Thor (2011)

Directed by Kenneth Branagh (1989’s Henry V, 2015’s Cinderella)

Written by Ashley Miller, Jack Stentz, Don Payne, J. Michael Straczynski, & Mark Protosevich (Gee, I wonder why this movie feels like kind of a mess?)

Thor provides an interesting counterpoint to Iron Man 2. Where IM2 was a movie where everything was simultaneously great and disappointing, in Thor everything is exclusively either great or disappointing. It’s a movie of such shocking extremes of quality that it’s difficult to understand. The story is one of the most basic for the character: Thor (Chris Hemsworth) is baited by his evil brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston) into betraying the trust of their father Odin (Anthony Hopkins). As a result, he is cast out of Asgard to Earth where he must earn the right to wield his hammer Mjolnir and reclaim his place in Asgard. He is aided in this by a scrappy group of scientists headed by Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) and Erik Selvig (Stellan Skarsgård). If that sounds a little over-the-top or lofty, don’t worry, because they got a director who cut his teeth making sweeping adaptations of Shakespeare to direct it. Branagh is more than capable of doing the heavy lifting to make the heightened mythological elements work; it’s the rest of the movie that falls apart around them.

The core problem of this movie is easy to summarize. It’s Jane Foster. In what may be one of the worst casting decisions in all of superhero film, Natalie Portman has less than zero chemistry with the lead. I still remember watching this in the theater for the first time eight years ago. The scene arrives where Dr. Selvig tells Thor “I’ve seen the way she looks at you,” and I felt like I had missed something. Felt the exact same way watching it again. Maybe they cut all the scenes of romantic chemistry between the two or something, but it comes so out of left field that it leaves your head spinning. And that weakness basically poisons the entire well of the movie. It doesn’t just ruin every scene that the two share, it contaminates Thor’s heroic sacrifice, the return to Asgard at the end, and endless lines of dialogue. If you don’t believe at all in the central romance of the film, you’re not going to believe in anything else either.

It’s far from a total loss, though. The rest of the cast is stellar, with special mention for both Hiddleston and Hopkins. Loki was (and maybe still is) the most interesting villain that Marvel has ever put up on the screen, and they were very wise to make him the central focus of their first team-up movie. Hiddleston is an immediate star here, pulled from relative TV obscurity into a spotlight that he is still holding on to with seeming ease. You can never quite get a read on him, and that’s what makes him work so well as Loki. He has a charm and charisma, but it’s deceptive. I can’t say enough about the actor or the performance. And Hopkins (unsurprisingly) knocks it out of the park, providing the only real emotional heft that the film has as a father concerned for his sons and his kingdom. The scene at the end between Odin and Thor still gets me to this day. I am, admittedly, a sucker for father-son maudlin emotionality in film, but it’s a really solid scene that manages to give the movie at least a thread of an emotional through line that you can follow.

The big, dramatic Asgardian material is going to be way more divisive, though. For me, I think it’s absolutely wonderful. I love the way it expands the world of the MCU in huge ways, and I love the heightened tone that, in my opinion, it pulls off with aplomb. It will definitely feel like a waste of time to some and a ridiculous farce to others, but I love the Nine Realms and all the high-tech magic mumbo jumbo that this movie does. Heimdall (Idris Elba) is great, the Warriors Three (Ray Stevenson, Tadanobu Asano, & Josh Dallas) are great, the Frost Giants are great, I love the whole thing. Upon rewatching the movie, I was surprised at just how much of it takes place off of Earth. More than half the movie takes place elsewhere in the Multiverse, and I had forgotten that. Honestly, that may be another problem with the movie. It really doesn’t commit enough to either storyline to make them work. I really feel like the Loki betrayal narrative could have held up a movie entirely on its own. You could probably have made a better movie out of this taking place entirely off of Earth, but I’m not surprised that they didn’t. That’s a hard sell back when the Marvel name wasn’t necessarily enough to write yourself a billion dollar check a couple times a year. Honestly, all of the Earth stuff falls flat (largely but not exclusively because of Jane). The big monster isn’t terribly exciting, since it has no motivation or pathos. The SHIELD stuff with Coulson (Clark Gregg) is mostly a time waster so we can see Hemsworth punch some dudes, etc. I know we have to get the guy to Earth so he can join the Avengers next year, but I can’t help but think this movie would have worked better as a heightened modern myth without being dragged down to Earth.

In the end, I still think this movie is worth a watch, especially for fans of the MCU. You’ll probably be rolling your eyes for the entirety of the time that Portman is onscreen, but honestly that’s probably not as much of the movie as you remember. The big myth stuff is really fun, we get the best villain Marvel will have for at least five more years, and Hemsworth is a fun hero with a lot of potential. An underwhelming movie monster and a flat heroine don’t cancel out the good of all that, at least not for me. A cautious recommendation from me. If you haven’t seen it, it’s legitimately worth checking out at least once, and it’s a good one to include on a rewatch (certainly better than its godawful sequel, but we’ll get to that another day).

Overall:

Stray Thoughts:

• I think this may be the movie I forgot the most about of all of them. I had forgotten most of the Sif stuff, a lot of the Nine Realms stuff, and even portions of the finale. I don’t know if that’s a good or bad thing for the movie.
• I feel bad for Sif (Jaimie Alexander). She should have been the leading lady for at least the first two Thor movies. She certainly has more charisma than her rival here.
• Thor getting tased is quite funny. Actually, there is a decent amount of comedy, physical and otherwise, in the Earth scenes.
• God, Branagh knows how to use color. This movie pops visually like none of the movies before it. Thor’s red and Loki’s green are arresting in their beauty.
• I am very confused why no one shoots the man invading the secure government site.
• Hawkeye’s introduction is so much less cool than Black Widow’s in Iron Man 2.
• Loki showing up from the mirror while Thor’s in captivity is wonderful.
• The monster reversing its body when it gets impaled is the only cool moment with the monster in the movie. It’s just weird enough to work.
• Post-credits scene: Good. One of the first that doesn’t just tease the next thing, this one gives us an interesting hook and lets us know that our villain is far from defeated. One of the best of these.
• Stan Lee Cameo: Pretty good. It’s still not as hilarious as the first, but this one works for me. It’s sweet and simple, and makes me smile.