So the when I first heard of the upcoming Thor film in 2010 I wasn't excited. The character had always seemed stupid for me. Superhero based on the Norse god just seemed ridiculous and I found the design of the comic book character uncool. Because of these prejudices I almost completely missed the movie.
In the summer of 2011 watching other films in theaters I saw the trailer for Captain America: The First Avenger. That movie looked so much fun that I decided that this idea of a cinematic universe might be fun after all. Because I wanted to catch up with the larger franchise I decided to go see Thor which was just about to end it's run in theaters.
Maybe it was because of all my negative thoughts about the character before actually doing any research on it, I ended up really liking the first Thor film. Through the years my thoughts haven't changed much. I still think it's a quite fun movie.
Thor (2011)
Directed by: Kenneth Branagh
Screenplay by: Ashley Edward Miller, Zack Stentz, Don Payne
Story by: J. Michael Straczynski, Mark Protosevich
Produced by: Kevin Feige
Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddleston, Stellan Skarsgård, Colm Feore, Ray Stevenson, Idris Elba, Kat Dennings, Rene Russo, Anthony Hopkins
Based on a character created by: Stan Lee, Larry Lieber, Jack Kirby
Thor is the fourth film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. After leading a reckless attack on Jotunheim, land of the Frost Giants, Thor Odinson, god of thunder and prince of Asgard, is banished to Earth by his father Odin. Odin seals the powers of Thor inside his hammer Mjolnir. Only after proving himself worthy of his powers Thor would be able to lift the hammer and return home. On Earth Thor gets help from astrophysicist Jane Foster and her friends, while back on Asgard Thor's brother Loki is plotting against his brother. (Writing synopses is hard)
The first Thor film is probably most remembered as a story of two brothers. The more popular one learns responsibility while the other plots against him jealously. This is definitely one of the high points of the film. I also appreciate the theatrical tone in the space scenes and fish out of water story on Earth. Action scenes are decent with character work making up for what's missing. The sets are beautiful and the music really fits the film.
The Dude Bro and Emo Brother
Tom Hiddleston as Loki was for long considered by many the only good villain in the MCU. While I wouldn't go that far myself I do consider him one of the best. Hiddleston does a great job portraying the character. His Loki is very likeable smartass. He's this weaker but more clever little brother to larger than life Thor, making Loki more relatable which is something that previous villains in the MCU didn't have. I can also see that these things made many like Loki more than Thor.
That being said, I feel like Chris Hemsworth has been underappreciated in his early appearances as Thor. Part of it might be that he does a really good job at playing unlikeable in the beginning of the film. He really shows arrogance and thirst of blood that Thor has in the beginning of the film. This is enhanced by the theatrical tone of the scenes that take place in Asgard and Jotunheim.
Hemsworth also does great job showing other parts of Thor. As character evolves more kind and caring through the film we see Hemsworth doing great job portraying sadness and regret. I really love Thor's character arc. Thanks to Hemsworth it was one of my favorite things in the film. He does also get to show his comedic chops in Earth scenes where Thor really doesn't know what's going on, like in the famous "ANOTHER!" café scene
Even the Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige has later admitted that coloring Hemsworth's eyebrows was a mistake
People and Gods
Natalie Portman plays astrophysicist Jane Foster in the film. She is the human lead in the film and Thor's love interest. She does a great job showing the characters hunger for knowledge and honestly could've been the main character of the movie. Portman also is really good at showing Jane's crush on Thor. Honestly I felt like I exactly knew what her character was feeling when she started to be attracted to Thor.
Of course it's a bit ridiculous that these characters fall in love in like two days or something, but I don't really mind that because it doesn't distract from the story and performances are so good.
Anthony Hopkins as Odin Borson is another magnificent presence in the film. Odin, the All-Father is this larger than life king of Asgard and father to Thor and Loki. While there might be few over the top moments, Hopkins really brings yelling Odin alive. But also gives the character the wisdom and calmness when it's needed.
Characters Erik Selvig (Stellan Skarsgård) and Darcy Lewis (Kat Dennings), Jane's colleague and intern respectively, are there because movie needed more human characters for Thor to interact to. That being said they Skarsgård does a good job helping deliver some exposition and Dennings works great as a comic relief commenting stuff that's going on. They also help to keep the film relatable for audiences with all the space theater going on.
Unworthy eyebrow coloring!
