Thor (2011)
It’s kind of funny to think about it, but a very serious, Shakespearean director has actually been involved with the MCU since nearly the beginning. Kenneth Branagh is classically trained, and made a name for himself by doing movie adaptations of some very dense material, such as Hamlet, Othello, and many more tales from the Bard. As such, while it’s kind of comical that he’s been intimately tied to the comic book giant from the very beginning, it’s also not all that shocking when you think about the hero in question - Thor.
Chris Hemsworth, then only known for niche movies like Cabin In The Woods (which is phenomenal, by the way), rocketed to stardom by playing Thor Odinson, the Norse god of thunder. In the Marvel canon, the gods of Asgard are, in reality, a highly advanced alien civilization. Among them is Odin, the Allfather, as well as his sons Thor and Loki. These sons both have a legitimate claim to the throne, but Thor oversteps his station one too many times, and is delivered humility in the form of a banishment to Midgard, or rather, Earth. Here, he meets Jane Foster, a physicist who wants to understand the Einstein-Rosen Bridge that Thor arrived on, which he knows as the Bifrost.
The plot is very Shakespearean in its dialogue and bravado, but that doesn’t make it feel out of place amongst the much more pulpy likes of Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk. Rather, it works well to juxtaposition Thor next to the modern era, an era he is painfully out of touch with. While it could be cringeworthy, Thor’s fish out of water moments instead are witty and enjoyable, with Hemsworth’s flat delivery doing wonders to sell them. Even when he’s speaking in flowery Elizabethan language, he still comes across as competent rather than goofy, save for the few times that said competence is the goofiness.
Tom Hiddleston also deserves all of the praise you’ve no doubt heard get showered upon him in the decade since he first began this role. After all, one doesn’t earn their own miniseries by being a bad actor. His portrayal of Loki is filled with clear malice, while still giving us a glimpse into the sadness that feeds it. The flowery language actually does even more heavy lifting for Loki, as his clearly smarmy nature and cunning wit both lend themselves to the sort of teary, melodramatic monologues that the movie affords him. There are scenes where, if the armor and environments were more medieval than sci-fi, one would swear it was a Shakespeare adaptation.
While the story can certainly be seen as a standard “prove your worth” story about an egotistical hero, it serves its purpose, and establishes Thor’s character. While later movies would expand that further in ways that some disagree with (though I myself like them, which I’ll explain when we get to them), this movie plants the seeds of his psyche. It also gives him an intimate connection to our world, meaning that his returning to fight for us makes far more sense than if he was just exiled here that one time.
There is, admittedly, not much to say beyond that. It’s a perfectly solid movie, one I like to watch from time to time. When it comes time for a marathon, I don’t dread any of the movies, and Thor is nowhere near the “bottom” of my list. While his second outing wouldn’t be well-received, and his third and fourth would mix up the game entirely, Thor’s first appearance in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is a good origin story for a character whose origin isn’t from their beginning, but rather, from the end of one phase of their life.
Thor’s origin isn’t as an individual with powers, but rather, as a true hero, one that would go on to lose so much in the service of the many. This movie sets up the transformation that a person would have to go through prior to making such sacrifices, the kind of hero’s journey that would make it worth it to them.
Thor’s journey begins with loss, and it’s one that will see much more before he can finally find where he belongs.
