The Hollywood Reporter may have placed the advertiser-friendly word “electrifying” in the headline for its notice of the upcoming Paramount release, but “Thor” sounds somewhat less than that if you carefully read the trade paper’s actual positive-to-mixed review out of the comic book epic’s Sunday night world premiere in Sydney, Australia.

Our trusted former colleague Megan Lehmann terms it “a burly slab of bombastic superhero entertainment that skitters just this side of kitschy to provide an introduction befitting the mighty god of thunder. It’s a noisy, universe-rattling spectacle full of sound and fury with a suitably epic design, solid digital effects and a healthy respect for the comic-book lore…”

Megan adds that “The arrogant warrior Thor’s great conversion, central to the plot, is unrealistically lightning-quick and the movie’s dramatic arc falters amid the constant shifts between earthly and celestial realms. But execs at Marvel Studios, gambling heavily on the success of ‘Thor’ and the upcoming ‘Captain America: The First Avenger’ to set up next summer’s ensemble behemoth ‘The Avengers’ can rest easy: You’ve built it and they will come.”

Variety’s Richard Kupiers, also reviewing out of Sydney, broadly hints that unlike, say, “Spider-Man” or “Iron Man,” Thor’s appeal may be limited primarily to fanboys. “Neither the star pupil nor the dunce of the Marvel superhero-to-screen class, ‘Thor’ delivers the goods so long as butt is being kicked and family conflict is playing out in celestial dimensions, but is less thrilling during the Norse warrior god’s rather brief banishment on Earth,” Kupiers writes.

“With Aussie hunk Chris Hemsworth impressive in the lead and helmer Kenneth Branagh investing the dramatic passages with a weighty yet never overbearing Shakespearean dimension, pic looks sure to reap big B.O. on the strength of its ready-made audience, but faces a tougher time attracting viewers for whom this type of fare is the exception rather than the rule.”

“Thor” opens stateside on May 6.