Civil War Countdown: Thor

Whether or not you enjoyed Iron Man 2 is up to you, but you can't deny that it was a financial success. So much of a financial success that it gave Marvel the option to finally open up and make its dream team into a movie: The Avengers. It would be something that was never done before...numerous superheroes banding together in one team to fight evil. But, before it could be done, there needed to be some establishing movies to let people know who's who. First up was the lightning god from Asgard: Thor. The movie was handed to Kenneth Branagh, who had actually wanted to do Thor in the past, with no support, and it was tasked to set up the character, as well as side characters, and who would eventually be the first villain of the Avengers: Loki. Did it stand up to the test? Well...yes, honestly, yes.

The movie obviously starts on Earth, as Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), Erik Selvig (Stellan Skarsgård) and Darcy (Kat Dennings) are out doing atmospheric research in New Mexico. They are stunned as a bright light shines out of the sky to the ground, dropping a man onto Earth. The scene then suddenly cuts to an expositional scene where Odin (Anthony Hopkins) tells about the long ago battle between the Asgardians and the Ice Giants to his sons, Thor and Loki. Fast forward to the present, where Thor has grown up (Chris Hemsworth) and is about to be crowned king, when suddenly, the proceedings are interrupted by an Ice Giant attack.

Enraged, Thor goes against his father's wishes and travels to the Ice Giant realm of Jotunheim with Loki (Tom Hiddleston), and the rest of Thor's warrior friends. The king of the giants, Laufey, sees this as an act of war, and a fight breaks out. Thor and the group seem to be nearing their end, when Odin comes to save them. An argument breaks out with Thor and Odin, leading Odin to cast Thor into banishment upon Earth, relieving him of his titles and his hammer, Mjolnir. This leads us back to the beginning with the scientists, as it turns out the man who fell from the sky is Thor.

The group take him to the nearby town to have him checked at the hospital. He of course breaks out, and the team keeps up with him, trying to make him fit in on Earth. Meanwhile, the team at S.H.I.E.L.D. lead by our old friend Phil Coulson find Mjolnir crashed into the Earth near where Thor came crashing down. Meanwhile in Asgard, Loki finds out that he is actually an Ice Giant from Jotunheim, and enrages, causing Odin to become seriously ill. In the meantime, he takes over the role of king of Asgard, while hatching a nefarious plan to keep that role.

Back on Earth, Thor and Jane travel out to retrieve Mjolnir from S.H.I.E.L.D. Jane keeps a lookout as Thor infiltrates the base, taking out multiple guards along the way. It's during this scene where we get our first look at Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) taking the form of a sniper that's keeping track on Thor for Coulson. Thor finds his hammer and attempts to take it, however, due to Odin's curse upon the hammer along with Thor's banishment, he is unable to, and the troops take him into custody. Loki pays Thor a visit, telling him that Odin has died due to his banishment, and offering a great amount of condolences for everything that has happened. Loki then travels to Jotunheim to strike up a deal to lead the Ice Giants into Asgard to kill Odin.

Jane and Erik break Thor out of the government holding. It's now when Thor's warrior friends, led by Lady Sif (Jaimie Alexander), find their way onto Earth to get Thor back and take down Loki's tyrannical rule on Asgard. However, before they're able to, the Destroyer, a mechanical Asgardian guard, shows up to confront Thor. The team put up a noble fight, but it's near useless without Thor's power and Mjolnir. As Thor lay nearly dying, however, hammer ex machina happens as Odin reverses the curse within his sleep, granting Thor the power needed to defeat the Destroyer and return to Asgard, just as the Ice Giants infiltrate the realm. As Laufey stands over Odin about to kill him, Loki betrays the deal, killing Laufey to keep up impressions to Asgard. However, Thor knows the truth about his lies and his rule, and they fight.

Loki rides out to the end of Asgard's rainbow bridge, where Loki opens the Bifrost, the light path which the gods use to travel between realms, upon Jotunheim. The Bifrost begins destroying the realm, so Thor takes evasive action, using his hammer to destroy the bridge, sacrificing his chances of ever seeing Jane again, and ending the movie. The end credits scene showcases a Loki-controlled Selvig discovering the Tessaract, an old and powerful object, and showcasing it to Nick Fury.

So, you know, Thor is a beautifully made movie, however, it's really a sub-standard Marvel movie. It does a very, very good job at setting up the characters it needs to, however, which is why it falls into the category of one of Marvel's many expositional movies, because all it does is introduce characters. Honestly, the plot isn't very detrimental to the overall arc-ing story for the Avengers, and all the secondary characters except for one don't really matter either. But, it's still a very good standalone flick, something that's nice and easy to chill out with and enjoy when there's nothing else to watch. Other high points include the casting of Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston as their respective parts, they both nail their roles perfectly.

With all that said, Thor is still one of the more straightforward and better built movies of the MCU, and with that, I'm going to slide it in the 3.5 out of 5 category alongside Iron Man 2. It's definitely held up since its 2011 release, which is always great, but I'm ready for the real meat of this franchise. However, we have just one more expositional movie to go...