Thor

Every time I think about this movie, I always think of this...

Gets me every time.

But how does Thor compare with the rest of phase one films of the Marvel Cinematic Universe?

Honestly, the first three movies of Phase One are... okay. Iron Man is good but probably overhyped sometimes, especially when we're thinking in retrospect. The incredible Hulk, I think is better than people say it is, but still pretty mediocre. And Iron Man 2... well that movie is just bad anyway you look at it.

Thor sets itself apart from the other movies in the Marvel franchise as the beginning of the film takes place in another world, not Earth.

The beginning tells the tale of Norse Mythology and how Asgard, the home of Odin (played by Anthony Hopkins) is real and there was once a war between the Frost Giants and the Norse Gods.

After the war where Odin was victorious, he raises his two sons, Thor (played by Chris Hemsworth) and Loki (played by Tom Hiddleston) to be powerful men born to be kings.

The two are both bred to be king but there seems to be a competition between them.

Fast forward years, and Thor is being named King of Asgard. At the same time a group of Frost Giants attack Asgard and try and steal back a weapon taken from them in the war with Odin. They fail but Thor believes they should march into the home of the Frost Giant and teach them a lesson.

Against the will of Odin, Thor takes his group of Merry Men and Loki into the home of the Frost Giants and basically start an interdimensional incident.

Odin saves their lives but banishes Thor to Earth, taking away his hammer Mjolnir. Before throwing the hammer into banishment along with Thor, he declares that nobody shall lift the hammer of Thor unless they are worthy.

It is on Earth that Thor meets a team of scientists, led by Jane Foster (played by Natalie Portman). Foster and her partners, Erik Selvig (played by Stellan Skarsgard) and an intern Darcy (played by Kat Denning) are researching interdimensional physics... or something like that, and are fascinated by the warp storm that brings Thor to Earth.

What eventually comes out of the relationship between Thor and Jane actually opens up a really interesting concept for the Marvel Universe. The idea that there are multiple worlds that people can travel through.

These three are kind of the human element of the movie and get to react to Thor's reactions to our world which are actually kind of funny throughout the film.

Are they the best characters? No, but they needed to have some kind of human element and a love interest for Thor and I say you can't really go wrong bringing Natalie Portman into your franchise... that is unless she's dying of a Broke Heart.

The whole interdimensional element of the Marvel Universe ends up playing a larger part in the later movies, especially in Thor: The Dark World, but for this film, it was a great way to introduce the character and explain how someone like him can exist in our universe.

I like Jane and Erik in this film but that's mainly because I know Natalie Portman and Stellan Skarsgard are good actors. While they're not exactly written very well, I enjoy their acting.

Now you can't talk about this film without talking about the main villain, probably one of the only good villains in the Marvel Universe so far, Loki.

Now Loki in this film is... okay.

I find it a little odd that Odin has two sons that he claims to care for both of them but he deliberately pits the two against one another and almost assures that one of them is going to resent the other, especially since Loki is revealed to a be a Frost Giant and is only the adopted son of Odin.

The truth is though, Loki, as sympathetic of a villain as he is, he's kind of a loser. He takes advantage of Thor who was kind of a meathead to begin with, manipulates him to do the actions that got him banished, takes over the throne of Asgard, double crosses the Frost Giants, all to make his father who neglected him proud. Again, it actually makes Loki pretty relatable as he only wants the approval of his father, but his plan just doesn't totally make sense. I don't know, I love Tom Hiddleston as Loki and he's a lot of fun in this movie.

But while that's going on, lets talk about what exactly happens in this movie.

I have to give Kenneth Branagh credit. The guy is a talent director.

This is mainly because he made a really entertaining movie about a god coming to Earth and hanging out for a day or two.

And it really does a good job at making me care for a character who was arrogant but became worthy to get his power back in a matter of days and he only becomes humble because he realizes his power is actually gone.

So the plot is a little bit thin.

The truth is probably that Marvel told Kenneth Branagh that he had this much time to knock out a Thor standalone film for the Cinematic Universe. We needed a movie to introduce him, get it done. I can't exactly say what could have been done to make this movie better but regardless, it still is one of my favorites from Phase one. Marvel decided to go back to actually telling a story and get away from the blatant cross over hints.

That being said, that doesn't mean that they're not in there.

I mean seriously. What was the point of Jeremy Renner in this film? Did it introduce the character? No. I think as a kid I thought it was really cool because you've got this new character that is going to be in the Avengers and we get a hint at him early. But the truth is, Hawkeye didn't do anything in this film. ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.

I was glad that they actually made Coulson have a part in this film as opposed to his role in Iron Man 2 which was just there to hint at the Avengers. And at least they kept Nick Fury to the end of the film.

In the end is Thor a great movie? Oh god no. I mean not a lot happens. Thor gets banished. Can't pick up the hammer, makes a sacrifice, gets the hammer back and comes back and beats the bad guy. Its pretty straight forward.

But the thing I like about Thor is that it opens up the idea that a superhero doesn't have to be from Earth to be cool, to be interesting. I would not be surprised if DC does a very similar thing with Wonder Woman as Marvel did with Thor mainly because its a similar concept. Wonder Woman is an Amazonian Princess, apparently daughter of the Greek Gods, it might have a similar flare to it.

But Thor is entertaining enough. I really like Chris Hemsworth in the role. I really like Tom Hiddelston, and I love Kenneth Branagh's direction. I'm hoping that it was the case that he made do with what he was given and it ended up being really good in the end, in my mind.

If you disagree let me know. Comment and Discuss below! Or shoot me a tweet on Twitter @cmhaugen24 and follow me to get updates on movie news and reviews.

I'll leave you with this. The Nostalgia Critic did a video a while back looking into why people love Loki. It utilizes both this movie and the Avengers, its an interesting idea on the character. Enjoy!