In Marvel’s grand pantheon of heroes that debuted in the early 1960s, you had an impressive cross-section of genres. The Fantastic Four were science fiction, Iron Man was technothriller, Hulk was horror, Spider-Man and Daredevil were New York-based adventure, Captain America was bigger nationwide adventure, the X-Men were YA social commentary, and so on. (Yes, I’m simplifying.)
It was left to Thor to give us high fantasy. Grand adventure, sword-and-sorcery stuff, with a huge dollop of Norse mythology and a lot of pseudo-Shakespearean dialogue to give it the appearance of weight. But it was a very convincing appearance, and Thor quickly became the powerhouse of the Marvel Universe.
Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s version of Norse mythology only overlaps with Snorri Sturluson in parts. Thor was altered from a red-haired, bearded lout to a blond-haired, clean-shaven nobleman, and while some characters from Norse mythology were present—Odin, Loki, Balder, Frigga, Sif, Heimdall—others weren’t, or only had small roles, and new characters were created as well—notably the Warriors Three, who were inspired, not by Norse myth, but by Errol Flynn’s Robin Hood (Fandral), Charles Bronson’s various roles, particularly O’Reilly in The Magnificent Seven (Hogun), and Shakespeare’s Falstaff (Volstagg).
Most notably, Lee and Kirby altered the relationship among Odin, Loki, and Thor. In Norse myth, Loki and Odin were blood brothers. In Marvel Comics, Loki and Thor are both sons of Odin, the former adopted in an agreement with the Frost Giants.
Initially, Thor shared his existence with a doctor named Donald Blake, who required a cane to walk. Blake found Thor’s hammer in Scandinavia, which was inscribed with the words, “Whosever holds this hammer, if he be worthy, shall have the power of Thor.” He picked it up and was apparently worthy, as he was transformed into Thor. Soon thereafter it was revealed that Thor’s father Odin had forced Thor to share his existence with a mortal in order to teach him humility.
Like many of Marvel’s early heroes, Thor started out in one of Marvel’s many anthology titles (Journey Into Mystery in his case, which was published alongside Tales of Suspense, Tales to Astonish, Strange Tales, Amazing Fantasy, etc., all of which were eventually replaced by superhero solo titles). He quickly became a major player in the Marvel Universe, with stories taking place both on Earth and in Marvel’s interpretation of Asgard, which was a chance for Jack Kirby to let his already-fertile imagination run wild, with bright colors, bold architecture, and impressive costumes. Every artist who followed Kirby used his template for how to portray Asgard, and the writers followed Lee’s lead in mixing epic cosmic grand adventure with character-focused stories about people and relationships (Loki’s resentment of Thor and Odin, the love triangle among Thor/Blake and Jane Foster and Sif, Thor’s friendship with Balder, and so on).
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Zero Sum Game
A hallmark of Marvel’s first twenty years or so were backup features that fleshed out the world, and no book had a better set than Thor with the “Tales of Asgard” stories that have been a staple of Thor comics. (The Warriors Three were actually introduced in one of those backup stories.)
In 1983, Walt Simonson—who had previously worked as an artist on the title—took over as writer and artist of Thor and he took the book to new heights, weaving more Norse mythology into the storylines, and also abandoning the Blake identity. Usually when writers make changes to the status quo, they don’t last—Tony Stark becomes Iron Man again, Superman lives again, Bruce Wayne is Batman again, Spider-Man goes back to the red-and-blue costume, etc.—but it’s telling as to how uninteresting it was that the Blake identity has pretty much stayed out of the picture in the ensuing three-and-a-half decades.
On the heels of the character’s first live-action appearance in The Return of the Incredible Hulk, Sam Raimi expressed interest in doing a movie featuring Thor, but was unable to get the studios on board with the notion. (Now there’s an alternate universe worth exploring, with Raimi doing a good superhero movie in the early 1990s instead of having to wait until 2002 to get him behind the camera of one.) Marvel’s early relationship with Paramount led to talks of doing a Thor TV show on UPN (back when that, y’know, existed) with Tyler Mane in the title role, then it went back to being a film with first David Goyer, and then Matthew Vaughn, and then Guillermo del Toro attached to it. Hilariously, del Toro left Thor to instead direct The Hobbit—which he then didn’t actually direct.
Instead, Marvel hired Kenneth Branagh, a talented director who cut his teeth doing Shakespeare. Seemed a perfect fit. Mark Protosevich had written a script for the film back when it was to be directed by Vaughn, and a new script was written by Ashley Edward Miller & Zack Stentz (who also co-scripted X-Men: First Class, and worked on Gene Roddenberry’s Andromeda, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, and Fringe, and who, in the interests of full disclosure, are friends of your humble rewatcher) and Don Payne based on a story that welded Protosevich’s script to a treatment by Thor comics writer J. Michael Straczynski.
Branagh and the casting people did a superlative job putting this one together. Chris Hemsworth was cast in the title role (amusingly, both his brother Liam and Tom Hiddleston auditioned for the part also), while Branagh recommended Hiddleston to be cast instead as Loki (the pair of them had worked together on a stage production of Anton Chekhov’s Ivanov and on the TV show Wallander). Sir Anthony Hopkins plays Odin, Rene Russo plays Frigga, Idris Elba plays Heimdall, Jaimie Alexander plays Sif, Colm Feore plays Laufey, and Ray Stevenson, Tadanobu Asano, and Josh Dallas play the Warriors Three. (Dallas replaced Stewart Townsend, who in turn replaced Zachary Levi, who had to quit due to a scheduling conflict. Levi will wind up getting the part in Thor: Dark World and Thor: Ragnarok due to Dallas being unavailable.) On the Earth-bound side of things, Natalie Portman plays Foster (now an astrophysicist instead of a nurse), Stellan Skarsgård as Foster’s mentor Erik Selvig, and Kat Dennings as Foster’s intern Darcy Lewis. In addition, we get a bunch of S.H.I.E.L.D. folk, including the return of Clark Gregg and Samuel L. Jackson as Phil Coulson and Nick Fury, respectively, last seen in the two Iron Man films, plus the debuts of Maximiliano Hernández as Jasper Sitwell and Jeremy Renner as Clint Barton.
Hemsworth, Hiddleston, Jackson, Gregg, Skarsgård, Renner, and Hernández will all appear next in Avengers. Hopkins, Elba, Russo, Alexander, Stevenson, Asano, Dennings, and Portman will all next appear in Thor: Dark World.
“God, I hope you’re not crazy”
Thor
Written by Mark Protosevich and J. Michael Straczynski and Ashley Edward Miller & Zack Stentz and Don Payne
Directed by Kenneth Branagh
Produced by Kevin Feige
Original release date: April 17, 2011
In the deserts of New Mexico, astrophysicist Dr. Jane Foster has dragged her mentor, Dr. Erik Selvig, to the middle of nowhere to observe a phenomenon that will prove her theories. (What those theories are or what they’ll see to prove them is never really spelled out.) Travelling in an RV driven by Foster’s intern, Darcy, they detect an aurora far greater than anything Foster has seen before, and the cosmic storm that ensues has a person inside it—who accidentally gets hit by the RV.
