Welcome to The Daily Cup a movie blog/writing project by Kyle B. Dekker, presented by Hot Chocolate Media. You can read series concept here. The basic rules, Kyle must watch 365 movies in 2018 and write about all of them. 292 of them have to be movies he's never seen before. Thanks for reading.
Today’s review is probably my least favorite of all the MCU movies. Thor (2011) isn’t a bad movie, but I find borderline boring, and as I’ve said before boring is the worst thing a movie can be to me. Directed by Kenneth Branagh this movie is a serviceable intro to the God of Thunder, Asgard, and everyone’s favorite MCU villain Loki.
One thing this film aces is the casting. Chris Hemsworth is charming, funny, and built like a Norse God. My only knock in this one is we only see hints of the great comedic skill Hemsworth has, that will later be on full display in the Avengers movies and Ragnarok. Tom Hiddleston is strong out of the gate as Loki, his magic skills hinted at, his jealousy, thirst for power, and narcissism on full display. It’s easy to see why people love Hiddleston and the character Loki so much. The other casting of note is my favorite living Asgardian Heimdall, played by the amazing Idris Elba. I get genuinely giddy every time an actor from The Wire shows up in something else, and Idris doesn’t disappoint. Branagh and the script criminally underutilized Elba in this film, a crime repeated in the second Thor film.
The art direction for Asgard is pretty darn cool, it combines a strong medieval fantasy element and some sci-fi aspects, hinting at the great cosmic MCU to come. Watching this film after Ragnarok does add another element as you realize all the gold and glamour of Asgard was built on conquest and bloodshed, and element missing when the movie debuted.
Al of this grandur came at a cost.
My biggest complaint of the movie was that everything on earth seemed droll and small scale. I understand Thor was without power and had to rediscover his heroism, but everything about the earth scenes seemed like a low budget western with modern elements. Some cool moments such a mortal Thor kicking S.H.I.E.L.D. butt trying to get his hammer back, and the Destroyer couldn’t pull these scenes out of their small scale feeling.
Fans of the character Thor and the Warriors Three will enjoy rewatches of this one, but this is one MCU film that just barely meet expectations for me. It looks nice, and the performances are solid, but the small scale of the second half of the movie, really relegate it to bottom tier status for MCU films for me. This still puts it ahead of many other superhero movies, but in the golden age of superhero movies, that’s not quite enough.
Tally
Movies new to me watched: 18/292
Other movies: 6/73
Total movies watched: 24/365
Have your own thoughts or opinions on this movie? Comment below or contact Kyle at kyle@hotchocolatemedia.net or on Twitter at @kbdekker.