Roger Ebert of the "Chicago Sun-Times" gave it a negative review stating, ""Thor" is a failure as a movie, but a success as marketing, an illustration of the ancient carnival tactic of telling the rubes anything to get them into the tent". A.O. Scott of "The New York Times" disliked the film, calling it "an example of the programmed triumph of commercial calculation over imagination". Kenneth Turan of the "Los Angeles Times" had mixed feelings, describing the film as "an aesthetic stand-off between predictable elements and unexpected ones". Turan praised the performances of Hemsworth, Hopkins, and Elba, but found the special effects inconsistent and the Earth storyline derivative.