Jump back a thousand years, and Odin of Asgard is telling his two sons, Thor and Loki, the stories of how he defeated the frost giants of Jotunheim when they were menacing the humans of Midgard (which is Earth). Odin lost an eye in the battle, but was victorious over Laufey, and confiscated the source of their power, the Casket of Ancient Winters.
Moving forward to the present day, Thor is now all grow’d up and being officially announced as the heir to Asgard’s throne. Taking in the adoration of the crowd, Thor eventually kneels before Odin, as well as his mother Frigga, Loki, and fellow warriors Sif, Fandral, Hogun, and Volstagg.
In mid-ceremony, however, a few frost giants invade the armory and try to make off with the Casket. Odin activates the Destroyer, a metal automaton that makes short work of the frost giants. Thor is livid, as this is a declaration of war, but Odin forbids him from taking rash action. Thor decides to take rash action anyhow. He convinces Loki, Sif, and the Warriors Three to join him in going to Jotunheim and at least finding out why the frost giants broke the thousand-year-old truce with Asgard. Heimdall, the guardian of Bifrost, the gateway between realms, is willing to let them through because the frost giants invaded Asgard without his knowing, and he wants to know why.
They arrive at Jotunheim, and Laufey makes it clear that Thor’s invasion will not be tolerated, and that he should look to his own house to learn how the frost giants got in. It almost works until one of the giants taunts Thor, which leads to a big-ass fight. The fight is brutal, and Fandral is badly wounded. The giants’ touch gives the Asgardians frostbite—except for Loki, who is surprised to learn that he is immune to it.
Thor makes short work of a big, scary monster Laufey lets loose on them, but soon they are at a cliff’s edge, surrounded by frost giants. They call for Heimdall to open Bifrost, but instead Bifrost brings Odin, astride Sleipnir, to Jotunheim. He tries to convince Laufey that Thor’s actions are those of a boy, but Laufey isn’t having it. Odin lets loose with his power upon the frost giants, which keeps them at bay long enough for them to return across Bifrost to Asgard.
Sif, Heimdall, and Hogun take Fandral and Volstagg to the healer. Odin berates Thor, calling him impulsive and not fit to be king. For disobeying him, he is banished to Midgard, stripped of his power, his hammer Mjolnir also sent to Earth with an enchantment that whoever holds the hammer, if he be worthy, shall have the power of Thor.
Thor crashes to Earth, which brings us back to Foster’s RV, which hits Thor. He rants and raves, screaming to the sky about Odin and Heimdall, which makes perfect sense to the audience, less so to Foster, Selvig, and Darcy. Eventually, Darcy tazes him (“He was freakin’ me out!”), and they bring him to the hospital, where he’s sedated and restrained.
Foster and Selvig examine the data and are stunned to learn that Thor came through the phenomenon. It may be an Einstein-Rosen bridge—a wormhole that brought him from somewhere else in the cosmos. Realizing that they have a witness to this in Thor, they go to the hospital, but he has already broken out of his restraints and escaped. They find him when Foster accidentally runs him over again, and they bring him back to their lab, giving him fresh clothes (which belong to Foster’s ex, a doctor named Donald Blake). They take him to a local diner to feed him, and he expresses his delight for the coffee by smashing the coffee mug on the floor—Foster has to gently explain to him that that isn’t the custom there.
Thor’s hammer has landed in the middle of the desert, where a truck driver (who looks just like J. Michael Straczynski) tries and fails to pick it up. Soon he and his redneck buddies are all trying their hand at it while barbecuing hot dogs and drinking a lot of beer. (One of the rednecks looks just like Stan Lee.) Then Agent Phil Coulson shows up (a scene we already saw before after the credits in Iron Man 2) and brings a S.H.I.E.L.D. contingent to examine the hammer.
The rednecks wind up at the same diner as Thor and the others, and they tell of a “satellite” that fell to the Earth that no one can pick up about fifty miles west. Thor immediately gets up to head for it on foot. Foster wants to offer him a ride, but Selvig—who recognizes the references Thor makes in his crazy-seeming conversations from stories he heard in his childhood in Scandinavia—thinks he’s nuts and convinces Foster to let him go.
They return to the lab to find Coulson and assorted S.H.I.E.L.D. agents are confiscating all of Foster’s equipment and computers and backups. Selvig mentions a scientist he knew, an expert in gamma radiation, who got involved in something related to S.H.I.E.L.D. and was never heard from again. (This might be Dr. Bruce Banner.) He promises to e-mail a friend to find out more, but they have to use a computer at the local library, where Selvig finds a kids’ book on Norse myth.
Thor goes to a pet shop to buy a horse. As the store owner explains that he doesn’t have riding animals, Foster pulls up in her RV and offers him a lift, despite Selvig’s urging. Thor promises a full explanation of how he got to Earth after he retrieves Mjolnir. He’ll even retrieve what S.H.I.E.L.D. stole from her.
S.H.I.E.L.D. has set up an entire base around the hammer. No one can move it, and it’s giving off interference that’s messing with their tech something fierce. Thor fights his way through a bunch of really well-trained agents. Coulson sends Agent Clint Barton, a sharpshooter, to high ground, where he aims a bow and arrow at Thor. However, Coulson holds off on giving the kill order when he sees Thor approach the hammer.
Thor grips the haft, but cannot lift it. He is not worthy. Thor collapses and allows Coulson’s people to take him into custody.
Meanwhile, in Asgard, Loki goes to the armory to clutch the Casket and it turns his skin blue but affects him in no other way. He confronts Odin, who admits that he didn’t just bring the Casket back to Asgard after defeating the frost giants, but also an infant who had been abandoned. He raised Loki as his own, hoping some day he might be the bridge to peace between Asgard and Jotunheim. Loki’s fury at the life-long lie—and the belief that he would never be made Odin’s heir, for who would want a frost giant on the throne?—devastates Odin, who collapses into the Odinsleep, a deep coma. With no indication of how long Odin will remain thus, Loki claims the throne. Sif and the Warriors Three petition Loki to let Thor come home, but Loki will not start his reign by reversing the last decision of his predecessor.
Loki then goes down to Midgard, disguising himself as a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent and telling Thor that Odin is dead, killed by the frost giants, that Frigga has insisted that Thor stay exiled. Loki says that he now rules and has brokered a tenuous peace with Jotunheim. Thor apologizes for what he has done to cause this. Loki also tries to lift the hammer, but he can’t either, to his annoyance.
He returns to Asgard, and then orders Heimdall to let him go to Jotunheim. Loki informs Laufey that he’s the one who let his agents into the armory during the ceremony, because he wanted to spoil Thor’s big day and let Odin see what a crummy king he’d make. Loki now offers to let Laufey’s forces invade Asgard and kill Odin. Laufey agrees.
