The Avengers Movie Project Part 3: Thor

     So, now the time has come to cover one of the least liked Marvel movies from many opinions, Thor. Kenneth Branaugh, director of who knows how many Shakespeare adaptations, and an actor probably best known for his portrayal of Gilderoy Lockhart in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, directed this movie, and his inspiration really shows. There are elements of this story that can somewhat echo something that Shakespeare would have in one of his tragedies, and the Asgardians use language similar to one of the Bard's plays. Thor is a somewhat stiff character for sure in his first outing, but throughout the course of the MCU, he evolves into a much more interesting and hilarious character. He's actually one of the funniest by the time Avengers: Infinity War rolls around, but we still have a long way to go before that. Today I'll do my best to point out some of my favorite parts and characters that could definitely be considered fan favorites, even if some of them have gotten fairly little screen time compared to some other characters. Before I get into the analysis/review of this movie, I have to ask a question. Are you worthy of the power of Thor? Even if you feel like you're not, let's get into the mythological fun that this movie contains.

Thor Odinson: Myth or Legend?

    Thor is laid out in a very similar manner to the original Iron Man, where we begin with an inciting incident and then it rewinds time to explain how things ended up with this event. The film begins with Odin, king of Asgard explaining all about the nine "realms" that make up the universe, focusing the most on Asgard, where Thor and his brother Loki live alongside many of the characters from this movie, and Jotunheim, the realm of the Frost Giants. Immediately we see a flashback of a time long past when Asgard and Jotunheim were pitted against each other in a fierce war for control of the universe. Asgard, led by Odin, defeated the frost giants and kept peace throughout the realms (think of Asgard as a realm of light and Jotunheim as a realm of ice). Years and years pass, and the story of this film truly begins on the day that Thor Odinson (son of Odin), is about to take the throne of Asgard from his Father. Thor is every bit as pompous and entitled as Tony Stark is at the beginning of Iron Man, but where Tony is smart, Thor is strong and commands lightning with his hammer, Mjolnir. He faces every task with brute strength and thinks very little about what he's doing, and as such, is very cocky about ascending to the throne of Asgard. Thor's brother Loki is clearly very clever, but appears to be a quiet, supportive, somewhat snarky, brother who wants the best for Thor. On the day that Thor is set to take the throne, Frost Giants somehow enter the royal armory where Odin has been storing an artifact that he took from their people, and they attempt to steal it back. The two die in the attempt and Thor is furious. Odin tells him not to do anything irrational, but Thor ignores his father's advice and goes to Jotunheim to deal with the enemies, along with his friends the Warriors Three, Lady Sif, and Loki. Thor charges in without asking questions and although Loki tries to win the day by negotiating, Thor kicks into warrior mode and ends up starting another war between Asgard and Jotunheim. Odin swoops in to save the day and brings the heroes back to Asgard, but upon arrival, he strips Thor of his power and rank, then sends him to Midgard along with his hammer just in case. Where is Midgard, you might ask? Earth, of course! The Bifrost opens a portal sending Thor to New Mexico, just in time for him to meet Jane Foster and her gang of scientist friends.

    The vast majority of this movie takes place on Earth with Thor interacting with the humans, the main ones being the aforementioned Jane Foster, a well known astrophysicist, Erik Selvig, also an avid researcher, and Darcy Lewis, their intern. They've been tracking strange storm patterns in New Mexico when we first meet them, following some weird readings that could be some extraterrestrial phenomenon. One of these patterns that they pick up happens to be where Thor lands in this world, and Jane accidentally hits him with her van. They take Thor to the hospital where he breaks out and causes a whole scene, only for Jane to accidentally hit him again with her van as they go looking for the apparent escaped madman. Thor's hammer didn't land at the same time as Thor, and has become a "Sword in the Stone"-esque challenge for the people of New Mexico, as no one can lift it, and it's here we see Agent Coulson arrive to investigate New Mexico, as we saw from the post-credit scene of Iron Man 2. S.H.I.E.L.D. quickly sets up a containment area to do research on this extraterrestrial hammer, and also confiscates Dr. Foster's work along with all equipment, and even Darcy's IPod (she just downloaded, like, 30 songs on that)! Thor is looking to find his hammer, and when he hears word of it, he wants Jane's help to get it back, along with her research. Thor and Jane drive to the Shield facility that has been built around the hammer (as they can't move it either), and Thor breaks his way in to steal his hammer back, but upon approach, Thor is not able to lift it either. It turns out that before Odin sent the hammer to Earth, he placed an enchantment on it. "Whosoever holds this hammer, if they be worthy, shall possess the power of Thor." This means that because Thor is still the cocky guy who's incredibly full of himself and cares about little other than his own ambition, he is not cannot wield Mjolnir and is knocked out by a shield operative. He's placed in captivity and while there is visited by Loki in disguise who tells Thor that Odin has died and he is now the king of Asgard, though Thor may never return, as it was Odin's final request. Loki then returns to Asgard after Thor's spirit is broken, though all is not as it seems.

