Thor

Thor is a film by Marvel based upon their character by the same name played by Chris Hemsworth and also features: Natalie Portman as Jane Foster, Tom Hiddleton as Thor’s half brother Loki, Anthony Hopkins as Thor’s father Odin, and Clark Gregg reprising his role as Agent Phil Coulson (Agents of Shield). This film is Thor’s introduction into Marvel’s film universe as part of their phase one initiative leading into the Avengers. As this film is an introduction of Thor and his universe this story focuses more on Thor’s origin of becoming a hero of Earth. This movie follows Thor as his father banishes him from Asgard (a realm along side Earth) for disobeying his commands after Thor is manipulated by Loki into attacking the Frost Giants. This banishment involves Thor being stripped of his weapon Mjolnir which states “Whosoever holds this hammer, if he be worthy, shall possess the power of Thor”. From here you get to watch Thor develop and grow as well as see the growth of the villain that is Loki. But hey, if you haven’t seen it yet I’m not going to explain it all to you; honestly, go watch it, you won’t be disappointed. 

Any Thor related content from the movie can be found here

I am a huge Marvel fan, and although Thor has never been one of the main characters I follow I have always enjoyed him as a character. The difficult thing about Thor is that he is like Superman in the sense that he is so much greater than the rest of his team due to the fact he is a god. However I feel that this film has done a great job at showing what makes Marvel characters so relatable and that is flaws. You get to watch Thor at first struggle with the loss of his abilities/strengths and then watch him take these foreign “human” behaviours and develop much more of an empathetic side. This helps relate that even though he is a god he is still just as flawed as us humans and that it is not the power that makes the man. Alongside Thor’s growth and development you get to see Loki’s origin into becoming a true villain in the Marvel universe and how he really is the God of Mischief. 

While Thor is experiencing being human, he also falls for Jane Foster, who is a scientist who initially finds (hits) Thor after his fall from Asgard. This relationship not only follows the comics in a sense, but also provides the core reason for Thor to come back to Earth in the future. Jane is a strong female character because she not only provides a human aspect to Thor and a way to hurt the God, but she also becomes a source of strength for Thor and is able to pull him back up from his fall. In a superhero movie it is nice to see a female lead not have to play the damsel in distress, but play a character that is fundamental to the hero Thor becomes. 

One of the things that has made the recent movies made by Marvel so interesting is how they are connecting all of the films. For instance, when Thor is trying to retrieve his hammer from S.H.I.E.L.D., you get a glimpse of an uncredited Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye before he made his appearance in the Avengers. To be honest this is one of my favorite parts in the film because when I was originally sitting in the theater I remember seeing a character reach for a bow and almost squealing because I knew it was Hawkeye. Another cool set of easter eggs is Odin’s vault where you can catch a glimpse of different objects that have been seen throughout the comics. The one that stood out to me and had the most meaning was the quick glimpse of the Infinity Gauntlet that you see in the film. 

It is such a small thing with so much power

Without rambling on about this object for pages it is a very powerful item in the Marvel Universe and is used to hold the Infinity Gems which you can also see on the gauntlet. This item will most likely lead into the villain Thanos, who appears to be shown (partially) in the after credit scenes of Thor.  The Infinity Gauntlet is the basis and name of one of my favorite mini-series I’ve read and also of one of my favorite SNES games “War of the Gems”. 

As a movie I love Thor, and yes that is partially because I just love how Marvel is approaching their universe, but even without that it holds up as a strong film without it. Thor is such an interesting character and I think they did a great job of toning down his dialect to something a little more modern without detaching him from his more complex dialect he uses in the comics.All in all as an introduction of Thor into the Marvel cinematic universe and to a mainstream audience I think they did a very good job and I think Chris Hemsworth will be able to maintain this character for many more films to come.

Chris - 9/10