Sif and the Warriors Three decide to go to Midgard to bring Thor home. Heimdall hears this, of course, and summons them to the Bifrost. Heimdall accuses them of disobeying their king’s orders, and when they confirm it, he says, “Good,” and leaves the chamber, allowing the foursome to operate Bifrost themselves and go to Earth.
Selvig approaches the S.H.I.E.L.D. bunker, claiming that Thor is really Don Blake, a member of Foster’s team, and he got a little drunk and disorderly after S.H.I.E.L.D. took their stuff. Coulson knows he’s full of shit, but lets Selvig take him and has them followed. Selvig takes Thor to a bar where they drink, Selvig getting Thor to promise to leave town and leave Foster alone. His only concern is her well being.
They get really drunk, and Thor has to carry Selvig home. The next morning, Thor helps make breakfast—and then Sif, Fandral, Hogun, and Volstagg show up. They tell Thor the truth about what happened in Asgard, and Thor is pissed.
Loki, furious at Heimdall for letting Sif and the Warriors Three go, releases Heimdall from his post, and then freezes him with the Casket when he inevitably attacks Loki, since he’s no longer required to be loyal. Loki then frees the Destroyer and sends it to Earth to kill Thor and destroy everything.
The Destroyer arrives on Earth. Coulson and the gang confront it, wondering if it’s another one of Tony Stark’s suits of armor, and then it blows up several cars and stomps into town. Thor, Selvig, Darcy, and Foster try to get the populace to safety while Sif, Fandral, Hogun, and Volstagg try to keep it at bay.
Finally, Thor tells the others to get back to Asgard. Thor confronts the Destroyer himself, even though he’s lost his power, and the Destroyer all but kills him, then walks away, its mission accomplished.
However, his self-sacrifice proves him worthy once again, and Mjolnir flies to his hand, his power restored. He makes short work of the Destroyer, then heads back to the Bifrost site to go home. Heimdall hears Thor’s call for help and manages to escape his icy prison, kill the frost giant guards Loki left on him, and bring them home. Before they go, Thor promises to return to Foster and they smooch. In addition, Coulson and Thor have a rapprochement, and Coulson promises to return the equipment they confiscated (Thor says “taken,” Foster says “stolen,” and Coulson says “borrowed”) and will allow Foster to continue her work.
They arrive in Asgard not long after Laufey begins his invasion. Heimdall and the Warriors Three are all injured, the former from Loki, the latter from the Destroyer, and Sif takes them to the healer while Thor confronts Loki.
For his part, Loki kills Laufey as he is about to kill Odin, making himself out to be Odin’s savior, and killing his biological father. Frigga learns the truth of what has happened from Thor. Loki returns to the Bifrost and opens it to Jotunheim, keeping it open long enough that its power will overwhelm the other realm and destroy it. Thor will not let him commit genocide—his time on Earth has changed him, as Odin had hoped—and he stops Loki by destroying the Bifrost with Mjolnir.
The explosion of Bifrost sends both Thor and Loki careening into the abyss. Thor catches Loki and Odin—having been awakened from the Odinsleep by his sons’ confrontation—catches Thor. Loki explains that he did it all for Odin, but Odin’s disappointed look cuts him to the quick and he deliberately lets go of Thor’s hand, falling into the abyss between realms.
A banquet is held in honor of Odin’s reawakening and Thor’s return. The Warriors Three and Sif sit at the main table along with another person (who looks just like Walt Simonson), telling stories of their exploits. Thor and Odin have a father-son bonding moment, and later Thor asks Heimdall if he can see Foster. He can, and she’s looking for him.
After the credits, we find that Selvig is now working for S.H.I.E.L.D., and is introduced to Nick Fury, who shows him the Tesseract, a source of great power. And then we discover that, somehow, Loki is controlling Selvig.
“Uh, base, we’ve got, uh, Xena, Jackie Chan, and Robin Hood”
I truly regret that Jack Kirby didn’t live long enough to see this movie, because holy crap did Kenneth Branagh and his cinematographers and set designers do an amazing job of re-creating Kirby’s Asgard. I still remember sitting in the theatre in 2011 and gaping and bouncing in my seat and trying to not squee out loud, as the other theatre-goers would have frowned on that, when we got that opening shot of the realm eternal.
And then the Destroyer showed up and I wanted to squee again. The Destroyer first appeared in 1966 and it’s a classic Kirby creation, a huge metal machine crackling with energy. Few sights are as devastating as the Destroyer spitting fire from its faceplate, and Branagh stunningly re-creates that—with the added bonus of seeing the Destroyer flip itself around in order to repel Sif’s attack. Just brilliant.
Those are just two of many ways that Thor so perfectly nails the Marvel version of the Norse gods. Every single bit of casting is spot on. Jaimie Alexander is stupendous as Sif, perfectly embodying the character’s passion. (I actually watched Blindspot for Alexander, though I didn’t make it past the end of the first season, as it’s a spectacularly dumb show.) Ray Stevenson is a good Volstagg—not the perfect Volstagg, but Brian Blessed is really too old to play the role now—while both Tadanobu Asano’s intensity and Joshua Dallas’s dashing charisma are perfect for Hogun and Fandral. Rene Russo has nothing to do as Frigga, but she imbues the brief role with tremendous nobility, as does Sir Anthony Hopkins, who was pretty much born to play the Marvel version of Odin. Natalie Portman is quite delightful as a Jane Foster who is nothing like her comics counterpart, but her enthusiasm and science nerdery is actually kinda fun. Stellan Skarsgård always inhabits his roles perfectly, and he does so here with Selvig, modulating effortlessly from Foster’s wise mentor to Thor’s reluctant drinking buddy. Nobody ever went wrong casting Kat Dennings as a smartass. (I actually watched Two Broke Girls because Dennings is so awesome. Mind you, I didn’t make it past the middle of season two, because it’s even dumber than Blindspot.) And nobody ever went wrong casting Idris Elba in anything; his Heimdall is a rock, the one person you can count on to come through no matter what.
And then we have Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston who are beyond amazing. Hemsworth effortlessly blends Thor’s nobility, his arrogance, his charisma, and his lust for life. It’s a bravura performance, one that owes as much to Norse myth as it does Marvel Comics, but dammit, it works. Half the movie is carried entirely by his infectious grin. Hemsworth plays Thor as someone who is almost always having fun—but when he isn’t, those emotions are just as powerful, whether it’s sadness at Odin’s alleged death, anger at being forbidden from attacking Jotunheim, frustration at being trapped on Earth, or shut-down depression after failing to lift the hammer. It’s an emotionally complex performance far beyond what the character even needs to be effective, and Hemsworth deserves tremendous kudos for that.
