With the release ofMarvel Studios’ latestThormovie,Thor: Love and Thunder, the Norse god of thunder has now featured in eight movies. Making his debut in 2011, Thor has gone on to become a household name. As one of the only remaining members of the original Avengers team, there’s a lot of legacy riding on Thor’s back for the future of the MCU.
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Portrayed by Chris Hemsworth, Thor has been through many adventures and a great deal of grief. The god of thunder has endured and conquered, with each movie posing a new challenge for his character when he faces a foe greater than himself.
Warning: Spoilers Ahead
8Thor: Love And Thunder
The most recent entry into Thor’s story is sadly the weakest.Thor: Love and Thundersees Thor embarking on a journey to find inner peace and open his heart. However, his plans are interrupted by a new foe, Gorr, who seeks the extinction of all gods. The movie tries to do something about Thor’s love life, but, considering it was already explored inThorandThor: The Dark World, there is not a lot to offer for the sake of Thor’s growth. The movie plays as a comedy, but, sadly, it is not a very exciting comedy, especially in the handling of Thor’s character and theMarveluniverse.
Taking apart the comedy, and bringing in notable characters, the villain is lackluster, asGorr the God Butcher has a great storyin the comics, which leaves much to be desired in his limited screen time in the movie. His portrayal by Christian Bale is sadly wasted, as is the exploration of Thor’s relationship with his friends and the Guardians of the Galaxy.
7Thor: The Dark World
After the climax ofThe Avengers, Thor returns to Asgard withLoki placed in prison. The movie offers a look into the relationship between the two brothers, as well as the strained love between mother and adopted son. Loki, as always, is a scene-stealer, andhis chemistry with Thor is remarkablefor every scene they share.Thor: The Dark Worldis a good MCU movie, but it doesn’t offer enough new or exciting moments for Thor’s character to digest.
The movie features Thor setting out to defeat the leader of the Dark Elves, who seek to drown the universe in eternal darkness and Asgard along with it. Thor must team up with his brother to avenge their mother and stop the destruction of the Nine Realms. It feels like Marvel’s attempt at aStar Wars-style world, but the lack of development for Thor really holds it back.
6The Avengers
The movie that started it all,The Avengerswas a great success for Marvel in 2012. It brought together all of the characters from their individual movies and was the first major crossover to bind together a cinematic universe. The Avengers are formed after Nick Fury’s S.H.I.E.L.D is threatened by Loki, who holds the Mind Stone and the Tesseract. Although not a Thor-centric movie, his scenes are brilliant.
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It was great to see Thor return for his second cinematic appearance and to see how he interacts with characters like Iron Man and Captain America. His friendly rivalry with Hulk bloomed into a lot of fun for audiences to watch. Thor on Earth is always fun, considering how different the modern world is from Asgard, and how powerful Thor is compared to mortals.
5Thor: Ragnarok
Thor: Ragnarokwas something of a reinvention of Thor. The character started as a stoic and bold Shakespearean-esque character and entered into the realm of comedy thanks to Taika Waititi. The movie saw Thor without the mighty Mjolnir as he embarks to save his home, Asgard, from his evil sister, Hela, the goddess of death.Ragnaroksees Thor meet many colorful people, such as Valkyrie, Korg, and the reunion of a friend from work, The Incredible Hulk, who has become a famed space gladiator.
The quirky space adventure offers a lot of fun and gags for the Marvel characters, with one of the most stunning visual styles put to the Marvel movies. Thor’s solo movie has a great supporting cast, but Thor himself can be a bit of an odd-ball. The reinvention of the character sees him favor humor and silliness over his serious nature from the past movies, as well as adisregard for the supporting charactersof Thor, like Odin and the Warriors Three.
4Avengers: Endgame
After the devastating loss of half of the universe at the hands of the Mad Titan, Thanos, Thor lives in regret and resentment for his actions inAvengers: Infinity War. Going for the heart, Thor strikes Thanos to show him the bringer of his death, only for Thanos to survive just enough to complete his goal with the infinity stones. InEndgame, it has been five years, and Thor lives in a fishing village, drinking and playing video games, all whilst putting on the pounds.
As interesting as a hopeless and grief-stricken Thor sounds, he is ultimately played for gags. The reveal of a fat Thor isn’t really upsetting as it is humorous. There are some great moments, like a reunion between Thor and his mother, but his role as a jester is more prominent than his serious and broken demeanor.
3Avengers: Age of Ultron
After Tony Stark builds an artificial intelligence system in the hopes of creating peace, the AI known as Ultron goes rogue after discovering the countless wars and horrors of humanity. It’s up to The Avengers to stop Ultron from creating an extinction event that would wipe out the human race.
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Thor has a lot of room to play inAvengers: Age of Ultron. He has some great scenes alone, and with other members of the cast. Notable scenes for Thor are at the Avengers party, where they all try to lift Thor’s hammer, all whilst he watches on with smug amusement. Thor is given plenty to do in this movie, and it makes for a great watch.
2Thor
The introduction into the mystical and cosmic world of theMarvel Cinematic Universe.Thortook audiences outside of Earth for a while to show them theLord of the Rings-esque world that awaits in the realms of Asgard. With a great cast and a great set of Marvel characters,the movie had a lot of potentialand delivered some great aspects to Thor’s character.
Thor is exiled by his father, Odin, to live amongst the mortals of Earth. Odin makes Thor unworthy of wielding the hammer, Mjolnir, due to his blind pride and vanity. On Earth, Thor discovers his humanity, as well as his love for the mortal, Doctor Jane Foster. As he learns the ways of Earth, he soon finds himself worthy of his title again. Although the movie wasn’tthe highest-grossing MCU movie, it offered great insight into Thor himself.
1Avengers: Infinity War
It all came down to this. The build-up of the first ten years of the Marvel Cinematic Universe:Avengers: Infinity War. As Thanos ravishes the galaxy in search of the infinity stones, he seeks one goal: the eradication of half of the universe. Thanos invades what is left of Asgard’s people and quells their numbers,killing Heimdall and Loki in front of a helpless Thorand leaving him for dead. He is struck with vengeance.
It was great to see Thor with a purpose; a goal to strike at the heart of Thanos and bring him to his end. The movie sees Thor on a cosmic adventure to forge a new weapon worthy of Mjolnir. With the help of Groot and Rocket Racoon, Thor creates Stormbreaker. His entrance to Wakanda is nothing short of a legendary cinematic moment, and one of Thor’s best moments on the silver screen.
