Marvel Cinematic Universe

Just watched Thor.

All in all, I enjoyed it far more than I thought I would at the start; it took me a bit to get into it.

In the end, I feel it was rushed. All of it. It was a story that should have been told with greater depth and detail. I wanted to have more time to get to know the main players, what made them tick. It was way too much mashed in to too short a time/space without any story or character development.

And the bit about the love story between Thor and Jane?? Like, I could hardly tell that they were even amicable and then all of a sudden he’d do anything to protect her? Not at all well done.
Lousy even.

Overall I think they could have done a better job with this story. I liked it. I didn’t love it.

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When I look back to the early MCU movies and the first time I saw them, I do recall Thor not being one of my favourites. It may have been due to what you have just described.

If you are going to watch all the movies, you may have to tough it out through the second Thor movie. I found that one even harder to watch than the first. Just know there is a dramatic improvement when you get to Thor: Ragnorok!

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My husband, coincidentally, put iron man 2 on today. I know I’ve seen it, but I hadn’t remembered any of it. I enjoyed pointing out your observation about Scarlett Johansson (giving due credit to you, of course).

My MIL said “that’s what makes her so special [that she can fight with her hair down].” I said “no, it’s just more evidence of patriarchal writing.” It really does get better later on.

I enjoy Paltrow’s banter. I think she nails it.

Tony really is a complex character. Iron man 1 makes me hate him, but I hate him a little less with each appearance and eventually, my opinion changes completely without me knowing fully how it got there.

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The whole movie is Thor’s character development - becoming worthy and all that!

I can definitely agree about Jane though. She’s a particularly weak character and I never felt drawn to the relationship. The best bit about their relationship is at the beginning of Ultron when Thor is talking to Tony at the party.

I do wonder where Taika Waititi will take her character in Love and Thunder. He didn’t have to deal with her in Ragnarok, but I have confidence that he’ll do something that will improve her character somehow. He has to!!

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I enjoyed about 12% of her banter :wink::rofl:

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Disagree that it was. Agree that it should have been.

He was an arrogant hot head. And then five seconds later, for reasons that aren’t really well explained (because of the girl? because he got thrown out and was homesick? because of the big bad monster guy?) he has a change of heart. Like, it was so sudden I thought I had missed something and rewound.

Very bad storytelling.

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I thought it was more because of mjolnir. He was humbled by no longer being worthy. That’s where he stopped being arrogant.

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Been thinking about this more. I think the whole problem is Jane Foster. What does her character actually bring to the film? The film is supposed to introduce us to Thor, Asgard and Thor’s relationship with his family - especially Loki. Jane is completely superfluous to this. I think Thor’s relationship with Selvig is actually more important to the overall MCU plot. I think Kenneth Brannagh should’ve downplayed the Thor/Foster relationship, even just as a mutual attraction rather than a love interest. It confuses the plot unnecessarily. There’s a lot to be told, and as @OBNurseNH and probably many others felt it was rushed, that really could’ve been omitted.

I may stand corrected after Love and Thunder. I’m really really excited for that movie, but Waititi is really going to have to work hard to make her character work.

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Ok I did forget that in my list of reasons. He lost his toy of power and realized he had been a very bad boy?

The whole scene with him and Jane and Odin… it just felt like I was watching Beauty and the Beast. It was very unsatisfying.

Also: how the heck is he a superhero when he is a god. Those are different things to me. From what I do know of superheroes, they start off as ordinary people who, by some strange turn of events, suddenly have powers that they are to use for good. This guy is not that. He is pretty fantastic (and I even enjoyed the one scene where he is shirtless so there’s that too) but I am confused as to how he is a superhero.

Maybe I will come to understand in time. And if so, that’s fine to say just please no spoilers.

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I can get behind that. The need to insert a love story in movies where they are not important and may even be distracting is frustrating.

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So I’ve been a fairly strong Marvel fan for a fairly long time. I somehow had missed Thor when it originally came out and only got introduced to him through The Avengers. And I’m glad it happened that way because I did not really enjoy the standalone Thor movies. But he provides excellent comic relief in the ensemble pieces. So I’m glad I now know all his backstory. To me it’s less important for who he is, though, than it is for who Loki is.

So all of this to say: I agree with you and I don’t think it gets a lot better. But it’s worth it for how it comes together in other ways.

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That doesn’t ever really come into it.
Maybe think of them as a group of Avengers, rather than Superheroes.

Once you go down that rabbit hole then you need to define superhero. Is Spiderman more of a superhero than Iron Man? Can a trained assassin ever be called a hero?

Just chill and accept them as ‘the good guys’! :laughing:

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I think part of the problem is that with these characters is that the movie gets all of the stuff from their extensive original ink incarnation that their fan base expects (to varying degrees), so incorporating it can often be haphazard or superficial or worse.
Like Batman’s Robin.

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Trying to remember the movies, I don’t think they delved into his origin story or mentioned Donald Blake, did they?
I’ll try to blur it anyway…

OK, I was never a big Thor comic fan but I think his original storyline in the comics was that he was the mortal Donald Blake who turned into Thor when he discovered Mjolnir. so much more like your usual superhero
But later I think Marvel changed that and turns out he was in fact Thor all along and Odin had hidden him on earth… or something very similar to that…

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Yes, that’s what name they gave when they were breaking him out of hospital.

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Oh man do I have to start watching the MCU again… DW and I are still watching ST Voyager,

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so well said!!

I think that’s partly why it’s a universe. There’s just too much story to tell in one standalone movie.

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They do mention Donald Blake

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I was all team Ironman until Age of Ultron when he makes a joke about prima nocta. Not cool or funny at all. When I was googling to figure out what movie this “joke” was in, it came up that it was a Joss Wheadon movie, which considering what we know now, makes more sense.

I’m looking forward to discussing your thoughts about Black Widow in some of the future movies :slight_smile:

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Kind of a comic book movie instead of a feature length film. :smirk:

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