With all that, he’s almost completely blown away by the guy playing his brother, because holy shit is Hiddleston amazing. Loki is a self-centered figure of mischief, yes, one who prefers illusions and misdirection to the more direct battle that his brother and the other warriors go for, but he also simply wants to be a good son to his father. He envies Thor his place as their father’s favorite, and it leads him down the garden path to betrayal—but also to the throne. But Hiddleston beautifully plays the character’s tragedy, as even in the end, his only desire is to be accepted as an equal son by his father—and when the father won’t give it to him, he chooses oblivion. He’s still the best villain in the MCU pantheon, and will continue to be so through at least four more movies.
On top of that, we get our first really good look at S.H.I.E.L.D, as Coulson’s role is a bit bigger than his snarky government dude role in the two Iron Man films. We see Clark Gregg as the guy who’ll be leading the way in the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. TV show: effortlessly competent, able to roll with the punches, unflappable, but also willing to bend the rules as long as he can get a better result. He gives Thor the benefit of the doubt, not giving Barton the kill order and letting Selvig take him away to see what happens. (Thor calling him “Son of Coul” is also a classic line in a movie full of them.) Jeremy Renner also gives Hawkeye a nice debut, especially his line about starting to like the guy. We even finally see Jasper Sitwell, who has been the quintessential S.H.I.E.L.D. agent in the comics since around 1966.
The movie isn’t perfect. The script postulates Thor and Loki as kids in 956 AD, which is when the Scandinavian people worshipped the Asgardians as gods—yet how could those people have stories of Thor and Loki if they hadn’t actually grown up to have their adventures yet? In general, everything happens too fast. Odin’s shift from making Thor heir to banishing him is too much too quick, and Thor’s acquisition of humility also happens with absurd quickness, and while Thor and Foster’s meet-cute is indeed very cute, the depth of their passion makes no sense in so short a time.
Overall, however, this is a spectacular adventure, brilliantly acted, well written, and superlatively shot. This movie truly solidified the MCU as a thing—The Incredible Hulk hadn’t quite worked, but this, the first completely Tony Stark-free movie (save for a brief mention), proved that the wider universe was actually going to work.
Next week we go back to World War II and meet Captain America: The First Avenger.
Keith R.A. DeCandido has written the Marvel version of the Norse gods in the Marvel’s Tales of Asgard prose trilogy, which includes the novels Thor: Dueling with Giants, Sif: Even Dragons Have Their Endings, and Warriors Three: Godhood’s End. He’s also written the mythological version of several of the gods, including Odin, Tyr, Loki, Thor, Sigyn, and more in his cycle of urban fantasy short stories set in Key West, Florida starring Cassie Zukav, weirdness magnet. It includes a moment where a drunken Thor and an equally drunken Loki decide to drive to Hollywood and beat the crap out of Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston.
This movie doesn’t have that high a reputation, but I still kinda like it, and I’m glad to see that Keith does too. I remember wondering if they were going to shy away from the imaginative weirdness of the Kirby and Simonson comics, but nope, ten minutes in and we have space vikings riding across a rainbow bridge. That and everything he says about the cast, especially Hiddleston.
It’s amazing to read the first line of your review section, because I distinctly remember sitting in the theater on opening night, as the credits rolled over that astonishing graphic of Yggdrasil, and thinking “Wow, I wish Jack Kirby could have lived to see this.” I’ve been waiting for this rewatch so I could comment that, and you’re ahead of me.
I also need to make a confession: After seeing X-Men in 2000 with friends, we all went out to dinner, and my most enthusiastically fannish friend declared that this was the beginning of a golden age of Marvel movies. I told him that X-Men was certainly a good start, but the average American moviegoer wasn’t going to pay to see a movie about, say, Thor, with all the visual trappings and Shakespearean speech that would entail. I’ve never been more happy to be proved wrong.
I have to admit that the Destroyer didn’t do as much for me — probably because my Thor reading was almost entirely limited to Simonson, so he didn’t have the same resonance for me; just this (admittedly very cool-looking) suit of armor that fires energy blasts out of its face. The bit where it rotated to attack Sif was very cool, though.
Having said that, this movie was a heck of a lot of fun, and I’m just sad that we haven’t seen more Darcy.
I’ve watched this film once at the theatre and never again. Even if I love the visuals of Asgard, in my opinion, Kenneth Branagh is an interesting and competent director that doesn’t get to direct more movies for some unfair reasons, I remember it as bad. I have forgotten everything except Chris Hemsworth’ ridiculously tiny waist. Honestly, I think his acting was weak (I think he has improved a lot since then), I strongly dislike Jane Foster and Natalie Portman’s performance (she is a good actress, but her SFF roles are terrible *cough Star Wars prequels cough*) and their “romance” is awful.
The rest of the cast is great, Tom Hiddleston is definitely the most interesting villains in MCU.
I don’t want to see Jane Foster again. Having said that, bring Darcy back!
Should have been a lot better than it was. The comic relief is what works best, which is to say that the Kenneth Branagh of Much Ado About Nothing acquits himself better with the material than the Kenneth Branagh of Henry V. Part of the problem is that the movie fails to adequately exploit the human characters’ suspicion of Thor, instead jetting almost immediately off to Asgard (which looks uncomfortably low-rent and tacky, like something out of the 1980 Flash Gordon). It would have been better had Foster et al remained our viewpoint characters for at least the first act, with all of us uncertain if this mysterious guy is actually a Norse god or just a kook (an ambiguity that worked so well in the Ultimates comic). It was going to take one more movie for Marvel Studios to really find its feet.
Stephen: I could not possibly disagree with you more. I think that doing the “is he crazy, no wait, he’s really Thor” routine would have been spectacularly uninteresting and wasted precious story time that was better spent establishing the relationships among Thor, Loki, and Odin, which was far more compelling than a tiresomely predictable plot. And it’s not like it could possibly go any other way: you’re not going to do a Marvel movie about Thor where he is delusional and isn’t the god of thunder, so why waste time with that?
—Keith R.A. DeCandid
This is a pretty excellent movie with a strong, solid character story at its core — I’d almost forgotten that. I really liked Thor’s journey to learn humility and selflessness and earn his worthiness. It’s a bit of a shame that later Thor movies have gone more for a comedy Thor who blusters and boasts a lot, since it’s something of a regression. Loki’s arc here is also terrific, and he’s probably been served better by his continuing arc in the sequels. The cast is strong, the story and humor are solid, and the visuals are lovely if deeply implausible.
“Ashley Edward Miller & Zack Stentz (who also co-scripted X-Men: First Class, and worked on Gene Roddenberry’s Andromeda, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, and Fringe, and who, in the interests of full disclosure, are friends of your humble rewatcher)”
Which I had a hand in bringing about, as I recall, Keith, since I helped you get into direct touch with Ash to consult on your Andromeda novel. So I’m pleased to hear that worked out for you personally as well as professionally. Unfortunately, I’ve fallen out of touch with him and Zack in the years since.
Yeah, this movie nailed everything so well. I was never fond of the Warriors Three (especially the group name), but they all did good in their roles. Jamie Alexander’s accent was… eh… not great, but passable.
