Good evening, everyone. Continuing with my series of posts about the Marvel Cinematic Universe, we’re going to cover the first Thor movie from 2011. Titled just “Thor”, this movie was directed by Kenneth Branagh and stars Chris Hemsworth as Thor (God of Thunder), Tom Hiddleston as Loki (God of Mischief and adopted brother of Thor), Idris Elba as Heimdall, Natalie Portman as Jane Foster, and Sir Anthony Hopkins as Odin. This movie is the first one in the MCU that has the main character he from somewhere other than Earth (Asgard, to be exact). Let’s get into detail on how this movie went down.
After the Paramount and Marvel Studios logos pop up, we see a science van in New Mexico at night as the people inside it (including Natalie Portman’s Jane Foster) set up something science-related. They see something weird in the sky and they drive away from it. During the drive, they unexpectedly got someone with the van (turns out to be Thor). We then see Frost Giants freeze some people in Norway many years ago. The frost giants then encounter warriors from Asgard, including Odin. After the King of Asgard take Jotunheim’s source of power, they return home. We then see Odin with the young versions of Thor and Loki. Odin says a king should be ready for war and both young boys were born to be king. We then cut to current day Thor with the hammer about to be crowned king of Asgard when, suddenly, Odin is alerted about some frost giants invading Asgard and trying to take their source of power back. Odin then summons his big robot thing to get rid of them. Later, we see the damage that the frost giants did. After Thor talks with his dad, we see him flip over a long table in frustration of not being crowned king. Sif (played by Jaimie Alexander) tells Thor that it is forbidden to do what he is going to do, but Thor leads Loki, Sif, and the Warriors 3 to Jotunheim to confront the frost giants (thanks to Heimdall and his realm-traveling sword. After they arrive, they walk towards the frost giants, including their leader Laufey. Loki warns Thor that they are outnumbered, but Thor ignores him. Eventually, they fight the frost giants. Thor is taking care of these giants easily, but the others: not as easily. Everyone but Thor runs away from the fight and Thor creates chaos with a major earthquake caused by the hammer and thunder and lightning powers. Before the monster gets to attack the other heroes, Thor goes through its mouth and kills it. Odin then intervenes and saves them from any more danger. This is a signal that Thor is in major trouble with his father. Thor disobeyed his dad by going to war with the frost giants, plus he calls him an “old man and a fool”. Odin then takes away his powers, Mjolnir, and banishes his son to Earth.
We then cut back to the van from earlier that hit him. He wakes up and sees Jane and her friends. Darcy (played by Kat Dennings) then tases him and they send him to a hospital. Thor then attacks the medical people before they put him to sleep with a needle. We then see where the hammer landed and a random guy coming to attempt to grab it, to no avail. Meanwhile, we see Jane Foster, Darcy, and Erik Selvig (played by Stellan Skarsgard) at their science home. After figuring out that they forgot something, they saw that Thor escaped from the hospital (but is then run over again). We then see a whole bunch of failed attempts at getting the hammer (including Stan Lee in a truck) before Coulson arrives at it (after he stopped two robbers at a gas station in the “One Shot” short). Thor (named Donald Blake on Earth in the comics) wakes up safe in the science home in New Mexico still trying to figure out his situation. After that, we see Loki and the Warriors back on Asgard still recovering from the after-effects of the fight. Loki then tells Sif, and the others, that Thor is arrogant. He then grabs the power source of Yotunheik before being stopped by Odin. Loki tells him that the Casket wasn’t the only thing Odin took from that realm. Odin then says that he took a young boy and adopted him (Loki, in this case). Loki then confronts him and (accidentally?) puts him to sleep. Later, we see Thor and friends at a diner for breakfast. He is a very hungry guy. During this scene, he smashes a coffee mug after yelling “Another”, which is still funny to this day. Thor then hears something about his hammer being at a crater. After they exit the diner, Jane says that she can’t take Thor to the satellite place. Jane then sees all of her science stuff taken by SHIELD. Meanwhile, in Asgard, we see that Loki has taken the throne (temporarily) after Odin went to a big sleep. Sif then asks “King” Loki to unbanish Thor, but he says no. Back on Earth, Selvig found a book at a library about Norse Mythology that gives them more information about where Thor comes from. Thor yells “I need a horse” before Jane picks him up and drives him to the hammer location. After a brief cut to Odin’s sleeping chamber, we see Thor and Jane arrive at the place. By now, the hammer has been heavily guarded by SHIELD. He still takes care of the guards and agents as rain starts before reaching Mjolnir. Coulson signals for someone with a gun, but that guy gets a bow and arrow instead (Clint Barton, played by Jeremy Renner is “that guy”). Thor does struggle with one guard, but he eventually takes care of him with a couple of kicks. He gets to Mjolnir, only for him to not get it. As a result, he roars in anger and sadness before surrendering to the guards and being handcuffed.
