I delayed a long time on watching this movie, and certainly didn’t watch it in the theatre, and I’m very very glad. I could have really just watched the first twenty minutes and the last twenty minutes; seems like nothing really important happened in the middle. I had some major problems with it, though:
I hate big, dumb shiny heroes. If my hero can’t be arsed to have at least a modicum of intelligence, then I don’t see why I have to even care about his motives.
I prefer the story of the second son anyway. More on this in a minute.
Natalie Portman’s character was…unconvincing to say the least. I am tired of young, girlish scientists or what-have-you that apparently know way more than the senior, experienced people around them. I don’t even know what she does. Who is she?
Loki’s motives were…unclear at best. Did he want to mature Thor so he would be worthy to take the throne? Cause you know, he totally had a point. Did he want to prove he was as good as Thor? Did he want to betray his own people?
I also hate the idea of romance - lifelong romance, to the point of grieving when you are cut off from your love - after two or three days.
It was incredibly convenient that Mjolnir flew to Thor’s hand when he suddenly became worthy.
On the subject of the second son. It seems as I read about this movie many people are much more fascinated/interested by Loki. I agree. Second sons are far more interesting - how do they react to what they are? Do they remain content with being their brother’s seconds? To assisting him, working at his side, but never ruling? I’m sure every second son has had the thought at least flash through their head…“I could do better”. Suffice it to say, Loki’s story was far more interesting than Thor’s straightforward one.
On the good side, I did laugh when Thor got tazed…that was pretty freakin hilarious. And a hilarious line:
Thor: I NEED A HORSE!
Pet Shop Clerk: We don’t have horses. Just dogs, cats and birds…
Thor: THEN GIVE ME ONE OF THOSE LARGE ENOUGH TO RIDE!
I’m also grateful that when push came to shove, Thor’s one female friend wasn’t just a weakling; she actually fought.
AND I admit, Chris Helmsworth is some major eye candy.
But what bothers me most of all, is WTF is a God doing in the Avengers (no spoilers on that one please, I haven’t seen it yet)?
I got stuck up on wondering WTF Thor and friends are, god like aliens?
The movie despite being a big budget production had the feel of a goofy 70s adaptation done on the cheap in every scene in NM, oh a god depowered and running around cheap shooting locations so no special effects needed!
I thought it was pretty clear: he wanted to be king, exactly like Odin had been, and exactly like young prince Thor was about to get coronated into – and so Loki goads Thor into spectacularly pissing off Odin (thereby getting the reckless brawler who likes to drink exiled hereabouts minus his powers) and, as next in line for the throne, manages to look heroic back in Asgard (by letting in attackers, the better to dramatically save a bedridden Odin at the last moment).
Loki tells a lot of lies in hopes of confusing the other characters, but his overall plan seems fairly straightforward.
It’s been awhile since I saw this, but isn’t that a power of his? He holds out his hand and the hammer comes to him. He did it in Avengers a couple times.
From the beginning “lets go invade the frost giant world” set-up, I thought it was pretty clear that a lot of Thor’s fuck-ups were directly inspired by Loki, and Thor was too naive (or dumb, if you like) to realize that his (presumably) loyal and devoted brother would do that sort of thing.
I have a sociopath for a brother (sadly, I’m not kidding) and Loki seemed right on to me - that’s what they do. They manipulate and lie and scheme very well, and when they finally get caught (IF they get caught) they manipulate and lie and scheme some more so you doubt the evidence from before, and IF they get caught again, they throw the most god-awful temper tantrum you’ve ever seen.
It took a long time for me to become cynical enough to take every single word and action from my brother with the necessary distance and speculation to not get sucked into his nets.
Did you watch till the end and see the scene in the credits? Spoiler below does not spoil anything specifically in The Avengers.
Loki is the main villian in the Avengers. It is foreshadowed in the end scene of Thor. So everyone who saw the end scene in Thor already knew Loki was the bad guy in the next movie. Makes sense, Loki was the villian in the first issue of Avengers and Thor was one of the original members.
What I mean is, what is the point of any of the other Avengers when you have a God? Granted, you might need someone else to think through any plan more complicated than a gnat’s, and not just get by on a pretty smile and big muscles.
Let me reassure everyone, I didn’t hate the movie. It just seemed…a little empty. And rushed, like We have to put Thor in the Avengers movie! So we have to make a prequel!
God means lots of things, he is not all powerful all knowing like we think of the christian god. Superman could easily be called a god by most standards. Thor just happens to be a really powerful dude who at one point was worshiped by an ancient culture.
Thor isn’t a God, he’s a human looking alien that ancient humans mistook for a god when the war against the frost giants spilled over into our world.
Hulk is the strongest avenger, and Cap is the team leader.
Funny line from Avengers: (not really a spoiler, but anyway)
Widow: You don’t want to get between them. These people are basically gods.
Cap: There’s only one God, Ma’am, and I’m pretty sure he doesn’t dress like that.
I liked the movie. I thought it was fun and a good antidote to the turgid depressing batman movies.
Thor is just a being from a different plane of existence who has more power than the average human. Thing is, metahumans like Cap and the Hulk also have more power than the average human. It’s not completely bonkers to call the Hulk a god of Chaos and Destruction if you don’t know his origin.
And yeah, Thor’s not all that smart, but he is honorable, and gains a measure of humility and wisdom by the end of Thor which is extended into the Avengers.
I enjoyed Thor, mostly for his interactions with modern America and with SHIELD, and I’m looking forward to Thor 2.
He deliberately let Frost Giants into Asgard before that revelation. You can argue for the wisdom in breaking up Thor’s coronation by pointing out that Thor clearly wasn’t ready for it yet, but instead of dealing with it directly and honestly, the fact is that Loki allowed enemies of the realm inside their walls so he could stop the coronation and still pretend to be on Thor’s side. Like Lasciel says, it’s sociopathic behavior.
Oh, I certainly didn’t mean to imply that he was just an all-around good guy before, but I thought he did what he did before (I suck at sentence construction today!) because he genuinely thought Thor wasn’t fit to lead the Asgardians, while afterwards, he was just hella mad.
I liked the movie but I think that maybe some people are turned off a bit by it because it doesn’t have a huge save the world moment at the end and Loki really isn’t a mustache twirling, super evil guy. In other movies you get a definitive example why the villain is a villain: they choke their own officers, smash up New York, or blow up a kid in a soda shop. Loki definitely does some bad stuff, but he’s more scheming and sneaky, like you would expect from a god of lies. It makes him unique as far as villains go.
With the smaller save-the-town moment, I think it makes the movie a little more personal and Thor a better hero. He didn’t shove some mysterious space cloud into the sun or defeat a horde of invading somethings (which may have been cool, but they got to that in the Avengers), he saved a town of people, and his love interest, to earn his power.
And he grows as the movie progresses. He starts out all brash and bluster, he leads his friends on an invasion of the Frost Giant’s world with the slightest provocation and instead of heeding his father, he wants to fight and he thinks that’s what makes him a good leader. He gets a lesson during his stint on Earth.
While agreeing with some of the points in the OP (yeah, I get tired of the super-genius hot young scientist trope too), I thought they made a very decent and entertaining movie out of a pretty difficult subject. I did not like it as much as “Captain America” or “Iron Man”, but I lked it much better than “The Hulk” and “Iron Man 2”. And I will pretty much watch Stellan Skaarsgard read the phone book.