I was really amazed at how well Hiddleston and Hemsworth did in their big scenes with Hopkins. While Hopkins certainly dominated the scenes, both Hiddleston and Hemsworth held their own very well. I love the story Hemsworth tells about filming the scene in the Bifrost control room: Branagh is known for saying, “just one more, but…” and he said to Hopkins, “show me heartbreak”. That is the take they used, with Hopkins’ voice shaking with heartbreak at seeing his favored son fail so spectacularly. Hemsworth said he felt like the worst person in the world in that moment, to have failed this great god of a man.
And I was truly gobsmacked at the look of Asgard. It was every bit as amazing as the comics. I didn’t get as much of a Kirby vibe from it, however, as I did from Ragnarok. The Destroyer, however, was so very, very Kirby, really impressed with how they managed it.
I knew after they did this one that they could take any character, no matter how cosmically weird, and make it good. This movie could have gone so badly, so easily, but Branagh was absolutely the right choice.
I really love the frat-bro nature of Hemsworth’s Thor — which they’ve leaned into even harder in the last couple of films. I remember large amounts of ridicule when it was first rumoured that Marvel was going to make a Thor movie, and I was right there with them. As much as I like Simonson’s Thor, I’m not sure it would have played well (but man oh man the version of Hela to come is amazing).
To me, it’s the casting of Hemsworth and Hiddleston that really makes this movie work. The story isn’t all that interesting to me, especially having the Destroyer be the primary antagonist for the climax because it doesn’t have any independent motivation of its own.
May I just point out that the score on this film is absolutely perfect, easily some of the best music in the entire MCU. Between it and the visuals I was hooked instantly.
I disagree on the Portman casting. She had zero screen chemistry with Hemsworth. I think she took the role because she thought she would be ACTING, rather than acting. Then when the part turned out to be weak, she bailed. Her presence in The Dark World is pretty meh as well.
Odin’s shift from making Thor heir to banishing him is too much too quick
I’m with you on almost everything but that; I think Branagh, Hopkins and Hemsworth (with help from Loki) set it up perfectly in a film that needs to get there to jump off. It’s not just the banishment scene – it’s the massive golden celebration with even Mum giving shakes of the head and All-father realising as golden boy swears his oaths that he not only doesn’t mean them but doesn’t comprehend them. Hemsworth sketches in quickly and with hardly any lines exactly why gobs***e jock Thor (or Henry if he were still Hal) should not be King, but not enough for us to hate him. You can see Hopkins getting slower and slower in dragging out the oaths looking for a way out of it, so when Odin stops just before his abdication to sense the Frost Giants, I imagine him inwardly exclaiming, “Thank me!”
Then Thor gets it wrong in text rather than subtext, there’s that fabulous moment where amid all the grimdark, Anthony Hopkins pulls off the biggest rainbow with actual colour (and still butch as f), after which go directly to banishment makes perfect sense: gods are not known for careful and protracted judgment. The “Unworthy!” peroration! That growl to Loki! And Hiddleston doing even more in that scene with even fewer lines, most of all the moment after Thor’s been stripped and sent down, when he dares to hope and then the disappointment and seeding grudge of ‘Oh, you didn’t really mean it, even after all that’, all in his face. I love the more intimate reworking not just of the Norse but of Arthurian myth, and Hopkins is spellbinding: after the fury, the way he murmurs to the hammer like a lover or a prayer, that whoever is worthy shall possess the power of Thor. It could have been the summation of all the negation, a condemnatory roar and sneer, so that sending Mjölnir after him would be the ultimate reminder of his unworthiness. But it’s a heartfelt wish that he couldn’t say to his son’s face that he will be worthy, of his love and his throne.
One bit that doesn’t work for me: in the ‘previously, in the Tenth Century’ just having Odin with a bloody mess on his face after the battle (and not even him saying later that learnt wisdom, or Loki mocking the propaganda) fails the myth.
One bit that really does work for me: in the middle of Thor’s Sideshow Bob and Endless Rakes In the Face sequence, he’s tasered, which is lightning.
“Odin’s shift from making Thor heir to banishing him is too much too quick”
To be fair, in the classic comics Odin would also constantly turn back and forth on Thor, going from bailing him out with Deus Ex Machinas to outright leaving him in the pits with little rhyme and reason and then back around again under the flimsiest of pretenses. If anything the movie version overall ends up looking far more reasonable.
I’m glad they went away from dyeing Chris Hemsworth’s facial hair, including his eyebrows. Looking back at this movie, it looks horrible.
Maybe I’m misremembering, but I thought Loki intentionally manipulated Thor into invading Jotunheim.
Ada Palmer did a terrific set of “unbiased reviews” of Marvel movies, starting with this one. The first one is at https://www.exurbe.com/an-unbiased-review-of-the-marvel-thor-movie/.
For myself, I disliked the first two Thor movies, as my familiarity with the character comes from Norse mythology rather than the comics. This movie lost me when Odin offered up his platitude on peace, which is completely contrary to anything the mythological Odin might have thought or said.
@15, Loki did some subtle manipulation, yes, but it really didn’t take much to make him go. Loki basically just confirmed his decision in a manipulative manner.
I quite enjoyed, Thor. Can’t say it’s one of my favorites, but it’s certainly solid. Hemsworth is charismatic and while not as physically massive as Thor in the comics, he looks great as the character. Tom Hiddleston is very good as Loki, and he became an integral part of the MCU; although I sometimes find myself a bit overwhelmed by the fangushing about him. The idea of him possibly having been Thor is… weird. Can’t really see him in that role. Portman was, well, not very memorable as Jane Foster, I must say. Hopkins was a great choice for Odin, and he did great.
Great action and an appropriate dose of humor, plus very nice effects. The visual representation of Asgard was a dream come true, one that was later matched with Wakanda, and seems as if it will be again with Atlantis in Aquaman. I’ve never been a big Thor fan (not at all, actually), but seeing the sheer Kirbylciousness of Asgard made me squee. I am a big Kirby fan, and I also wished he could have seen this. A powerless Thor without his hammer, who is suspected of being an insane man is a bit based upon the Ultimate version (as many things are in the MCU, particularly visually); where it was actually Loki trying to convince people Thor was just a mental patient with a super tech weapon produced by an European super soldier project. Agreed with krad that it wouldn’t have been smart to base the entire movie around it.
Tyler “Sabretooth” Mane as Thor? He had the physique, but not the right face, and I doubt he has the acting chops or charisma. And I didn’t know Levi was going to be Fandral from the start, interesting.
krad, just a little aside: Jasper Sitwell’s actor is “Maximiliano Hernández” (no double L, and “á” instead of “à” ). But I really appreciate you trying to write his name correctly. Also, you wrote “sites” instead of “sights” when writing about the Destroyer.
