Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Whosoever holds this Hammer

The Uru Hammer, the original super weapon commissioned by Odin to be built for his heir. Forged in the heart of a dieing star, by the dwarven blacksmiths, infused with the Power of the All Father. And who wields this mighty weapon non other than the Odinson the Mighty

Thor

We open in the norselands upon a Village appear the frost Giants with their mighty weapon the casket. After freezing all the villagers solid and appearing to be on their way to conquer the planet earth and leave it a frozen mass. To help defend planet earth come the Asgardians lead by Odin himself. The war rages all the way back to the Frost giants home world of Jotunheim. The losses on both sides were many but in the end Odin defeats Laufey and takes the frost giants casket.



We see Odin recounting this story to his two sons looking at the casket, a blonde headed child Thor and his raven haired brother Loki. As they walk out the two boys are excited as they pass many trinkets stored in the vault including the Uru hammer the Mighty Mjolnir.

We switch to Albuquerque, Nm Dr. Jane Foster and her team are out in the desert to observe a cosmic phenomenon all the sudden a twister hits the ground and as they barrel to it graze a man on the road. He is tall, broad shouldered, blonde and bearded. He seems uninjured by the collision though he is speaking strangely and as they ask him who he is we are taken on a flashback:

The man is a fully grown Thor it seems on what was to be his coronation day the ceremony is interrupted by a couple of frost giants it seems they have snuck in to steal their mystical casket in hopes of rebuilding their fallen kingdom. From the ceremony Odin calls forth the Destroyer a magical technical marvel that blows the 3 unfortunate frost giants to smithereens. Thor is livid, while Odin sees the actions of a few random frost giants Thor is ready for war with the mind of a warrior only he is ready to storm Jotunheim and demand answers swinging Mjolnir and cracking Frost Giant skulls. Loki silver tongued as always seems to speak in accordance with his father for patience and understanding.

Later in Thor's hall after Thor upends the table in come the Warriors 3 (Fandral, Hogun, and Volstagg) as well as the warrior maiden Sif. While being forbidden by his father Odin, Thor convinces the warriors 3, Sif and Loki to accompany him to Jotunheim to demand answers after convincing Heimdall to let them pass(and as Heimdall had never before failed in his duties as guardian of the gate he was inclined to let them go) but he gave them a somber warning: "If Asgard appears to be threatened I will not reopen the Bifrost and you will die where you stand". Upon arriving in Jotunheim and finding the "capital city"(or whats left of it) Utgard, Thor demands Laufey explain the trespass into Asgard, Laufey reminds him of the truce and offers Thor and company the chance to leave as they are well outnumber and with much coaxing from Loki, Sif and the warriors 3 Thor turns to leave and would have left save one Frost Giant opening his big mouth and saying "Yes run home little Princess"

Now a brief aside, I don't know what you know about Vikings, Viking lore, myths or legends. I don't know how much you know about Thor the god of thunder, BUT the guy that the baddest raiders in the history of the planet bow to PROBABLY isn't the smartest guy to make "sissy" comments about. I'm not saying maybe you aren't bad enough to kick said Viking God's butt, what I am saying is why piss him off before you attempt it?

So after Thor swings his mighty Uru hammer Mjolnir and kicks much bootay amongst the frost giants, a mighty battle ensues unfortunately Fandral is injured and while they scurry away towards where the Bifrost allowed them in Thor continues to crack Frost Giant skull, when Frost Giants surround him Thor slams Mjolnir's handle upon the ground unleashing a lightning shockwave that blows back all of the enemies surrounding him as well as eats up some of the surrounding ground. Now while Thor was having fun showing Frost Giants what for, Sif, Loki and the Warriors 3 had been running from some giant Frost hound that was chasing them doggedly(no pun intended). Said frost hound APPEARED to be swallowed up by the ground but upon calling for the Bifrost to be opened it reared it's ugly head, opened it's mouth and had Thor fly through its mouth and out the back of it's head like it was a pinata(again Thor may be many things WEAK, WIMP and SISSY aren't amongst ANY of those things). Unfortunately they are surrounded by Frost Giants and as Heimdall told them, if Asgard was in danger he would not open the gate, Out of nowhere a flashing light comes down and Odin the All Father appears on his mighty steed Sleipnir giving Laufey and the frost giants pause. After asking Laufey to forgive the actions of a boy(Odin is millennia old as is Laufey so yes compared to them Thor is still kinda young), Laufey threatens war, Odin says so be it and whisks them all back to Asgard.

