Thor: Odinson? - A Fanedit of Thor (2011) - Complete

[Malthus]

Main aims:

#1 Reorder the narrative
#2 Rescore the film
#3 Reinstate several deleted scenes

Bonus aim: Make a 'what if' scenario

#1 'Thor: Odinson?' will attempt to maintain an air of mystery around Thor and leave the audience to question whether he truly is the son of Odin. In the original when Natalie Portman finds Thor in the desert she questions where he came from leading the viewer to immediately be shown Asgard in all its glory. This edit will delay that reveal until Lady Sif and the warriors three arrive on earth effectively switching the first and second act. We'll watch Thor confuse his new earthly companions, see him desperately break into a military facility to prove his claims and witness as he ultimately fails to lift Mjolnir. Then we will find out why.

#2 I adore Thor: Ragnarok and I would like to try to rescore Thor in a similar '80's synth pop rock opera' way. I find the film's original score a little po-faced and I feel a little synthwave energy would help elevate the Asgardian battle scenes and make them feel less like Lord of the Rings derivatives.

#3 There are some wonderful deleted scenes which add development to both Thor, Loki and Frigga. I'll not be adding all 25 minutes worth back in but I would like to try to reinstate some of them.

Bonus: Recut all the earth bound scenes to make a short film about a man who truly believes he is a god...

but isn't.

​​​​​​So, that's the plan. Thoughts and feedback welcomed.

 

[Malthus]

 

[Jrzag42]

I love this idea! Now, if only you could completely remove the Asgard stuff, and have Thor really just be crazy.

 

[Malthus]

I love this idea! Now, if only you could completely remove the Asgard stuff, and have Thor really just be crazy.

Thanks. That would make a nice 'what if' scenario. There is surprisingly little none Asgardian content with less than 50% of the film (roughly 40 mins) actually set on earth. I reckon if you took out all of the Asgardian stuff you would end up with a 20 minute short. I'll update the original post and add it as a bonus aim

 

[Jrzag42]

I love this idea! Now, if only you could completely remove the Asgard stuff, and have Thor really just be crazy.

Thanks. That would make a nice 'what if' scenario. There is surprisingly little earth bound content. Less than 50% of the film (roughly 40 mins) is actually set on earth. If reckon if you took out all of the Asgardian stuff you would end up with a 20 minute short. I'll update the original post and add it as a bonus aim

Ah, I was afraid that may be the case. I haven't watched Thor in a while. Your main idea is interesting nonetheless and I'm definitely looking forward to it. A bonus short would be pretty neat.

 

[flaminio]

There was an editor who previously took a shot at a Thor fan-edit. He never finished it and got himself banned in the process, but perhaps reading his experience would be helpful:

https://fanedit.org/forums/showthread.php?tid=18417

 

[Malthus]

There was an editor who previously took a shot at a Thor fan-edit. He never finished it and got himself banned in the process, but perhaps reading his experience would be helpful:

https://fanedit.org/forums/showthread.php?tid=18417

Thanks, that was quite the rollercoaster. Unlike that project I'm not planning to include all the deleted scenes and I'll be playing around with the narrative structure of the film. I'm unsure which deleted scene will actually be used yet. I'm story boarding the idea at the moment while researching soundtrack ideas.  

If anyone has some suggestions for music I'm all ears. Right now I'm leaning towards a synthwave/retrowave sound with maybe some Toto thrown in for good measure.

Things like this (and more up tempo tracks)

This is far too heavy but I love its music video

 

[Malthus]

I love this idea! Now, if only you could completely remove the Asgard stuff, and have Thor really just be crazy.

A quick proof of concept video.

In hindsight I realised there is a way to improve this. Several shots in the original scene linger on Thor's face while Loki is talking so I can go back and try to remove Loki's dialogue and repurpose the footage so I have more varied shots of Thor and don't need to rely on the empty room footage so much.