@7 – Chris: Thor has gone back to be boisterous after this film, but it still shows that he learnt some humility. His personality is still his personality, though. The only bad thing is that it influenced Momoa’s Aquaman into Aquathor or Broquaman, who is only enjoyable in JL due to Momoa’s charisma… hopefully, they’ll tone that down in his own film.
@8 – BonHed: Yes, Ragnarok is full-on Kirby, but this was spectacular compared to what we had gotten before this movie.
@16, I have a deep love for the Norse mythos as well, but I realized early on when I started reading Marvel comics that they were wholly separate creatures. Marvel used the mythos as a starting place but diverged greatly. More of a “loosely based on” kind of thing.
This is also a favorite of mine because my daughter was too young to see these MCU films when they started coming out, but by the time this showed up on Netflix I realized that it’s tamer than most of the others and showed it to her first when she was around 11 or 12. She loved it, especially Kat Dennings. So later we went back to Iron Man and I got her caught up and we’ve been happily enjoying the MCU movies together since. I even took her and a date (!) to the last few. She’s been Black Widow and the Scarlet Witch for Halloween and I hope it’s something we always get to share together. There have been the occasional misstep in the MCU but like the Movies with Mikey guy says, it’s definitely an amazing shared universe that’s gone way beyond expectations.
@6/krad:
So were you surprised when Thor got his hammer back? When the Green Goblin failed to kill Spider-Man? When Tony Stark didn’t die of heart failure? To a certain degree, we know where all of these movies will end up, but that doesn’t mean the journey isn’t worth taking, or that it can’t have some suspense along the way. And I didn’t say Thor’s identity should have been ambiguous for the entire movie – just that they should have stayed with it a bit longer than a single scene, to cement our bond of disbelief with the human characters. As it is, we are distanced from those characters almost immediately because of the moviemakers’ decision to too quickly and abruptly shuffle off to Asgard (which, I still maintain, is disappointingly cheesy and lacking in the tasteful grandeur I expected of Branagh).
This was actually the first marvel movie I saw in the theaters, I didn’t know anything about Iron Man, certainly not enough to go see a movie about him. I have seen every Marvel movie in theaters since then except for Ant Man. This was a really good movie, setting the Marvel formula in stone, fun, fun, fun.
And then we have Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston who are beyond amazing.
I adore this movie, as I adore all the MCU ones (they just resonate with me so much), but this. SO YES. (Loki is very close second after Tony among my very favourite MCU characters, as impossible as it is to even pick a favourite, and Thor might be the third. Or Peter Parker.)
In retrospect, Thor 1 and 2 should have played more to Hemsworth’s strengths as a comic actor. Thor as a big goofy golden retriever may not have been Marvel Thor, but mythological Thor would have recognized him.
In universe question: did Coulson ever try to pick up the hammer?
@24/jmeltzer: I can’t imagine Coulson not trying to pick up the hammer.
@24/jmeltzer: Sudden headcanon of Coulson picking up the hammer while no-one’s looking, getting sheepish, and dropping it.
@24, 25: In my mind, Coulson IS worthy, but, like Black Widow in Age of Ultron, he “doesn’t need that question answered”.
Before I saw this movie, I had doubts they could focus the story, present Asgard in a believable manner, and present all the gods convincingly. I thought that Thor might prove to be kind of like clingy spandex costumes; something that works on the pages of comics, but looks dumb on the big screen.
I am so glad they proved me wrong, and put together such a solid and entertaining movie.
@27/LazerWulf: There are plenty of people who are worthy by the moral standards of our society but still can’t pick up Mjolnir. So presumably there’s a constrained definition of “worthy” being applied here. After all, the specific phrase is “Whosoever holds this hammer, if he be worthy, shall possess the power of Thor.” So it’s specifically worthiness for the power of Thor that’s being tested for. What it takes to be a worthy human in general is not the same thing, presumably, as what it takes to qualify for the specific position of Agardian God of Thunder.
I’m surprised no one has mentioned the brief kefuffle over the movie’s presentation of Asgardians as advanced aliens vs mythological gods vis-à-vis magic is just science we don’t understand. I seem to remember the filmmakers were hesitant to annoy certain religious types by even referring to them as gods. Didn’t they even avoid calling Thor the God of Thunder?
I always thought the Warriors Three were based on the Three Musketeers, with Fandral the Dashing as Aramis, Hogun the Grim as Athos, and Volstagg as Porthos.
While I’m here and on the subject, I’m not a huge fan of the 21st century’s dominant form of cinema (serial superhero epics). But I did happen to catch Thor: Ragnarok recently with my niece. I don’t think I’ll ever understand the critical encomium inspired by that gaudy mess of a movie. Its two or three mildly redeeming features (such as casting Jeff Goldblum as the Grand Master) weren’t nearly enough to elevate it above sub-mediocrity, in my opinion. But the critics and the masses alike loved it, so maybe it’s just me.
@30/Stacy: I saw it as being more about wanting to ease general audiences into the more fantastical aspects of the Marvel Universe. Part of why general audiences accepted the MCU early on was because it felt grounded and believable, connected to the real world even though it had sci-fi elements. That may be why The Incredible Hulk didn’t do as well as the Iron Man movies — it was a bigger leap for audiences (no pun intended). If audiences were to accept Thor, tossing out-and-out magic and gods into that relatively grounded universe would’ve been too big an obstacle, so they justified it with scientific explanations, easing the audience into the more cosmic side of Marvel in a way they could more easily accept.
A lot of screen adaptations of comics do the same, starting out grounded for the sake of a mass audience and then slowly easing them into the weirder stuff. On the TV side of the MCU, Agents of SHIELD started out designed to work like a fairly conventional ABC-style sci-fi drama about ordinary human federal agents dealing with paranormal phenomena, and only gradually brought in weirder and weirder elements until much of the cast was superpowered and we had seasons dealing with Ghost Rider, outer space, and time travel. Over in DC-land, Arrow started out as a grounded show about street-level vigilantes vs. corrupt businessmen, then they eased into superpowers with a super-soldier serum in season 2, then they brought in the Flash and metahumans, and that led to time travel, parallel Earths, and eventually aliens and magic. If they’d tried to start with all that stuff jammed into the same universe right off the bat, it would’ve appeared less accessible to a mainstream audience.
Sure, maybe they also didn’t want to offend religious people, but it fit into their overall strategy for the universe to do it that way.
@31/Skallagrimsen: It’s not just you. I found Ragnarok moderately amusing, but that’s a weird thing to say about a movie named for the Norse apocalypse. It was just too fluffy for its subject matter. But we can get into that more when Keith gets around to reviewing it in a few months.
@30/Stacy– at one point, drunk Selvig says “I don’t know if you’re the God of Thunder, but you ought to be.”
Still one of my favorite Marvel movies.
And, yes, I remember the internet being highly skeptical of its prospects way back when. THOR was too fantastical for the general audiences, we were told; it wasn’t grounded in science like IRON MAN, so it was sure to bomb. Never mind that the general public had no problem with the likes of Harry Potter or Pirates of the Caribbean; Thor wasn’t “realistic” enough to work on film.