    Plot twist! Loki has taken power in Asgard, though Odin is not dead, he merely is in a deep sleep known as the Odinsleep, seemingly brought on by the expulsion of Thor from Asgard. Loki discovers that he actually was the son of the leader of the Frost Giants that Odin took when he won the battle, and was raised as Odin's own son. This makes Loki furious and arranges a coup by cooperating with the Frost Giants to take out Odin. The Warriors Three along with Sif find out about this plan and escape to Midgard to warn Thor about this crazy situation. Thor has broken out of prison with the help of Dr. Selvig vouching for him, and he took Jane's notebook while leaving. The Asgardian party meets up with Thor and his human friends to tell him that Loki lied to him and that things are way worse off than he thought. Loki then sends a giant monster to destroy the weakened Thor, which almost works, but through a noble sacrifice made to save all of his friends, the hammer deems Thor worthy once again and makes him into his ultra powerful self. With his regained power, he defeats the giant threat and returns to Asgard with a promise to Jane that he will return. Thor returns to Asgard just in time to fend off the Jotunheim threat, but he appears to be too late to save Odin. The leader of the Frost Giants breaks into Odin's chambers and is just about to deliver the death blow to the king when suddenly, Loki kills him. He's saved the day and is clearly the hero of Asgard! Thor then arrives to tell the queen, his mother, of Loki's betrayal, and Thor and Loki have an epic fight scene which ends with Thor destroying the Bifrost, and thus ending any chance of him returning to Jane anytime soon, and Loki floats off into space, apparently dead. In the post credits scene, Nick Fury has recruited Erik Selvig to work on a secret science program in shield, we then see Loki appear in Selvig's reflection who tells him what to say, accepting Fury's offer. What does this mean? We'll have to wait and see.

A Lightning Rod for Talent!

    Thor has some incredible cast, as a lot of these early movies do. Chris Hemsworth takes up the mantle of the God of Thunder, one of the most dynamic characters in the whole MCU over time. In this first movie as he's still being developed, he hasn't entirely worked out his character yet, so sometimes feels a bit dry. He's a very charismatic actor all around though, and he's proven time and time again to be a great pick for this role. Natalie Portman is Thor's love interest, Dr. Jane Foster, in a role that honestly didn't give her much motivation, but still she's always great in my opinion. Tom Hiddleston as Loki is really the star of the show, even though he's the villain of this film, he's such an interesting actor and portrays the cunning and deviousness so well, that this is truly the first "big bad" of Marvel movies, showing a more interesting threat than the first two Iron Man films had. Kat Dennings plays Darcy Lewis, the hilarious sidekick and intern that I recently tweeted should have her own standalone movie. Even though she doesn't do all that much for the plot, she delivers some excellent comic relief in a movie that could have been a little too serious at times. The Warriors Three and Lady Sif all do a great job with what they're given, even though that's not much. Their main roles are warriors, and as such, they have remarkably little character development. One is fat and short, one is tall and skinny, one is asian, tall, and skinny, and then Lady Sif is a woman, which pretty much sums up all of their characters. The most interesting thing I can say about one of them is that he's played by Josh Dallas, who played Prince Charming in the TV show, "Once Upon a Time," which I assume is why he didn't return for Thor: The Dark World. Of course, I would be remiss to not mention Sir Anthony Hopkins as Odin, who is always a delight to watch, or even listen to. He acts as a narrator at times in this movie as well as the sequel, which is something that he should always do, because he's really got a great voice for it. Idris Elba is also in this movie as Heimdall, the operator of the Bifrost, though he doesn't get a whole lot to do in this movie other than one little stand off with Loki as he can see some evil plan coming to fruition, but then gets frozen, only for him to break free in time to bring Thor to Asgard. Mr. Elba is always a delight to watch, even though, as I said, he doesn't get to do much here. One final note here is that we see Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye for the first time here, and he does almost nothing except stand in a crow's nest with a bow and arrow. Keep an eye on him though, he ends up being interesting in time.

    Thor was not the best movie in most people's opinion, but it was pretty interesting, and certainly worth the watch. This movie probably has the most to do with the first Avengers movie than any of the others in Phase One, as Loki comes back as the villain of that one as well. It's an interesting movie on it's own, but it does play similarly to Iron Man in terms of being about a guy who's really full of himself having to come to terms with his own issues and becoming a better person, though this one definitely has enough differences to not draw perfect comparisons between the two. My dad was worried about this one going into it because he didn't think he could keep up with all of the different Norse mythology that the character is from, but the narration from Odin and examples of what the different realms looked like really helped him. He ended up liking this movie a lot, especially the visual effects, and that the villain was certainly different from the first two that he saw.

    Thanks so much for reading this post, friends. I know I normally rotate between writing about several different subjects, but I'm quite a few movies behind the pace that my dad and I are watching them at, so I thought I would take this week to catch up slightly more. I really hope you're enjoying my plot summaries/reviews of the Marvel movies so far. Even though they're very plot heavy, I'm trying to not be too longwinded. It's a complicated plot, but not overly so, I don't think. I hope you're all doing well, and I'll talk to you all next week.