Review Detail

WOW! First off, I must start by saying that I am a fan of the Thor movie that we got. That said, Malthus' edit restructures the Thor origin story to make for a totally different viewing experience! I quite enjoyed the first act, keeping the mystery of Thor's Asgardian heritage alive and focusing on Jane Foster's perspective. In many ways, this version feels more like the kind of Thor movie we would eventually get with Ragnarok.

By keeping the story more Earth centric for the first act, the movie fits more seamlessly into the greater MCU, as the familiar element of SHIELD is introduced pretty quickly and serves as an obstacle for our main characters before we are introduced to Loki and the Frost Giants. Then having the second act jump to Asgard helps with making the finale feel even more epic as the story comes full circle.

A few minor gripes: some of the deleted scenes could use some improved sound mixing (there are moments where the score overpowers dialog, and weapons being drawn have no sound effects before the coronation). Also, due to the restructured narrative, the film does start to slow down in the second act. There are a few moments throughout where scenes cut somewhat abruptly, where in the original it would cut from Earth to Asgard, here we cut to another Earth based scene and the pacing doesn't always work as some transitions are a bit jarring.

I still love this as an alternate take on Thor, and know I will be watching it countless more times as I binge the MCU in the future!