Surprise.
I also remember arguing a lot with folks who didn’t realize that THOR was based on the Stan Lee/Jack Kirby comic-book version of Asgard, not the actual Norse myths. :)
i walked away from this movie genuinely impressed with the vast majority of choices this movie made. The idea of Asgardians as super-advanced aliens worked spectacularly well for me, as did the “science and magic being the same thing” where Thor comes from (“Dark World” went too far, I thought, in de-mystifying Asgard).
One thing that really really worked for me was Patrick Doyle’s score. That cue as Thr, Sif and the Warriors Three ride down the Rainbow Bridge is my favorite, but the film has a lot of great musical moments.
Really, in a universe where magic exists, science and magic should be the same thing. Science is not a fixed construct; it’s a process for discovering new things about the universe, so it’s always expanding. Way back when the first inklings of quantum theory came along, it seemed to contradict everything we knew about science and be practically magical; but it turned out to explain a lot of things and its predictions were proven time and time again, so science expanded to encompass it and now quantum physics is the basis of modern science and technology (including the transistors, diodes, etc. that allow you to read my words now). By the same token, if a universe’s rules included magic, then science would observe it and expand to encompass it. So I like the MCU’s approach to it, their treatment of science as something that can grow to encompass new laws of the universe, rather than some inflexible dogma that would reject the reality of magic even in the face of overwhelming evidence.
Ah, yes. The tilty Thor movie, where every other shot is a dutch angle. It’s definitely better than most reviews give it credit for, but not (in my opinion) quite as good as this glowing review makes it out to be. I think Natalie Portman was terribly miscast; she’s been great in other films and I don’t have a problem with her as an actress, but she just didn’t work here.
I think this movie borrows much from Arthur C. Clarke’s famous quote about magic and technology without actually quoting it.
I remember watching this and being very impressed at how much of the Thor mythology they included. I was expecting an Earth-set tale much like the early comic stories when Lee/Kirby were easing their way in slowly by writing Thor as another Earthbound super hero fighting monster and communists before (abruptly) introducing Asgard. But nope, the story’s all about Asgard and the stuff on Earth is just a side trip distraction.
And a great character arc for Thor. He starts off as a braggard picking fights with the Frost Giants for macho reasons and ends as a noble hero risking his life to save the Frost Giants. That’s quite a journey.
I was however amused at Jane Foster being turned from a nurse into a physicist for 21st century sensibilities. I think I’m right in saying the character had largely fallen into disuse in the comics at the time, with Sif being considered Thor’s main love interest (rather than the minor supporting character she is in the films), only to be brought back to the fore since she started being played by Natalie Portman.
I’m glad to see this one get some love as I quite like it (although I wouldn’t call it a favorite) – but then, I’ve always enjoyed fantasy so maybe that wasn’t as much as a barrier for me.
I didn’t see this until after seeing Avengers, so it was interesting to get more of Loki and Thor’s backstory/motivations here. I definitely go back and forth on my opinion of Loki…part of me wants to keep cheering him on (in part due to Hiddleston’s charisma) and hope for some kind of redemption or convince myself that he’s not such a bad guy….but part of me thinks he’s basically just like every other charming power hungry sociopath who can’t get over the past and uses that as an excuse to do all sorts of awful things.
The funniest recurring joke in this series for me is just how WEAK Thor is to getting tasered. Any kind of taser.
They wisely lean into the comedy in this film. As a non-comics reader I remember thinking “Why would anyone make something so silly?” When I first heard of Thor, but then I saw it due to the good word of mouth reputation and enjoyed. Thor is still silly as a concept, and setting him up to be mainly comedy is what kept him relevant once it went all “Avengers” and “80s space Opera” on us in the last couple of years.
@41: I think I counted him getting tasered 7 times in Thor Ragnarok. I had forgotten that it started here.
@36:
Well, that really depends on the kind of magic, I’d think. Is it a natural part of the physical universe that we just haven’t discovered? Like Newton discovering the Laws of Motion? Or is it a Power derived from access to a Higher Being, and therefore obeys no Laws but the whim of that diety?
Beings that exist on a higher plane of existence and transcend the physical, four dimensional model of the universe (which is the only model of the universe we can observe from our vantage point as finite creatures attached to this mortal coil), aren’t going to be bound by rules that we would be able to observe and make sense of.
It would be like two dimensional scientists trying to observe our four-dimensional existence. They might be able to measure something as we pass through their plane, but no matter how advanced they grow, the true scope of our existence will always be beyond their ability to test, measure and observe, therefore their science will never be able to adequately explain or describe us.
So, too, clerical magic, power handed down to us by a higher being, may not follow rules that we will ever be able to quantify and adequately explain. It would always be magic beyond the understanding of mortal science.
I really liked Thor and feel it is consistently underrated. Even for a simple coming-of-age type story, it has a lot of heart. The performances are very good; the score one of my favorites in the MCU; strong visuals; a nice balance of humor and deeper emotion; and some very nice character moments. I did feel that the chemistry between Portman and Hemsworth could have been stronger, and @krad raises good critical points as well.
A small thing that I have not seen commented on. The first time we see Sitwell, we see his face mirrored, a clear marker of two-facedness, foreshadowing betrayal, which eventually manifested with the Hydra arc in Winter Soldier. It’s nice to see that they were thinking ahead.
@44/Anthony Pero: The distinction is irrelevant. If there are universes beyond ours, if they interact with ours in ways that can be observed, then science can observe them, learn about them, and grow to encompass them. Expanding to encompass new ideas is the entire job of science. It’s not a fixed and immutable set of rules — that is the assumption fiction keeps making and it is INCREDIBLY WRONG. It’s missing the whole point of what science is, what it means, what it does. Most of modern physics is stuff that people in the past would’ve thought impossible or never been able to imagine.
Okay, so if there’s a Supreme Being that can rewrite the rules at whim, that’s still something that exists. If it’s an observable, undeniable reality, then science would not deny that reality, because science is about changing your beliefs to fit the evidence, not denying the evidence to protect your beliefs the way religions and political dogmas do. The fact that there is a phenomenon that makes reality unpredictable would simply become a part of science. Hell, it already has — quantum mechanics, the Uncertainty Principle. A lot of modern physics is about the non-deterministic nature of reality and our inability to make exact predictions. If some deity were altering reality as an effort of will, it would simply make physics more like psychology, the attempt to study the behavior and motivations of the deity and understand and predict its decisions. Soft science is still science.
Thor is still silly as a concept, and setting him up to be mainly comedy is what kept him relevant once it went all “Avengers” and “80s space Opera” on us in the last couple of years.
It’s also very true to the Norse myths. There are plenty of grimdark Norse myths. Odin sacrifices an eye and hangs from the tree for nine days to learn the secrets of runes. The whole world is inevitably doomed to Ragnarok, when the monsters Loki and Fenris Wolf and Jormungand break loose and destroy everything. etc.
