Never mind that 1990 is ancient history. For Thor, it's always hammer time.
 And with a hammer this cool, why wouldn't it be? It looks like someone strapped a slab of iron the size of a bread maker on a stick and called it good. Try framing a basement with this sucker, and you'll likely need a new basement. But Thor's hammer isn't really for pounding in 4-inch concrete anchors. And it's not even just for taking down 40-foot monsters. It can be hurled like a boomerang, spun like a set of nunchucks and can change the weather. It is, in the words of Thor's pop, King Odin, "a weapon to destroy or a tool to build."
Try getting something like that at Home Depot.
Thor's the perfect guy to wield a hammer like that—or at least so thinks he. He's the heir to the great throne of Asgard. And he's got biceps bigger than bowling balls. So why not, he figures. But not to build, at least not quite yet. Thor's more of a demolition kind of guy. So when he learns that the family palace was nearly burgled by a handful of frost giants—eternal enemies of Asgard—Thor decides it's time to put the hammer to good use. Defying Odin's orders, he, his brother Loki and a handful of his best buds gallop across the Rainbow Bridge, get zapped into space and barge into the frost giants' chilly kingdom.
It almost goes without saying that Odin's none too pleased with Thor's willful disobedience. He was actually on the brink of crowning the boy king before this whole giant fiasco began. Now Odin wonders if perhaps his plan was too hasty. So the father calls the son a "vain, greedy, cruel boy"—and the son shoots right back with, "You are an old man and a fool!"
Well. Odin's had just about enough of that kind of talk. Hoping to teach Thor a lesson, he banishes him to Earth, sending the hammer along for the ride. The catch: Thor's just an ordinary guy down here (albeit extraordinarily large), and his nifty hammer's frozen in rock—a sort of "sword in the stone" trope to ensure that no one, not even Odin's No. 1 son, will use the thing until he's good and worthy.
Looks like Thor has some growing up to do.
:: Review
"When you learn you don't have all the answers, you ask the right questions," Erik tells Thor. It's a paradox of sorts—the idea that we're a step closer to wisdom when we admit our ignorance—but we know it instinctively to be true. This film pounds away at that concept and, in so doing, becomes something of a conundrum itself. It's a spectacular, silly action movie that, in spite of itself, has something to say.
We know all along that Thor is incredibly strong—yet he finds his true power when he's at his weakest. We know him to be a hero, and yet he's at his most heroic when he bows his head in submission. He was born to be a king but proves his worth in exile. He was trained to be a warrior but makes his most impressive stand without weapons, without armor. He scores his greatest victory when he suffers a killing blow.
I could go on. Some of this calls to mind, of course, another counterintuitive King. And while making too many parallels between Christ and Thor would be pointless, if not even a tad sacrilegious, they're interesting to note … and lead to yet another paradox: Thor, a film with undeniably pagan roots, can feel at times almost Christian.
I won't and don't want to intimate any sort of an excuse for those ungodly underpinnings or the film's unremitting violence. Thor, like its namesake, has issues. But it still showcases a true superhero—one who becomes all the more heroic when he's not doing anything super at all.
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