Thor (2011)

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Following the release of 'Iron Man 2', it seemed abundantly clear that 'The Avengers' was definitely a project that would one day come to light. However, one upcoming title that put me at unease was 'Thor'. Being that this was a comic book character who was, in essence, a God, lived in a whole other world, and was always one of Marvel's more fantasy-based characters, I wondered how it would be pulled off, considering superhero movies up to that point always seemed to be required to stay somewhat grounded.

With how far the MCU (among other superhero franchises) has come, it's almost weird to think that there was actually a time when producers didn't seem to think that making a comic book movie look like its respective comic book pages could possibly work, as if being too fantastical was "out of bounds," so to speak. Much to this film's credit, it turned out that the formula needed to make this work was really quite simple; do the 'Fish out of water" cliche, but give the fantasy world within the movie an ample part of the story instead of the lead character simply leaving their world to get to Earth for *insert reason here*.

The film hits the ground running when Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) and her friends, Dr. Selvig (Stellan Skarsgård) and Darcy (Kat Dennings), happen upon what seems to be some sort of meteor crash, but turns out to be some guy named Thor (Chris Hemsworth) who had fallen from the sky. From there, the film recaps the events on Asgard, Thor's home world, that lead to his banishment to Earth and to his unworthiness to wield the hammer, Mjölnir. He then spends his days in exile, befriending and getting to know Jane, Erik, and Darcy better, and realizing that human beings are more than meets the eye.

Meanwhile, on Asgard, Thor's brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston) learns his true parentage from the man he has considered “Father” all of his life, Odin (Anthony Hopkins). Feeling betrayed and desperate for approval, Loki wants to prove his worth and show he deserves the Asgardian throne more than Thor. He seeks Odin's recognition and a place in Asgard. When Odin enters the deep "Odinsleep" to recover, Loki seizes the chance to take the throne. Eventually, however, his rule becomes too much for Sif (Jaimie Alexander) and the Warriors Three: Hogun (Tadanobu Asano), Fandral (Josh Dallas), and Volstagg (Ray Stevenson).

Sif and the Warriors Three soon find the motivation to bring Thor back from Earth to put an end to Loki's rule, with the help of the bridgekeeper, Heimdall (Idris Elba). With all of this layed out, however, years have passed, and at this point 'Thor' isn't a hell of a lot more than an origin story for both Thor and Loki, who has since gone from the MCU's greatest villain with 'Avengers', to anti-hero, to guardian of the multiverse, making him perhaps the single-best developed character within the MCU. In fact, today I would almost use this first 'Thor' film more as a Loki starting point, since Thor's overarching story feels much simpler.

No matter how I see/review this film nowadays, however, it doesn't change the fact that, for its time, it was a pleasant surprise. Upon learning through trailers and online chatter that this would, indeed, be a "fish out of water" story, my mind leapt to '87's 'Masters of the Universe', which was the same deal, but far more focused on whatever was going on on Earth, grounding what is otherwise a whole world of fantasy. I figured the same thing might happen here, and 'Thor' was a sort of "make or break" title for the success of the 'Avengers' film we were all hoping to see.

Luckily, not only was just about half of the film set in the fantastical realm of Asgard, but whatever happened on Earth was essential to developing Thor's character and, more often than not, was done hilariously. It was easy to embrace this movie for what it was, and I'd probably consider it the very beginning of when the MCU took the wheel of Marvel and finally said, "See this comic book? See these frames? Bring that to life!" They tested the waters of epic superhero fantasy with 'Thor,' and let's face it, things succeeded more than we ever could have thought possible.

3/5

POST-CREDIT SCENE: Erik Selvig is brought in to meet with Nick Fury. Fury shows him the Tesseract and mentions its immense power. We then see Loki, eavesdropping on the conversation, setting the upcoming plot for 'The Avengers'

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