And then for light relief you have Thor! He’s just a well-meaning large strong guy without an overendowment of brains who likes drinking beer, fighting, and his wife Sif. He’s invariably outwitted by everyone he meets (the Giants, Loki, the Dwarfs) and still wins through because of his tremendous courage, fighting ability and fondness for beer.
NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF BEER!!!!!
—Keith R.A. (hic!) DeCandido
@48, have you read Tim Powers ‘The Drawing of the Dark’? it’s all about the Power of Beer.
princessroxana: Yes, I have. I’m a huge fan of Powers’s work.
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
@35: “The idea of Asgardians as super-advanced aliens worked spectacularly well for me…” Yeah, but don’t look too closely, otherwise you might start to wonder why this super-advanced alien race’s entire cultural model reflects that of medieval Europe.
@51 wizard clip
Or…does medieval Europe’s cultural mode reflect the super-advanced alien race????
In that case I suppose the question becomes, why did we puny, inferior earthlings progress, while the super advanced, god-like Aesir (I can’t bring myself to call them Asgardians) got stuck?
But really, I can’t pursue that question right now. I’m just too enraptured by the curled-lipped charms of Giorgio Tsoukalos. Giorgio, is there room in your Chariot of the Gods for me?
Re: Jane Foster/Natalie Portman
I’m not sure any actress could have made that role memorable because it wasn’t written to be. They’ve basically written Jane Foster, Selvig, and Darcy as various flavors of audience stand-ins and that’s ok. I want the most interesting characters in a Thor movie to be Thor and Loki. We don’t need a love interest at all because all the driving character relationships are between Asgardian family members. That’s why I’m so glad they didn’t include a Thor and Valkyrie kiss scene in Ragnarok as they originally planned. They already had the sibling relationship between Thor and Loki, the friendship between Thor and Hulk/Banner, the relationship between Thor and Asgard/being a king, and the feelings Valkyrie had about being an ex-Asgardian.
On the other hand, Natalie Portman might be perfect if they did an All-New Thor movie. Infinity War might set it up really well. Just saying (ok requesting an All-New Thor movie please please). They could even have a different actress play Thor.
The first Thor movie is pretty solid and definitely one of the funniest in the MCU.
I can’t be the only nerd that imagined Thor from Marvel meeting Thor from SG1…
:) The Supreme Commander of the Asgard fleet did cross my mind…
NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF BEER!!!!!
There is actually a scene in the Edda in which the Frost Giants attempt to trick Thor by challenging him to a beer drinking contest. They cheat by magically connecting Thor’s drinking horn to the sea through an invisible pipe. He still manages to drink enough to visibly lower the level in the horn (and therefore the sea level everywhere in the world), because he’s Thor and he’s just that good at drinking beer. This terrifies the Frost Giants so much that they confess what they have done and admit defeat.
@58/ajay: But then, isn’t he actually drinking seawater, not beer? How much of a beer-drinker can he be if he can’t tell the difference?
59: hey, I didn’t write the Eddas. Take it up with Snorri.
He knows he’s not drinking beer, he just wants to beat the giants.
@59/Christopher: He probably thought it was Frost Giant beer. Food tastes different abroad.
I always assumed the magic made seawater taste like beer.
Well, it may have been a drinking contest, rather than specifically a beer-drinking contest, I suppose.
@64/ajay: That’s true, they don’t specify the beverage in the original story.
Thor is good at drinking anything.
@65/Jana: Even drinking salt water??? Well, I guess he is a god…
@66/Christopher: Perhaps it happened before the magical millstones turned the sea salty.
One of the miracles of Saint Brigid (who is a Christianized update of the goddess of the same name) was changing water into beer. So, who is to say the same process was not being used with Thor?
@58: I’ve heard of that story – the other tasks were trying to lift this cat, which was actually the serpent Jormungandr, and wrestle an old lady who was actually old age. Weird story, I know.
I think there was also an eating contest in which Thor was beaten by the Giant King’s servant, who was in fact fire – which can devour everything.
It’s kind of a riddle contest in physical form.
This article was published the same week Order of the Stick continued Thor’s exposition scene, in a strip called “That’s Jack’s Fault” (I’ll let you decide who said ‘Jack’ could be):
“I used to be a ginger until that damn superhero comic book came out”
In general, the Norse myths don’t work. How could it be common knowledge on Earth that Loki is a Forst Giant, if Loki himself doesn’t know it? I also didn’t see the point of having Jane Foster be a brilliant scientist, if she’s only there as a love interest. With the “you call it science” scene, I thought the movie was going to have Foster use her human science to help Thor return to Asgard. But no, she’s just there to help the male character grow. Boring.
@70, It was Loki who got into the eating contest. He, Thor and Thor’s human servant whose name escapes me go on a road trip to Jotunheim and guest with a giant called Utgard-Loki who sets them these dares. I seem to be recalling more dares than characters so there may be different versions of the story.
Thor remains one of my favorite Marvel films. It’s not quite as good as the very best Marvel films like The Avengers and Black Panther, but it’s well above average.
It also has perhaps the best soundtrack of any Marvel film, as Patrick Doyle’s soundtrack is a great one, really capturing the spirit of the film.
As for the Warriors Three, my only complaint is that Ray Stevenson needed to gain about 150 or 200 pounds.
72 – ah, yes. That rings a bell. Thanks.
Jim Mann: agreed on Stevenson. Like I said in the rewatch, the sweet spot for Volstagg is Brian Blessed circa 1985 or so.
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
No, only one version of the story. The human servant is Thalfi and he races thought. Loki tries to outdevour fire and Thor tries to drink the sea dry, then to lift the Midgard Serpent (disguises as a cat) and finally to wrestle old age (disguised as an old woman). He actually manages to lower the level of the sea (creating tides) to lift one paw of the cat which translates as hauling one coil of the serpent and manages a draw against Old Age. The giants are impressed and intimidated and get out of Dodge before Thor can hammer them.
How bout the Everworld versions of Thor and Loki? They aren’t all that analogous to Marvel but I just mention them cuz in all the time I’ve been lurking on these various rewatches I have not seen Everworld mentioned. Nor does anything come up when I search Tor for references to it. Which is a heinous oversight in my opinion haha. Though not surprising, since I can’t recall ever coming across anyone who is familiar with that wonderful series.
@77 Evan – if Everworld is so obscure, maybe you can explain it a bit more so people know what you are talking about? Haha. The only thing I can find on Google that might match is a juvenile fantasy series By K.A. Applegate.
Congrats, you found it. Though Everworld may be marketed as “juvenile” fiction and have high school students as main characters, it is actually pretty adult and quite hilarious, often darkly so. The mythological twist is just the first layer of the cake.
And here’s to 10 years of Kenneth Branagh’s Thor and the Cinematic God of Thunder (and it’s fitting that the anniversary is on a Thursday, i.e. Thor’s day).