 

[Malthus]

Second attempt at removing Loki from the interrogation scene

 

[Malthus]

I've been listening to Carpenter Brut's soundtrack for Blood Machines and think I'll be using it as the basis for the score. I would like to use this soundtrack style from the midpoint of the movie once we flash back to Thor's origin on Asgard. Prior to that I'd like to use a soundtrack that empathises Thor's dubious mentality so I will be exploring soundtracks from films like 'One  flew over the cockcoos nest' for inspiration.

 

[sigh_riss]

This is a very interesting concept for a Thor edit.
Looking forward to seeing it when it's done

 

[mnkykungfu]

I love your idea for the narrative shift, I think it could make it a much more interesting film (and I'd be interested to see how you work in "flashbacks" to Thor losing his powers or the Frost Giants storyline, etc).  This is very similar to how Thor was handled in The Ultimates (the comic series much of The Avengers was based on.)  In that comic book, even after he displays his powers, the other Avengers think he's probably just a mutant with delusions, not actually A God.  It's a pretty cool take on the character.

I'll say that for me personally your interrogation concept goes too far.  Loki is one of the best parts of the film, and I like his manipulation of Thor.  Not hearing his dialogue is slightly confusing, and misses that manipulation.  Simply reordering the scenes could be enough for a first-time viewer to wonder if this crazy guy is hallucinating.  Or perhaps eliminating the Loki visuals but keeping the audio in would be effective.

When I first heard your ideas for rescoring Thor, it seemed very unnecessary to me.  The Devo synthpop in Thor:Ragnarok was jarring for me, and seemed out-of-place... fitting for a Guardians of the Galaxy film, or Tron, but not Asgardian gods.  That said, I liked the more subtle, atmospheric synth tracks you posted.  Something like "Intro" would be jarringly discordant for Thor in my opinion, but you convinced me that synthesizers as a whole could work.

Just thoughts from a passionate old-school Thor fan.  Good luck with the project!

 

[Malthus]

I love your idea for the narrative shift...
Just thoughts from a passionate old-school Thor fan.  Good luck with the project!

Yes! I love the Ultimates interpretation of Thor, especially his Hawaiian shirts!

Thank you for the feedback. Just to clarify the interrogation scene I posted isn't going to appear in the feature film. That was a test of jrWHAG42's suggestion for having Thor actually be crazy. I am planning on creating a short about it as well as reworking the feature film.

As to flashbacks the intention is that there will only be one prolonged flashback. The current narrative structure looks like this:

Act one: Earth

Thor wakes on earth and is hospitalised only to be befriended by Natalie Portman et al. After he fails to lift Mjolnir he is interrogated by Coulson and Loki. (This is the first time we see Loki.) Thor is released. He then gets drunk and wakes the next day to discover his friends Lady Sif and the warriors three have arrived on earth looking for him. This act will reinstate two deleted scenes: Thor in hospital and Thor and Selvig getting drunk.

Act two: Asgard

We flash back to Thor's origin. We see the history of the frost giants, Thor's coronation and subsequent banishment and are see Loki ascend to the throne forcing Lady Sif and the warriors three to go in search of Thor.

Act Three: Thor

We witness the Thor reclaim his powers, defeat the Destroyer and head back to his home to confront Loki.

The end

Re: Rescoring. Honestly I'm not sure whether I can pull it off, it's certainly the most ambitious part of the project. The hope is to inject a little brand consistency into the Thor Trilogy. I'll give an update about the music in a future post.

 

[mnkykungfu]

^Interesting!  Do you have a rough estimate for how long that middle "flashback" will be?  I'd reckon a good 35-45 min?  I ask because geeeeenerally I'm not a huge fan of movies that play out with one huge flashback section (rather than artfully cutting back and forth).  However, your structure sounds good some I'm reserving judgement to see how you do the transitions.  This is an exciting project!

(For what it's worth, I think the best reason to restructure it this way is to wonder if "Thor" is a reliable narrator...so any tweaks you could make to the beginning to add to this feeling would be great!  It also helps to sell the romance, as Thor and Jane would be the only 2 people who really believe each other's crazy ideas...)

