The Thor movies, for the most part anyway, don’t have the greatest track record.
I think it’s safe to say that most people think that the first Thor movie in the MCU was… okay. The second Thor movie, Thor: The Dark World, was not so okay. The third Thor movie, Thor: Ragnorak, is universally praised as the best movie in the entire series (and maybe even one of the best Marvel movies ever). Then the fourth Thor movie, Thor: Love and Thunder, is often seen as a colossal downgrade to Ragnarok (Though, our very own Eric Eisenberg enjoyed it quite a bit in his Love and Thunder review).
But I’m here to say that the first Thor movie, just titled Thor, is better than just “okay.” In fact, I’m here to say that I think the first Thor movie is, in fact, the best Thor movie of all (yes, even better than Thor: Ragnarok), and I have five reasons why.
The First Thor Movie Is Subtly Hilarious, Which Gives It More Mileage As A Comedy Than The Other Thor Films
A lot of people tend to believe that Guardians of the Galaxy was the first MCU movie that was intentionally a comedy, and yeah. I get it. Most of the cast of Guardians of the Galaxy is really funny. But for me, I think that Thor: Ragnarok was really the first MCU movie that wanted to be a comedy first and a superhero movie second.
Thor: Ragnarok is funny and packed with a lot of hilarious moments, and I think it succeeded at being a comedy. Or at least, that’s what I initially thought. You see, I’m kind of just getting back into the MCU again after a long extended period of getting off the Marvel hype train (believe me, I needed the break). After watching all four Thor movies again, I have to say, I didn’t find Thor: Ragnarok to be nearly as funny as the first time that I watched it.
Yes, it’s definitely more successful at being funny than Thor: Love and Thunder, which I watched for a second time recently without cracking a single smile. However, I feel like once you’ve seen Matt Damon playing Loki once, or the Hulk being more annoyed than angry, the joke has kind of worn thin.
That said, no matter how many times I watch the first Thor movie, I find myself laughing. And it’s not like a 'bang you over the head'-kind of humor, either, but much more subtle. Case in point, I laugh every time without fail when Thor flips over the table and Volstagg (played by Ray Stevenson, RIP), who loves to eat, walks into the room heartbroken and says, “What’s this?”
Or what about when Thor talks about his “mortal form” growing weak, and how he needs “sustenance”? Or what about what I think is still the funniest moment in MCU history when Odin, who, in a fit of rage, just yells, “HUERGHHH!” at Loki? It’s all these moments and more that make the humor in the first Thor movie hold up the best for me.
The Mix Of Earth And Asgard Truly Makes Asgard Feel Magical
One thing that I feel was lost, even as early as in the second Thor movie, was the sense of magic. I think a lot of this is because we got so little of Asgard in the first Thor movie, and so the small amount we did get felt truly magical.
In later Thor movies, we got a lot more spacey stuff, and this went SUPER overboard in the third and fourth movies. But, there’s just something special about Asgard (even today) when it comes to that first film.
I liken it to the first Harry Potter movie. Yes, you might argue that Hogwarts is even more well-established in the later Harry Potter films that were not directed by Chis Columbus, but for me, those first two movies (especially the first one) are the most magical since it really feels like the template was being set down, and I get that same feeling with the first Thor movie.
It also helps that we get so much of Earth (a.k.a. Midgard) in the first Thor. In fact, every time I sit down and watch it (and I’ve probably seen it about 10 times now), I still get that sense of wonder when Thor shatters the Bifrost. It legitimately looks real, and it feels like him severing the bridge has real consequences to it, which is something I don’t entirely feel in any of the later Thor movies.
It’s More Interesting To View A Pre-Avengers Loki
I don’t think it’s controversial to say that Loki is one of the MCU’s best characters. And with the recent Season 2 finale of Loki (Which we felt was wacky and emotional, but also a bit confusing), it’s also safe to say that he’s one of the most important characters in the MCU as well. Honestly, he’s been that way ever since the first Avengers movie, where he was the lead antagonist.
But Thor is extremely fascinating since it’s our first (and only) look at Loki before he was an out-and-out villain. Yes, anybody who has ever read a Marvel comic before probably already knew that Loki was turning to the dark side, but here we have a character who isn’t smarmy or villainous, but actually kind of sympathetic.
In Thor, Loki seems jealous and slighted, but he isn’t entirely impossible to root for during the story. Yes, we root for Loki now because he’s had a great deal of character development on his own series, but I love that we have a Thor movie where Loki still seemed like he had a chance to turn everything around if he wanted to. We only really get that in the first Thor film.
The Story Is Compact And Self-Contained
Ah yes, much can be said about the first Phase of the MCU. When looking at just the first four Phases, I’d actually rank Phase 1 as being close to the top, and that’s because it all felt so fresh and new back then.
While the cinematic universe was being constructed from the very beginning with that post-credits scene in Iron Man, the thing that I still look back upon so fondly with that first Phase was that every movie felt like its own thing.
What I mean is, post-The Avengers, every subsequent MCU film kind of felt like it was just building toward something grander. In fact, it almost got to a point where some lesser-MCU films (I’m not going to name names, but we all have our MCU films that we don’t love) felt more like a bridge to the next movie rather than being a great movie in itself.
But 2011’s Thor doesn’t feel like that. We get a complete story of a cocky god who gets humbled, and it’s an excellent example of the hero’s journey. Thor: The Dark World felt more like a hodgepodge of ideas, and its two sequels… well, I’ll get to that next.
It Did The Best Job Of Actually Being About Its Title Character
Look, I still enjoy Thor: Ragnarok, but honestly, whose movie is it really anyway? Yes, Thor finds himself in the end (he’s the God of Thunder, not the God of Hammers!), but there is just so much going on in that movie and so many characters (Hela, Loki, Hulk, etc) that Thor kind of gets lost in his own story. One could also make the argument that Thor: Love and Thunder is really more Jane Foster’s movie than Thor’s. And fine, I’m not saying that a Thor movie has to only focus on its title character. However, it is still nice to have a Thor movie that purely focuses on its title character.
Thor: The Dark World doesn’t do a terrible job of this, but it does such a terrible job of being interesting that I don’t even care about Thor in that movie. The first Thor, on the other hand, still does the best job of being an actual movie about Thor, and it feels like Chris Hemsworth’s best performance in the MCU since it all falls squarely on his shoulders.
For that reason (and many others), the first Thor movie is still the best Thor movie because it’s the one that’s THE MOST ABOUT ITS TITLE CHARACTER. Because shouldn’t a Thor movie be about its title character? I mean, I would hope so, right?
But what are your thoughts? Are you still in the “Thor: Ragnarok is the best Thor movie, and that’s that,” crowd, or have I managed to convince you? Either way, for more news on all things concerning the MCU, be sure to swing around here often!
