My friends have been on my case about seeing the various pre-Avengers movies that I missed (basically everything but Iron Man 1 and 2), and since I noticed that Thor was available on Netflix, I thought I’d finally get around to it. Especially since my friends told me I really should see it for the Loki character development and other setup, plus because “It’s pretty good.”
So I’ve watched it, and…is it?
Pretty much every scene that involved Thor and Jane felt silly and forced. It’s easy to imagine Thor being an easy flirt, and hard to imagine him falling in love and changing to that extent in something like 48 hours. Plus, you know, we never saw it. We never saw him “learn.” We just kinda saw him do.
Most of what happened proved to be pretty predictable, except for the part where I apparently predicted something that was better than what actually happened. I.e. when Thor nearly died, I thought he was actually going to die— die as a human warrior and get taken to Valhalla, the giant hall of heroes in Asgard. Valkyries and Valhalla aren’t particularly obscure parts of Norse myth so I didn’t think it was that crazy, but instead we got Odin ex Machina in the form of Thor’s hammer returning to him because he’s now “become worthy.”
Also, is it just me or is Sif the worst actress ever? Every expression she had all throughout the movie was just painful.
A friend suggested that the movie really just existed to introduce Thor to audiences who don’t know anything about the Avengers and Marvel comics, but I’d actually argue it has more to do with introducing Loki. Thor himself is pretty self-explanatory, in Avengers and in this (perhaps worryingly so). Loki and his plots are more complex, though, and while a lot of people will have heard of Thor (mythologically speaking, at least), most won’t have heard of Loki.
So, if the movie’s purpose is really to show off Loki, why waste all this time on Thor? He, his “growth,” and his “relationship” with Jane lack depth and feel pretty much meaningless.
Dat Anime Hair
Addendum: It’s important to note that I think my friends went into this movie expecting it to be terrible, and they found it not terrible…as a result, I came into it expecting it to be pretty good, and I found it pretty bad. So our disagreement may primarily be one based on expectations, but
