We haven't seen the Godblast but 1 Age of Ultron showed Thor generating lightening without Mjolnir. 2His power unleashed was enough to shatter Ultron's extinction event. In The Dark World he unleashed enough power to almost destroy an Infinity Stone.3 Later without Mjolnir he single-handedly battled Malekith empowered by the Reality Stone across three of the nine realms. 4He single-handedly took down several Leviathans in The Avengers while we saw Hulk take down ONE.5 He raised a tornado in the desert and destroyed the Destroyer. In the first Thor, he laid waste to Jotunheim and shattered the Rainbow Bridge. He has one-shotted a Kronan and a gargantuan ice beast, gone toe-to-toe with the Hulk induced to an uncontrollable state of rage via Loki and the Mind Stone and 6he head butted an Asgardian power juiced Iron Man a country mile. He swung cars while flying in Sokovia and 7again without Mjolnir battled Ultron in his supreme Vibranium form. What in the world are people talking about when they say Thor's power has been inconsistent? This is the biggest load of bollocks I see repeated ad nauseum and I just don't get it. If you're going to make a statement like this then back it up already with some facts.
Let me start with... AHEM... I am a THOR fan too. Been since the 80's and the Simonson days. So if you want to take this as a dis against Thor you can... You'd be wrong, but you're free to take it as you will. I come at this from the point of view that most in the general audience HAVEN'T READ A THOR COMIC, and AREN'T AWARE OF COMIC BOOK THOR. So, it matters to me that they get across his power and abilities and to my mind... No. It's been inconsistent and VAGUE in the MCU. I run across too many people who are not comic book fans, who know Thor only through the MCU films and think he's EMPOWERED solely through the hammer. He's not been well served by this in the films I think. As for your list... This I is my take:
1- Correct me if I am wrong but that unleashing of lightning was in a "dream/vision" sequence, yes? So... Eh.
2- The shattering of Ultron's "meteor" was impressive but... It was done through the hammer. Great feat... But you will see a trend here.
3- The final fight in TDW I found, like most of the action, pretty lackluster. I don't even remember any impressive moves done against Malekith except that one hammer strike as they were flying through the portals. Let's also remember that this is the film where the incredibly UN-impressive MCU Kurse pummels him. Yeah, Kurse in the comics is a level above Hulk and comic Thor supposedly, but MCU Kurse was not presented in such a way that I think most of the general public would think, "Oh man, Hulk would get creamed by Kurse". Sorry, that's not how that came across. It's a very lame fight to boot. So not only does Thor get pummeled, it's not even all that memorable or impressive, on either side. Thor didn't look like he was fighting at an awe inspiring level but was outmatched never the less by an even more physically powerful foe, and Kurse... Again was just lame.
4- Again... Hammer. He uses the lighting coming from the Hammer and when he and Hulk kill the one that crashes into Grand Central, how does he do it? Can you say... HAMMER.
5- Tornado against the Destroyer? HAMMER. Frost Giant world destruction? HAMMER. Breaking the Bifrost? HAMMER. Shattering a Kronan? Crashing through an Ice Beast skull? HAMMER.
6- Be honest... He didn't head butt IM a mile. Now true, the fight against IM is cool as hell and I liked that it definitely showed that IM was outclassed purely by Thor's physical abilities alone. He would have easily pulled that armor off him it seems. That said... When Thor and Loki go at it in Stark Tower, it's like two normal guys going at it rather than the fight of two "gods". Even once Thor gets pissed... meh. If he's AS strong as the Hulk why didn't his body slam of Loki resemble the one Hulk gives him in the famous "Puny God" scene?
7- See what I remember of Thor battling Ultron was him being choked by one hand of the killer robot and struggling at that, only for it to be a set up for a joke about "distraction", hardly something akin to him going blow for blow with Ultron. When his attacks are shown to be effective, what is it that is used? Oh yeah... Lightning from the Hammer.
This is what I am talking about. Look... I have cut the MCU slack for this as well. When Thor goes diving out of the way of the incoming fire from that F-22 in A1, you can fanwank all sorts of reasons why that is, myself mostly thinking, "getting shot, even if it can't harm you probably still hurts". Still... It didn't help in establishing Thor's physical power, which I would prefer BE at Hulk level. Yes, these are the films, and there will always be changes, and for the most part I accept that. But there has been this strange inconsistency in his power, and I think the overall effect is to give the audience the impression that Thor is a one hammer trick Asgardian. The emphasis has been on the hammer and it's abilities and not on Thor's strength, and I think that's a pretty big part of his power set. If there had been a scene akin to Thor ripping off a tank turret with his bare hands or picking up a huge boulder or piece of debris in Sokovia, then I would say that they have been presenting him as on par, WITHOUT THE HAMMER, with Hulk. But it's been 4 live action outings so far and Thor is NOT being presented the way Hulk has been or Superman in MOS... AND HE SHOULD BE, for myself anyway.
This isn't a casting aspersions on the character, but on the way he has been presented on film. You can call it "bollocks" but I don't think they have given us any truly physically powerful moment or moments to point to and say, "Aha... SEE... He is at Hulk's level."
Which is why I am hoping we get that with Hulk teaming with Thor in this film. Them accomplishing similar physical feats (sans Hammer) side by side would go a LONG way towards establishing once and for all Thor's strength bona fides.
Thor is a beast,sure not comic-beast,but very powerful nonetheless.
Guess we will find out when final details of the story are worked out..
