Marvel Cinematic Universe: Ranking all 18 movies after Black Panther

Credit: Marvel Studios/Paramount Pictures; poster for Thor (2011)

14. Thor (2011)

Though Norse Mythology seems odd when paired with the likes of Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk, the first Thor movie is a noble effort. At the very least, Thor manages to take a character who is a literal god and make him relatable. And while director Kenneth Branaugh holds himself back, the movie still has enough audacity to strive for a kind of Shakespearean drama in spandex.

The cast is very good across the board, although some roles are criminally short-changed more than others. Chris Hemsworth is great as the titular Norse God of Thunder, and, no surprise, Sir Anthony Hopkins gives another great performance as Odin All-Father. But it’s Tom Hiddleston as Loki who is the real standout, giving us a Loki who is tragic who’s also very bit the diabolical, manipulative trickster you would expect. To this day, none of the other Marvel Studios films have come up with as good a villain.

Yet as I pointed out in Bam Smack Pow’s retrospective on the film, Thor isn’t quite sure what kind of film it wants to be. After Odin banishes Thor to Earth, the movie becomes an amusing “fish out of water” love story between Thor and astrophysicist, Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), where everyone naturally assumes the son of Odin is a crazy, if eloquent, drifter. At the same time, the Asgard scenes look like Lord of the Rings outtakes, and the “magic is science” angle, while logical, implies an embarrassment of the original comics. Then again, this was before Avengers.