 

[Canon Editor]

As much as I don’t like MCU movies, I’m intrigued by this cut. It sounds really interesting. Good luck!

 

[Malthus]

^Interesting!  Do you have a rough estimate for how long that middle "flashback" will be? 

In the original the film starts with Thor being found by Jane then it flashes back to Asgard for roughly 25 minutes where we see Thor's banishment. Afterwards the film switches between Asgard and Earth for 50 minutes before Loki attacks earth.

In my edit all the earth scenes will be cut together giving us around 35 minutes before then we cut to Asgard. Thor would be banished after 25 minutes and we then follow Loki's rise to power for 15 minutes. I'll get back to you regarding more accurate timings. One of my aim here is not to necessarily cut content but to reorder it.

 

[Malthus]

I fear rescoring this is beyond me at the moment.

When I split the AC3 into WAVs the central channel was not clear but the music was significantly muted. Naively I had hoped I might be able to do something about it. After playing around with the tracks on Audacity I fear I can't successfully mask the music and avoid bleeding without impacting the rest of the audio.

I'm going to shelve the rescore for the time being and focus on the other aspects of this edit.

 

[TinyBreadMouse]

This idea came to me while editing my MCU TV series but to avoid this simply being two episodes of that project stitched together I have decided on three main aims to make it entirely it's own thing. I also found it odd that I couldn't find a fan edit of the original Thor film so I decided I'd take a crack at it.

Main aims:

#1 Reorder the narrative
#2 Rescore the film
#3 Reinstate several deleted scenes

Bonus aim: Make a 'what if' scenario

#1 'Thor: Odinson?' will attempt to maintain an air of mystery around Thor and leave the audience to question whether he truly is the son of Odin. In the original when Natalie Portman finds Thor in the desert she questions where he came from leading the viewer to immediately be shown Asgard in all its glory. This edit will delay that reveal until Lady Sif and the warriors three arrive on earth effectively switching the first and second act. We'll watch Thor confuse his new earthly companions, see him desperately break into a military facility to prove his claims and witness as he ultimately fails to lift Mjolnir. Then we will find out why.

#2 I adore Thor: Ragnarok and I would like to try to rescore Thor in a similar '80's synth pop rock opera' way. I find the film's original score a little po-faced and I feel a little synthwave energy would help elevate the Asgardian battle scenes and make them feel less like Lord of the Rings derivatives.

#3 There are some wonderful deleted scenes which add development to both Thor, Loki and Frigga. I'll not be adding all 25 minutes worth back in but I would like to try to reinstate some of them.

Bonus: Recut all the earth bound scenes to make a short film about a man who truly believes he is a god...

but isn't.

​​​​​​So, that's the plan. Thoughts and feedback welcomed.

Sounds like a great edit, can't wait to see a cutlist.

 

[Malthus]

Sounds like a great edit, can't wait to see a cutlist.

Thank you. In all honesty very little will be cut, at least that's the intention. It's less about removing things and more about moving things.

Naturally some cuts will have to be made and scenes will be trimmed for the benefit of the new transitions. So far the only actual cut I've made is from merging the intro scene of Jane, Selvig and Darcy finding Thor with its reprisal later in the film which removed a few seconds of duplicated dialogue.

I'll put together a comprehensive list of alterations once I've sorted out the film's timeline ready for its first draft.

 

[Malthus]

I finished the first workprint of Thor: Odinson. Feedback would be most welcome.

Source: Pal DVD
Original run time 110 minutes
New run time 114 minutes
Earth arc - 39 minutes (including one deleted scene)
Asrgard arc - 41 minutes (including one deleted scene)
Final act and credits - 33 minutes

Cuts and alterations:

Added Netflix dark banner
Cut Jane, Selvig Darcy finding Thor (2.43 -3.09)
Cut Prologue*
Cut five non earth scenes**
Reinstated deleted scene of Thor and Selvig getting drunk
Trimmed hangover/breakfast scene
Inserted prologue*
Reinstated deleted scene Loki and Thor pre coronation
Inserted five non earth scenes**
Show full hangover/breakfast scene