After Tony’s drunken antics and a brief detour to Wakanda we bring the hammer down with the Norse god of Thunder, the Mighty Thor!!! As per usual I’ll send you to where you can see a review of the origins of Thor’s comic book counterpart right here.
That's when papa Odin came riding in on eight legged horseback to pacify Laufey and bring the five schmucks back. After Thor made it clear that he puts the ass in Asgard Odin puts his foot down, by striping him of his power, Mjölnir and places a spell on the hammer making it so that only one who is worthy of the power of Thor may lift it, and to top it all off banishes him from Asgard. Meanwhile Loki discovers and confirms that he was stolen from Laufey by Odin as a baby and raised as his own. Thinking that he's nothing more to Odin then another spoil of war Loki is not exactly happy. He then usurps the throne when Odin falls into the Odinsleep after the stress of confessing Loki's heritage.
As for Thor he lands on Midgard (earth to you and me) in the care of three researchers Jane Foster, Dr Erik Selvig and their intern Darcy (played by Natalie Portman, Stellan Skarsgård and Kat Dennings). While with them Thor hears about Mjölnir landing outside the New Mexico town they're at and goes to get his power back. As well as getting Jane's wormhole research back from Coulson. After Thor fights his way though S.H.I.E.L.D goons he tries to lift the hammer, but now it's time for Odin's humility lesson as he can't lift the hammer. After being taken into custody Loki appears before him and lies to him, telling Thor that Odin is dead and with his last decree he made his exile permanent.
Meanwhile Loki plans to bring Laufey and his army to Asgard so that he can kill them while Laufey tries to kill Odin, proving his strength and right to the throne. Sif and the Warriors aren't putting up with Loki's crap however and sneak down to earth to bring Thor back thanks to Heimdal (played by Idris Elba) mastering the ancient Norse art of the loophole opening the Bifrost bridge for them. So Loki sends down the Destroyer to kill Thor to cover his tracks. However Thor after admitting that he was acting like a spoiled and angry child, sacrifices himself to save Jane, thus proves himself worthy of the power and defeats the Automaton. Afterwords he returns to Asgard and fights Loki, after Odin tries to save the both of them from falling into the abyss Loki falls himself rather then be saved by his false family and imprisoned for his crimes.
So Thor denies the throne until he can prove himself worthy of being king, while still pining for Jane. However Dr Selvig meets with Nick Fury after the credits so that Fury can show him a powerful artifact called the Teseract, which draws the attention of the Loki possessed Selvig. (Again Marvel hedging their bets as I'll explain later.) Also Hawkeye was in this movie but who cares about that? Besides he was just a foot note he doesn't't even fire an arrow in this movie I honestly just had to mention him out of obligation.
Now before I talk about the movie itself I feel the need to talk about the director, Kenneth Branagh. For those who don't know Branagh is most well known for his adaptations of the Bard's work, most notably the 1996 version of Hamlet. If you haven't seen the movie, do so not only because it's a classic but also you can see how Branagh likes to do epic stories like this. That being big, grand and sweeping which, when dealing with larger than life characters and locations like Odin, Thor and Asgard is required to give the proper scope. Also since his background is in Shakespeare he seems to be a better fit for this project given the comic book source material.
If anyone has studied Norse Mythology extensively the comic book and movie incarnations may make you want to eat your own noses. Similar to how actual secret agents laughed their asses off when watching the James Bond movies for the same reason, how much the writers left out and exaggerated. The point is that since the comic counterpart leaned more towards the stylization of the Bard then Tacitus Branagh seemed to be the best choice for director. It more then payed off as certain scenes wouldn't nearly have the proper weight to it without Branagh's direction. Scenes and locations just feel big and without someone who can handle these big sets and scenes the movie wouldn't nearly be as successful as it turned out.
Also given their Shakespearian update; the characters tend to draw parallels from some of the Bard's characters like for example Tom Hiddleston described Loki as "like a comic book version of Edmund in King Lear, but nastier." Thor himself starts off as a boorish, violent war hungry ass, and eventually realizing that he was an ass, starts to turn himself around after discovering how to become a proper king like Henry the 4th. Now there are some parts that felt like they could have been improved upon. Darcy could have been left out and honestly not much would have changed, Hawkeye could have actually fought Thor before he got to Mjölnir instead of that one random guy, you know actually give this other guy something to do in his MCU debut instead of just standing there? Also maybe there could have ben a bit more action with Sif and the Warriors fighting the Destroyer, not too long but maybe just enough screen time to make the 7 year old boy in me smile.
But honestly those are the only complaints I can think of in what's in all honesty a very solid movie. Though just because we're leaving Thor and Asgard behind for now doesn't mean that the Aesir are done being involved in the MCU. As Nick Fury said "Legend tells us one thing, history another. But every now and then we find something that belongs to both." While next time we may not be dealing with gods we'll still be seeing serious monsters and those who slay those monsters to protect their homeland. As next time the March to Infinity will have us marching into Berlin alongside Steve Rogers, Aka Captain America.
Special thanks to my Patreon backer Jesse for his support.
Thor is owned by Paramount Pictures, Marvel Studios, directed by Kenneth Branagh, produced by Keven Feige based off the comic by Larry Leiber, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.
Hellsing Ultimate is owned by Kouta Hirano and Studio Madhouse, and licensed by Geneon, Madman Entertainment, Manga Entertainment and Funimation.
Hellsing Ultimate Abridged is owned by Team Four Star.
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