Whosoever Holds This Hammer, If He Be Worthy, Shall Possess The Power Of THOR!
- Alex Clark
- Jun 26, 2017
- 4 min read
Thor
May 6th, 2011
Dir. Kenneth Branagh
With Thor, we get the first chance to see Marvel’s cosmic universe and the power it holds in the MCU, with it we get another new character into this ever-growing universe less than 12 months before Captain America and the highly anticipated team up film; The Avengers.
At this stage in Marvel’s grand plan; we are already well accustomed to our hero’s origins with every film at this point giving us a new main character and a handful of supporting characters to boot.
In this instalment we get Odin’s heir to Asgard, his arrogant, hammer wielding son Thor. When we first see Thor, Branagh shows us his character traits in what has become a staple way over the years, through a fast paced battle against the Frost Giants, his father’s enemies from beginning of the movie. In these opening 20 minutes we get to see everything that Thor has to offer in the early moments of his MCU career. He is strong, powerful and has godlike powers, but along with that comes the arrogance and the sense that he is nothing without the power that Mjölnir gives him. His character wields the hammer well and uses it as a main weapon in the battle. Thor doesn’t need anything other than the hammer.
Once the battle is over, we see what is one of the better segments of the film. Odin exiles Thor from Asgard for going behind his back, takes away his godly power, and therefore, his strength and power to wield Mjölnir, and sends him to Earth. Its here Thor grows as a character, his arrogance, godly power stripped, and unknown knowledge of a place like Earth gives us quite a funny half an hour or so. Its also here where we meet Jane Foster, Erik Selvig and Darcy Lewis in New Mexico, the good supporting cast to the films Earth scenes where they think Thor as a drunk homeless man that was hit by a truck.
I feel somewhat that the female supporting parts within the universe do get lost in the greater story somewhat. Jane Foster is a main part to Thor wanting to return to Earth in the second film and the end of this one, but certain writing issues stop the Marvel big wigs being able to drop characters like Foster and Pepper Potts in so easily, the expansion of the universe hasn’t stopped this from happening either with the most obvious recent addition being Christine Palmer in Doctor Strange. Her character is just a by-product for Strange to keep going back to New York. Maybe this future phase will change things around with Captain Marvel due out in 2 years time and Hope Van Dyne returning as The Wasp in Antman and The Wasp next year. Only time will tell how Marvel handle this issue, especially with Wonder Woman coming out of the woodwork as a fantastic female lead comic book movie.
While on Earth we see more of Agent Coulson, the organisation known as S.H.I.E.L.D and a guy called Clinton with a bow and arrow, in a scene where Thor tries to get back Mjölnir from the crater in a very King Arthur style scene. Within a couple of days Thor and Jane become a love interest and the gang find out the true identity of Thor and his story, albeit originally unbelievable as it came from a book on Norse Mythology.
Where this film really excels, while Thor is exiled on Earth, is back in Asgard where Loki is really coming into his own. Tom Hiddleston plays a fantastic forgotten brother-come-antagonist in this film and future films to arguably be the MCU’s best bad guy (something that is always cited as a shortcoming in their movies). The big turning point in this film, and arguably the early parts of the franchise, is Loki finding out he isn’t actually Thor’s brother, but son of Laufrey of the frost giants of who Odin adopted after the battle we see at the start of the film. This really brings Loki front and centre in what turns out to be the best performance in the film and sets up the inevitable brother vs. brother battle that is brought on at the end of the film.
During the third act of the film, we really get to see Loki’s cunning in a way we probably never though we would at the start of the movie. His transformation from a guy who lives in Thor’s shadow to playing out his plan to prove to Odin he is worthy and become King is very well played out. And that’s how the main battle should have played out. The strong, hammer wielding Thor against the cunning Loki. But we get The Destroyer that’s sent to Earth to stop Thor’s return, which bring in a lot of unnecessary destruction to a small town in New Mexico. For the little amount of time we actually get the see Thor against his brother, I really feel it was a missed opportunity.
7/10 – A decent enough origin story with a few missed opportunities and some brilliant character play coming from Loki. Thor brings Marvel’s cosmic universe into play with this film, and something going forward into Captain America and The Avengers becomes more and more important.
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