At this point in the existence of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, where "hard sell" oddballs like Ant-Man, Groot, and Rocket have gone from being little-known characters to household names, it's easy to forget that many were wondering if Marvel would be able to sell the idea of a Norse god to mainstream audiences only a few years ago. In 2011, a lot was riding on Thor's arrival. We'd had two Iron Man movies and an Incredible Hulk by that point, but here was Marvel going really big for the first time, taking their first of many risks since. And succeed they did, with Thor's first outing winning over fans, opening many doors for the future expansion of the MCU, and granting the character a future that's now four appearances deep, with several more on the way. In comparison to, say, the Iron Man trilogy or the huge critical and financial upswing Captain America's own sequel got in the wake of The Avengers, however, Thor's two films haven't quite hit the same level of adoration as those of his fellow team members, enjoyable though they may be. The next time we'll be seeing the character will be in 2017's Thor: Ragnarok, which promises to be as game-changing for the MCU as the events of The Winter Soldier were in 2014. With two films under the franchise's belt already, there's a lot Thor's third solo go-round can learn from the reception and criticism - constructive and otherwise - of its predecessors to help turn it into a film truly worthy of the God of Thunder...
Writer, film enthusiast, part-time gamer and watcher of (mostly) good television located on the fringe of Los Angeles, who now has his own website at www.highdefgeoff.com!
