MCU Retrospective: Thor
Thor. Oh Thor. Until Thor: Ragnarok I did not care for the character at all. He always fell flat to me and felt like he never really had a personality. Given the character arc that he goes through throughout the MCU, I was hoping that re-watching the original Thor movie would give me a new perspective. After finishing Thor mere moments ago, I’m still not sure.
I couldn’t help but notice throughout that Chris Hemsworth’s performance in this movie really pales in comparison to what he does with the character later on in the MCU. Every line of dialogue he delivers in a rather flat, almost bored tone. One thing I did appreciate about the character, however, is that knowing where Thor ends up by the end of Ragnarok, it's amazing to see how shallow of a character he initially was. Thankfully over the course of the decade the character gets to be so much deeper but this made me really reflect on the character’s arc throughout the saga.
After re-watching the movie, I also feel like they really wasted Idris Elba’s talents in the MCU. I imagine that Elba could have been a wonderful villain (hopefully a recurring one too and not one that Marvel just kills off) or had a more influential role in the greater MCU. His performance as Heimdall was great, but I can’t help but feel that his acting chops would have been put to better use elsewhere.
This movie also made me realize how much I actually missed the character of Jane Foster. Maybe it’s just because I haven’t seen her in ages that I feel a sort of nostalgia for her in re-watching this movie, but I’m actually really looking forward to seeing her again in the newly delayed Thor: Love and Thunder.
Also one last odd note, I noticed throughout this movie there were a lot of weird camera angles randomly spliced in here and there. Not really sure why or what the director’s reasoning was, but it was striking enough that I took note. Thankfully the cinematography has since greatly improved in the MCU.