After ordering Fandral taken to the healing room. Thor and Odin have a huge shouting match and while Loki tries to calm them both down Thor says the one thing that seems to show him where his temper comes from. He calls Odin an old fool, and for this slip of the tongue (as well as putting Asgard in danger by going to Jotunheim) Odin strip Thor of his god hood, all of the power of his birthright and banishes him from Asgard and after using Mjolnir to cast Thor out he than speaks a magic incantation onto the hammer

Whosoever holds this hammer
if he be worthy 
shall possess the power of 
THOR
After which Odin tosses the hammer after Thor through the Bifrost. Which  brings us back to NM, unfortunately huge handsome crazy guy scares a young member of the team who then tases Thor(yes the extreme sense of irony the god of thunder being put down by electricity) as they load Thor into the back of their van and drive him to a hospital you see behind them a lightning flash that slams into the earth leaving a crater. Mjolnir has crashed to earth. Can Thor retrieve his mighty weapon and get back to Asgard.

WARNING 
as I am a marvel fan I'm about to go into deep detail about the protagonist of this movie

The Mighty Thor is a long running marvel comic. And the movie that hit theaters friday appears to be an amalgam of the "Journey into mystery" Thor origin story, The Ultimates Thor, and a few of the Rebirth of Thor stories over the past 15 years. Similar to the movie after it appeared that Thor had become to proud and boastful Odin sends him to earth as a human Donald Blake a lame medical student who required a cane to walk, who while not strong desired to help others become well. This was to show Thor humility and compassion, and when he felt that Thor had learned his lesson he tricked Blake into a cave and enclosed him behind a rock. Inside the cave lay what appeared to be a walking stick which at first Blake tried to use to leverage the rock out of the way(as he had lost his own cane on the way inside). As he was not making much progress in a fit of rage he slammed the walking stick upon the rock, and was immediately transformed into The Mighty Thor. And the former walking stick was transformed into a short handled war Hammer with the above enchantment inscribed(whosoever holds this hammer).

Now this version of Thor had a few caveats, if he slammed the handle of Mjolnir to the ground he was turned back into Don Blake. Or if Mjolnir was out of his hands for more than 60 seconds he would revert and Mjolnir would again become a stick. Odin incorporated the enchantment to remind Thor not to rely too much on the Hammer's power. As this was the Thor of the "quick change" age he had many great adventures as the sometimes mortal sometimes Odin son.

Odin would later decide Thor had learned his lesson and removed the need for him to become Don Blake anymore as well as the 60 second timer(that was transferred to a new new hammer for a new champion). This would not be Thor's only stint trapped in a mortal form, nor having his consciousness removed for the power that was Thor.

Mjolnir is also important, the inscription on the Hammer is more than just pretty words. If you are not worthy to wield Mjolnir don't bother trying to pick it up, it would seem heavier than a black hole. Marvel has shown this a few times because even the Strongest being in the Marvel Universe "The Incredible Hulk" cannot lift Mjolnir with his brute strength, nor can the Juggernaut(not with his brute strength), nor colossus. But Captain America has lifted Mjolnir as has Beta Ray Bill(Becoming Beta Ray Thor). Now they have played with the whole "worthiness" clause a few times, there have been beings who have lifted the hammer in one form and yet not another.

Loki ,Thor's brother, is known as "the trickster" a god of mischief and deception. Loki has long been jealous of Thor and has often times used his sorcery to pit Thor against other heroes or to impede some mission or task that Thor or his many compatriots have in front of them. Thor is one of the founding members of the Avengers, while Thor RARELY gets his butt kicked The Hulk has slapped him around like he has slapped everyone else around, the green Hulk only gets stronger the madder he gets so unless you can land that One Hitter Quitter you're just making mean green stronger with every hit.

I liked Thor as someone who has read Marvel comics for years they hit the marks I needed them to hit to make me feel it was a true Thor movie as well as made the necessary changes(like removing Thor's penchant for speaking in old proper English ItsJustSomeRandomGuy parodied this on youtube) so that newcomers wouldn't be turned off.

By the way stay after the credits ALL THE WAY THROUGH the credits. It's worth it to see another great easter egg. Now as I own Ironman II and never saw the supposed "Thor's face ending" I don't know if there is more than one ending like there was with X-men Origins: Wolverine so if you stay through the end and you don't see a certain "Mirror image" let me know. I would love to discuss the "different endings". So if you haven't already go check out Thor I haven't checked the final Box Office totals but going into Sunday afternoon it was doing pretty good
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I am putting this after the "break" because I know there was some "outrage" that Idris Elba was playing Heimdall the gatekeeper of Asgard also called the "White God". While he does have a few scenes it is MOSTLY a Cameo appearance they don't fight at the gate that often so um, what was the big deal. I feel he played the role perfectly, somewhat distant, impartial, and somber. If you really boycotted a movie because of an actor chosen to play the part, you are a sad person.

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