At the time, the first Thor had quite the cultural impact though, at least here in England. "Superheroes do Shakespeare", Sir Anthony Hopkins strutting around,

At the time, the first Thor had quite the cultural impact though, at least here in England. "Superheroes do Shakespeare", Sir Anthony Hopkins strutting around, Idris Elba's "Black Heimdall", and a certain female view in Natalie Portman's character, were the talk of the town for quite a while around these isles. The problem it has now is just that is not as funny as the rest of MCU - back then the formula was still being developed and they were trying different things, likely leaving more freedom to directors (see also the difference in experience for Favreau between the first and second IronMan - when clearly the suits stepped in to freeze the setup). I agree the second Thor is basically a footnote (I think I watched it but tbh I don't really remember it), but then Ragnarok comes and it's so fun... Also Thor becomes pretty central to the Avengers storyline, tying up the Earth side and the cosmic side. I think "C-level" is way too harsh.