Road to Endgame: Thor (2011)

Directed by Kenneth Branagh
Release Date: May 6th, 2011
Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Natalie Portman, 
Anthony Hopkins 
Box Office Worldwide: $449,326,618

Alright, so I’ve been behind in my MCU rewatch… I’ve tried to do one every 5 days but it’s been 10 days since Iron Man 2. Whoops

So to make up for it, here’s a bunch of shirtless gifs of Chris Hemsworth.

Anyways! This is the Thor review.

Thor (2011): The first installment of the Thor movies takes us to Asgard to find a douchebag called Thor. Seriously, he is an arrogant a-hole that always wants to fight and cock off… he would do well in a fraternity!

It was the MCU’s first movie to take place outside of Earth. Though Thor isn’t one of my favorite MCU movies, it’s definitely important because it was the first movie to take place in space and kick off a true extended UNIVERSE.

Plus, we get to look at Thor’s Hammer, Mjolnir, for 2 hours… okay here’s one more shirtless gif.

Yeah, maybe he’s my man-crush… sue me! Ok, what are we talking about again?

Right, right! Here’s my Thor positives/negatives.

Positives

• Tom Hiddleston as Loki is so freakin’ good. He plays the jealous, slighted younger brother role so well. The best villains are the ones that the audience can empathize with (Loki, Kilmonger, Thanos… kind of… in  a sick, twisted way), and Loki has a legit gripe. He’s been the lesser compared to Thor for years now, so the audience understands his pain and he resonates with the audience. I mean, he tries to commit genocide on an entire planet, so he might of lost us there but he’s got daddy issues… back off! Hiddleston=great. Loki=great.
• Loki & Thor’s relationship feels so real. Hemsworth and Hiddleston have great chemistry and it gets turned into an emotional story about two brothers fighting… really good stuff!
• Piggybacking off of point #2, all the family related emotions in this movie feel real. It feels like you’re watching a real family tear each other apart. Thor crying when he realizes he screwed up, Loki yelling at Odin when he found out he’s been lied to about his birth, Thor refusing to fight Loki… really good soap opera stuff!
• The introduction to Asgard is beautiful. Thor came out in 2011 and for being a movie of 8 years old, Asgard’s CGI still looks really good. The setting feels magical on Asgard… not so much on Earth.
• We don’t get a lot of badass fight scenes in Thor, but when he blows up Jotunheim with that lighting strike to the ground…

Negatives

• I cannot stand Jane Foster. A brilliant scientist who gets super cringey trying to talk to a demigod is not a lovable character for me. It comes off as annoying and the hopeless romantic in me wants Thor to be with a badass chick like Lady Sif! Not some scrubby mortal like Jane Foster.
  • In my The Incredible Hulk review, I said Edward Norton’s Hulk is in the bottom two for interesting characters in the MCU… Jane Foster takes the least interesting cake for me. I think she is the lamest character in the entire MCU. Sorry, Padme and Natalie Portman… I still love you!
• The movie doesn’t have enough weird sci-fi material to make it feel like a true Thor movie. It’s got Asgard looking beautiful, but then the movie cuts to Earth for a good majority of the 2nd and 3rd acts. I want outer space, bizarre, trippy shit (like Ragnorak but that’s a different review)! Marvel Studios played it too safe to appeal to mainstream audiences… in my opinion.
• The Destroyer is a slow metal clunker that was never a true combatant towards Thor but he wasn’t even the main villain so I’m fine with it.
• It’s not a big negative, but they tossed Hawkeye in a useless spot just for the sake of introducing Hawkeye… It’s whatever but kind of weird.

Overall Grade: C+

It was difficult for me to find a lot of negatives and positives for Thor. There isn’t a lot that I love about the movie but there isn’t much that I despise about this movie either. The worst thing about the movie is Jane Foster. The best thing is the emotional scenes within Thor’s family.  The movie is as average of an MCU movie you’ll find. Overall, I still really like it, because even an average MCU movie is a BANGER, so I gave it the C+ instead of a C.

MCU Ranking

1. Iron Man
2. Thor (Thor & Iron Man 2 are so tough to rank. IM2 is more aimed at entertainment when Thor was much more of a drama… I give the slight edge to Thor)
3. Iron Man 2
4. The Incredible Hulk

NEXT UP: Captain America: The First Avenger

P.S. with Game of Thrones 55 days away, expect some GOT material next Sunday…