really jumped out at me (although I agree with all the other problems previously raised). Why the he'll does Thor suddenly care so much about the lives of the Frost Giants? I think Dorkman already brought this up, but it's a point that bears repeating. Here's what he should have done. He should have allowed Loki to destroy the Frost Giants. Imagine the thematic resonance when Thor realizes that the villain of the movie is right, and that the morally right thing to do is to help him. You guys talk all the time on Down in Front about how the villain is better if he/she actually has a decent point. But that doesn't work if the hero originally shared that point, and if the hero's arc involves him changing his views on that issue. If SERENITY had started out with Mal as an Alliance officer, we wouldn't have seen that the Operative was making a good point, because the entire point of the movie would have been dissuading us from that opinion.

And as for why this movie has Earth in the first place, that's just so that they don't have to do all of that "Thor on Earth" crap in The Avengers.