There's a fuck ton of characters in this film and because most of the film follows Thor to the Earth, Asgardian side characters are left with less screen time. Especially "The Warriors Three" played by Ray Stevenson, Tadanobu Asano and Josh Dallas are mostly just caricatures of the fat one, the silent one and the "funny" one respectively. Rene Russo as Frigga, Thor's mother, doesn't really even get that. She just kind of exists there. Deleted scenes on bluray did give these characters more scenes but I do understand cutting them for pacing reasons.
Of the Asgardian characters Idris Elba as Heimdall and Jaimie Alexander as Sif are bit more memorable but mostly because Idris Elba is Idris Elba (and his costume is so over the top I love it) and Sif is the badass warrior woman one.
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| From left to right: Fan- actually you don't probably care... |
Three Realms
In the Marvel universe Thor is know as the protector of nine realms. Only three are present in this film: Asgard - realm of gods, Jotunheim - realm of the Frost Giants and Midgard - the Earth. Because this is the first film in Thor franchise and it was important for Marvel to make it part of the larger MCU, the most of it takes place on Earth.
For the Earth scenes Marvel changed an old Western film town into a more modern small town in New Mexico, U.S.A. I probably wouldn't even had thought of this if I hadn't watched the bonus features on blu-ray, they made such a good job at making the small town believable. (Not that I've ever felt any town in any city would've felt unbelievable, but you know...) The small town is a nice change of pace from big cities Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk take place in. It does it's job making the Earth of the film feel like the real world.
The Asgard is the main attraction in the film and I feel like Marvel did a good job creating the realm of gods. On the outside it's this really out of this world space fantasy city, with a huge golden castle. Inside the sets Marvel build like the throne room really feels royal and magnificent. This is enhanced by the costuming which is really good in the movie. The armors, helmets and the capes make the characters feel like knights and kings, but without losing the sci-fi element of them. Of course I could've used even more bright colors, but the golden, royal look really works for me.
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| I really wished Thor would use the helmet on more than one scene. Of course it's impractical, but such a fun look. |
The third realm, Jotunheim, however is the disappointing one. The realm of Frost Giants is very dark and in ruins, filled with ice and snow. This could've been a fun world to visit, but you really don't get the feel of culture you get from Asgard or Earth. Of course the movie doesn't spend lot of time there and Frost Giants are supposed to be a more primal than humans and gods, so I understand the choice of making it the less appealing one. That being said the make up work they did for Colm Feore's character, Laufey - King of Frost Giants, is really good and I wished they hadn't wasted the character in the end.
Poking with Hammer and Spear
When it comes to action, Thor is not one of the best ones for Marvel. I don't think they are the worst I've seen and I'm not exactly bored by them. They just feel either rushed or poorly choreographed.
For example there's a scene where spy organization S.H.I.E.L.D. has build a little facility around Thor's hammer, which nobody can lift, and Thor breaks in to try to get it back. In the scene Thor fights these highly trained agents in manner that feels more like a bar brawl than a fight between professional soldiers and a warrior god. Like I can understand Thor trusting more his strength than skills, but if that were true he wouldn't win these agents so easily.
However the in some scenes the character work helps the action. In the beginning when Thor and his friends invade Jotunheim, it can be fun to see characters do over the top yelling and laughing while fighting. Of course that can sometimes feel too over the top as well, but more interesting still. Also in the last fight between Thor and Loki it's the dialogue between them that makes the scene more worthy (pun definitely intended).
The final battle between Thor and Loki. Not the most impressive fight, not the most impressive coloring of eyebrows, but the almost over the top acting and character work makes it entertaining
Sound of Gods
I'm not a music person. I really don't know anything about music and only listen to it when I'm doing something else like taking a walk or washing dishes. Or writing a blog post, I'm listening to the score of Thor while writing this!
The reason why I wanted to bring this up, is that the music in Thor, composed by Patrick Doyle, often surprises me how well it hits me. Like right away when I turned on the blu-ray and in the menu the music starts I thought I needed to talk about it. The music really fits the film. It has the exactly right tone for the film and enhances the other worldly experience without feeling out of place.
That being said it's not the best music in the MCU and it's not a film score that stays with you. It's a bit unmemorable and not an ear worm that would stay with you through the week. But where it matters, during the film, it really does it's job.
When Thor gets his hammer back and the music rises I even ignore the eyebrow problem
Shouldn't they be sliding down?
This is a weird thing I really haven't noticed in many films. Thor uses a lot of tilted camera shots. Quick googling told me that they are called "Dutch angles" and that director Kenneth Branagh was inspired by the comic books to use them. Honestly I haven't noticed comic books having that many tilted panels and I don't even mind it in this. It's just that they use it so much in this film it's hard to ignore once you notice it.