We then cut to the science home where they talk about the book and other stuff. Coulson then interrogates Thor for a little bit before he leaves. Loki then appears and “tells” Thor that their dad is dead and he is now King (and Thor is still banished, for now). Loki then tries to grab the hammer, but to no luck. Selvig then shows up to talk with Coulson about the hammer and Thor (Donald Blake). Thankfully, they are convinced to release him from custody. The first thing that Erik and Thor do is go to a bar to have a drink. During the conversation, Thor tells Selvig about his dad teaching him a lesson and that he means Jane no harm. Thor then chugs a big glass of beer before we cut to Loki going to Jotunheim. It was revealed that Loki was the one who got the frost giants into Asgard to ruin Thor’s crowning day. He then tells Laufey that once Odin is dead, the casket will be returned to its realm. Loki then goes back to Asgard and tells Heimdall to close the bifrost forever. We then see Selvig drunk and carried to bed by Thor before Thor has a deep conversation with Jane outside. During this, he gives Jane her science journal so that she doesn’t have to start from scratch. He explains to Jane about the nine realms, which include Earth (Midgard). We then see Sif and the Warriors go to Earth to find Thor and bring him back. Meanwhile, Loki summons the big robot (The Destroyer) from earlier to make sure that Thor never returns. Sif tells Thor that Odin is still alive (but sleeping). Loki then relieves Heimdall of his duties as gatekeeper and freezes him. The Destroyer arrives on Earth and starts to wreak havoc on the town. Sif and the Warriors try to fight him to no luck. Thor then decides to walk towards the Destroyer and basically sacrifices himself to save the town. Jane runs for him, but he is already down. Right before he dies, he is given back his powers and Mjolnir and destroys the robot. Before he leaves for home (thanks to Heimdall escaping from the ice), he asks Coulson to return Jane’s stuff and kisses Jane goodbye. Laufey gets killed by Loki before he kills Odin. Thor then confronts Loki about everything that Loki did. Loki then attempts to destroy Jotunheim before being stopped by Thor. They then fight each other after Loki threatens to kill Jane. During the fight, Thor is “convinced” to save Loki but is tricked. Thor then summons lightning to kill Loki’s ghosts and breaks the rainbow bridge to stop the destruction of Jotunheim. Everything goes into chaos as Thor tries to save Loki. Instead, Loki falls into space. Back on Earth, Jane realizes that he might never see him again (until two years later). We then see the people of Asgard at a big feast and Thor walking on his own (he thinks that Loki is dead and he misses Jane). Thor then talks with his dad and tells him that there will be no wiser king than him. Heimdall then tells Thor that there is always hope and he sees Jane. After the end credits and the teaser about Thor returning in “The Avengers”, we see Nick Fury talk with Erik Selvig. During this scene, Fury reveals the Tesseract (the Space Stone) from a suitcase. Loki then appears in a mirror and is curious about it. Erik then says that it is worth a look, repeating what was said by Loki in the mirror.
Before I go over the stuff that I like about this movie, I’ll get this out of the way. I really was not a fan of most of this movie being shot at a Dutch angle. It was just weird to me that this movie was shot like that. To my knowledge, it’s the only MCU movie with a Dutch angle throughout most of it. With that done, let’s get into the positive aspects of this movie. First off, Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston were fantastic as Thor and Loki, respectively. Throughout the movie, I liked how Thor matured after being denied the hammer at the facility. On Earth, he had some funny moments, including smashing a coffee mug at the diner. I also liked the scene with him and Jane Foster around the fire (Natalie Portman was great in the role). Meanwhile, Loki turned out to be a memorable villain for the entire MCU. He was imposing and threatening, even though he was not as strong as Thor. The fight between them both was a bit tense, but I knew that they would not kill each other. For a moment, I thought Loki sacrificed himself after Thor broke the rainbow bridge (until the post-credits scene anyway). Sir Anthony Hopkins didn’t have too much screen time, but he was great in the scenes that he was in. Idris Elba was solid as Heimdall. The Warriors 3 and Sif did well with the screen time that they were given (Ray Stevenson as Volstagg was great, as was Jaimie Alexander as Sif). Patrick Doyle did a solid job with the music in this movie. The fight scenes were solid as well in this one, including the chaos that ensued on Jotumheim.
Overall, “Thor” is a solid film. Obviously, it does lead to the big crossover movie “The Avengers” with the post-credits tease. Before we get to that movie (and the end of MCU Phase One), we have one more film to go over. That movie is “Captain America: The First Avenger”, which was released in 2011 as well. I’ll be putting that post out soon. In the meantime, I hope you all stay safe out there. Stay inside when you hear Thunder.
(Here is the video from How It Should Have Ended on "Thor". Full credit goes to them.)
(Also, here is the recap cartoon from the Cas van de Pol's YouTube channel. All credit to the people who did the cartoon.)
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