Thor (2011)

"Well, 'Magic's just science we don't understand yet.' Arthur C. Clarke." Dr. Jane Foster

My favorite thing about Thor is how amazing Jane is. She's intelligent, independent, she takes intiative, and she's not afraid of things that she doesn't understand. She embraces them and analyzes them. This is the kind of woman that needs to be featured in these kind of films. (Marvel has proven to be very good at this. See The Amazing Spider-Man and Iron Man 3.) Beyond that, we have a pretty interesting plot here. I mean, it's pretty daring to take a superhero film and remove the superhero from it. Thor is mortal for a good portion of this film and his story becomes less about his powers and more about his journey to find himself and fight for what he believes to be right. He grows up and matures throughout the film and it's just done very well. Though the true villain of the film isn't particularly interesting, the development of Loki as a character is. He makes plans, and you never really know how much of them you know about. He may or may not do exactly what he says he will, and you never really know his true motivation behind any of his actions. He's an interesting character with an interesting past and a whole lot of ideas in his head. Though he's not really the villain in this film, he's a good character who has his own journey to finding himself. The relationships between all of the characters are crafted very well and are portrayed flawlessly. None of them are just skin deep. They are used in interesting ways to further the story and they are entertaining to watch. For a series which has so far been entirely based around science, the 'magic' was done well and explained in a very scientific way to help Thor fit into the rest of the films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The film itself was beautiful and the attention to detail in the sets and the costuming was breathtaking.

Rank: 36