The Thor franchise sums up the entire history of the Marvel Cinematic Universe

polygon.com:

Time was, you could binge every entry in theMarvel Cinematic Universe in a single marathon session. That was a simpler era — now, you’d need to set aside days to digest the 29 movies, 19 TV shows, and eight short films that currently make up the franchise. Fortunately, there’s a quicker and easier way to relive the entire history of the MCU: You could just rewatch the stand-alone Thormovies.

Not only can you knock over these four flicks in less than eight hours, you’ll also enjoy a Bifrost-quick journey through the evolution of Marvel Studios’ shared universe itself. It’s not just that each movie — including the latest, Thor: Love and Thunder — lays vital narrative groundwork for the wider franchise. It’s that these Chris Hemsworth-headlined blockbusters perfectly embody the creative milestones and missteps that characterized the MCU’s four major story groupings, or Phases, to date. This is no accident — each of the Odinson’s four solo outings was released in a different phase of the MCU, so it’s only natural that they reflect their respective eras.

To paraphrase the first chapter heading in Batman: Year One, Thor’s story is the story of the MCU — what it is and how it came to be.

Revisited today, 2011’s Thor is emblematic of the ways Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige and those around him worked to nail down the MCU template through Phase One. There’s a lot here that’s instantly, recognizably in line with what later became the franchise’s distinctive brand of storytelling, but there’s plenty missing, too.

Most obviously, with Thor,Marvel Studios seems a little uncertain about exactly what kind of tone it’s trying to strike. Director Kenneth Branagh handles the fantasy adventure and fish-out-of-water comedy elements