The Marvel universe has a wide variety of characters that they built their billion-dollar empire upon. First, it was everyone’s hero, Iron Man. After the tech mogul reached the stars, a God descended from the heavens and changed the way humans view science.
Thor (Chris Hemsworth) is the God of Thunder. He is as jacked as you could be and carries a very special hammer with him. After getting thrown off his planet, Thor lands on Earth, where he runs into a whole set of problems yet finds love.
Any unwanted guests usually mean trouble, and the bad guys are some of the toughest that the Marvel universe had seen up to this point. Of course, battles across densely populated areas in flat America ensure, and the good guys prevail, setting up events for future movies, like The Avengers.
This may be my personal opinion, yet the financial numbers don’t lie. Thor is the weakest stand-alone franchise within the Marvel universe. Iron Man is the king, and there is no dying that people love Captain America. For some reason, Thor lacked the blockbuster success of his brothers, even though Chris Hemsworth is more than capable of being a knock out leading man.
The first Thor movie lacks something that the other movies obviously had. All these movies have amazing character development and lots of CGI fight sequences. When you think about it, Thor introduces us to The Avengers’ first biggest test in Loki (Tom Hiddleston). The fact that the bad guy is also a God with special powers, the receipt is there for successful long-term storytelling.
Thor currently ranks as the 20th highest-grossing Marvel movie, just about $5 million ahead of Captain America: The First Avenger. I enjoy the latter on such a deeper level. However, I respect everything that Thor brings to the table. If you are not a fan of the first one, or even the second one, Thor is the first character to get a fourth movie within the universe. Let that sink in for a moment, as you appreciate the small piece of the big picture; Thor really was nine years ago. 8/10
Ten Stars or Less 