But it also did make me focus more on the other shots in the film as well. I wouldn't say that there's anything mind blowing going on, but I really did like some of the shots taken straight from above and the ones in Asgard that emphasize the size of the place.
The Consultant
The Consultant is the first of five "Marvel One-Shots", short films created as bonus features for MCU blu-rays. The Consultant is included in the Thor blu-ray and I watched that too for this review. It's directer by Leythium and written by Eric Pearson. The film is about two S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg) and Jasper Sitwell (Maximiliano Hernández), talking.
For a casual fan there it's kind of pointless, but a fanboy like me can enjoy it. The two actors get a bit more screen time and if you like continuity stuff, it explains why Tony Stark actually met with General Ross at the end of The Incredible Hulk.
There really isn't much more to talk about here, other than the fact that I really liked the idea of these short films. They could give more screen time for smaller side characters and tell more details about the MCU. But when it comes to first one, it's kind of unnecessary.
The Consultant is around 4 minutes of this with clips from The Incredible Hulk
Universe building
I think it could've been easily possible for Marvel Studios to make this film too filled with universe building. But they understand that while yes, the film needs to feel like it belongs in the larger Marvel Cinematic Universe, it's more important that it works as a stand alone story about Thor Odinson. That being said the film does have it's own share of connections.
Spy organization S.H.I.E.L.D. is around again with Clark Gregg reprising his role as Agent Phil Coulson. Their role in the film is mostly to first make things a bit harder for Thor and Jane, and in the end work as a connection for S.H.I.E.L.D. and Thor in The Avengers film. The S.H.I.E.L.D. does work for the film and doesn't feel forced.
The film also marks the first appearance of Jeremy Renner in the role of Clint Barton a.k.a. Hawkeye, who would later appear in The Avengers as a member of title team. He's basically just an S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent who uses bow and arrows to fight. He is unnecessary for the film, but is nice that he is shown at least for a moment before the Avengers would assemble in the team up film.
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| Watching the film first time the Hawkeye cameo was bit weird though. Why is this guy using a bow, and why don't wee see him again in the film? |
Like always, the film has a post credits scene. The one in Thor was directed by The Avengers director Joss Whedon and it sees character of Erik Selvig joining S.H.I.E.L.D. to study "Tesseract" magic space cube that would be important in later films. Selvig is also shown to be manipulated by Loki, teasing the characters involvement for The Avengers film. It's the kind of fun little teaser of the upcoming films I tend to really enjoy, but like teasers usually, it looses it's effect with time.
Hey kids, it's Samuel L. Jackson!
In the comics...
Once again I haven't read that many Thor comics. Based on what I know from the newer comics and reading around the net I do think the film does justice for the source material. There are some changes, for example comics had Thor using the alter ego and human form of Doctor Donald Blake on Earth. With his cane Doctor Blake would turn into the superhero Thor. This idea is not present in the later comics nor the film. There is a reference to Dr. Blake in the film though, as an ex boyfriend of Jane Foster.
Jane Foster who is a Doctor of Medicine in the comics is changed into an astrophysicist in the film. The change works for the film, as it gives Jane a reason to be in New Mexico at the beginning of the film and gives her personal reasons, other than Thor's hot bod, to stay around.
I've almost exclusively read run of Jason Aaron, whose been the writer for Thor comics since 2012. It's been one of my favorite Marvel comics. Film is obviously made before that, so there isn't connections there really. But in the future I would love to see some things from those comic books, like Jane Foster taking the title of Thor after Odinson himself stops using the name after being made unworthy again.
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| During six years Jason Aaron's Thor comics have used the names Thor: God of Thunder, Thor, The Mighty Thor and Thor again and there has been two miniseries, Unworthy Thor and Thors (I forgot to put in the picture of the last one) |
I want to fly with hammer too...
Thor sets accomplish a lot. It needs to introduce the world of Asgard and Norse gods as aliens to the world. It needed to bring magic and aliens to the MCU. And it needed to be a fun movie that could stand alone as well. For me the film does achieve all of this and while it's not my top MCU film, I keep having fun watching it again and again.
Next movie in line is Captain America: The First Avengers (2011). That being said, I think there was a homework involving music video too, so I might do that first. We'll see.
Have fun. Love and respect each other.
- O.K.
P.S. This was a hard one to write. Is it even more messier than my other texts? Anyway thanks for reading : 3
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