Thor is a 2011 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name. Produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Paramount Pictures, it is the fourth film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).
It was directed by Kenneth Branagh, written by the writing team of Ashley Edward Miller and Zack Stentz along with Don Payne, and stars Chris Hemsworth as the title character alongside Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddleston, Stellan Skarsgård, Colm Feore, Ray Stevenson, Idris Elba, Kat Dennings, Rene Russo, and Anthony Hopkins. After reigniting a dormant war, Thor is banished from Asgard to Earth, stripped of his powers and his hammer Mjölnir. As his brother Loki (Hiddleston) plots to take the Asgardian throne, Thor must prove himself worthy.
Sam Raimi first developed the concept of a film adaptation based on ‘Thor’ in 1991, but soon abandoned the project, leaving it in ‘development hell’ for several years. During this time, the rights were picked up by various film studios until Marvel signed Mark Protosevich to develop the project in 2006, and planned to finance and release it through Paramount. Matthew Vaughn was assigned to direct the film for a tentative 2010 release.
However, after Vaughn was released from his holding deal in 2008, Branagh was approached and the film’s release was rescheduled to 2011. The main characters were cast in 2009, and principal photography took place in California and New Mexico from January to May 2010. The film was converted to 3D in post-production.
Thor premiered in Sydney on April 17, 2011, and was released in the United States on May 6, as part of Phase One of the MCU. The film was a financial success, earning $449.3 million worldwide. Critics praised the performances, characters, themes and special effects but criticized the plot. Two sequels have been released: Thor: The Dark World (2013) and Thor: Ragnarok (2017). A fourth film, Thor: Love and Thunder, is scheduled to be released in July 2022.
Production
Sam Raimi originally envisioned the idea for ‘Thor’ after making Darkman (1990); he met Stan Lee and pitched the concept to 20th Century Fox, but they did not understand it. Thor was abandoned until April 1997, when Marvel Studios was beginning to expand rapidly.
The film gained momentum after the success of ‘X-Men’ (2000). The plan was for Thor to be made for television. UPN was in talks for airing it; excited by the prospect, they pushed for a script and approached Tyler Mane to play Thor. In May 2000, Marvel Studios brought Artisan Entertainment to help finance it as a film, but by June 2004 the project still had yet to be patronized by a studio. Sony Pictures Entertainment finally purchased the film rights, and in December 2004 David S. Goyer was in negotiations to write and direct. By 2005, though there were talks between Goyer and Marvel, Goyer was no longer interested, though at this point the film was still set to be distributed through Sony Pictures.
Mark Protosevich, a fan of the ‘Thor’ comic book, agreed to write the script in 2006, and the project moved to Paramount Pictures, after it acquired the rights from Sony. That year the film was announced to be a Marvel Studios production.
In 2007, Protosevich described his plans for it “to be like a superhero origin story, but not one about a human gaining super powers, but of a god realizing his true potential. It’s the story of an Old Testament god who becomes a New Testament god.”
In 2007 Marvel Studios signed Matthew Vaughn to direct the film. Vaughn then rewrote Protosevich’s script in order to bring down the budget to $150 million, as Protosevich’s first draft would have cost $300 million to produce. After the success of Iron Man, Marvel Studios announced that they intended to release ‘Thor’ on June 4, 2010, with Iron Man 2 being used to introduce the character of Thor.
Critical response
The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported a 77% approval rating, with an average rating of 6.70/10, based on 289 reviews. The website’s consensus reads, “A dazzling blockbuster that tempers its sweeping scope with wit, humor, and human drama, Thor is mighty Marvel entertainment.” Metacritic assigned a weighted average score of 57 out of 100, based on 40 critics, indicating “mixed or average reviews”. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of “B+” on an A+ to F scale.
Richard Kuipers of ‘Variety’ stated, “Thor delivers the goods so long as butt is being kicked and family conflict is playing out in celestial dimensions, but is less thrilling during the Norse warrior god’s rather brief banishment on Earth”. Megan Lehmann of ‘The Hollywood Reporter’ wrote, “The hammer-hurling god of thunder kicks off this superhero summer with a bang”. In the ‘Chicago Sun-Times’, Richard Roeper liked the film “Thanks in large part to a charming, funny and winning performance from Australian actor Chris Hemsworth in the title role, ‘Thor’ is the most entertaining superhero debut since the original Spider-Man”.
Roger Ebert of the ‘Chicago Sun-Times’ gave it a negative review stating, “Thor is a failure as a movie, but a success as marketing, an illustration of the ancient carnival tactic of telling the rubes anything to get them into the tent”. A.O. Scott of ‘The New York Times’ disliked the film, calling it “an example of the programmed triumph of commercial calculation over imagination”. Kenneth Turan of the ‘Los Angeles Times’ had mixed feelings, describing the film as “an aesthetic stand-off between predictable elements and unexpected ones”. Turan praised the performances of Hemsworth, Hopkins, and Elba, but found the special effects inconsistent and the Earth storyline derivative.
