Riot’s Reviews: Thor: Love and Thunder
As many of my consistent readers will know, I try to be upfront with my biases leading into films before I go on to offer up my opinions. Close friends/coworkers will know, my thoughts on Taika Waititi are conflicted. Ironically, it was Thor: Ragnarok that initiated much of my distaste for his work. Yet, it’s impossible to ignore the brilliance of a film like Jojo Rabbit. (Albeit, Waititi was my least favorite part of that one). Ragnarok did, what I would consider, irreparable damage in the MCU to my all-time favorite comic book character, The Hulk, and simultaneously stomped all over one of the greatest comic book series out there: Planet Hulk. (Seriously, if you get a chance, read it). Still, Ragnarok was such a fresh, brilliantly paced, and obscenely humorous divergence from the first two Thor films that it was impossible to honestly state outright that it was anything less than a great movie. I might have been one of the few, if not only, nerds that was voicing complaints at the time. So after teasers and trailers eventually started rolling out for Thor: Love and Thunder, the world was quickly ensured that this film was going to continue along the humorous thread that its predecessor had laid out before it. The question that needed to be answered is: could it live up?
(I tried my best to be spoiler free)
Opening on a very tragic scene, the audience is given a brief and succinct history of the antagonist of the story, Gorr: The god butcher (Christian Bale). Admittedly, this was a villain I wasn’t much aware of and even a cursory search of his comic history reveals an immense amount of depth that the film barely scratched the surface of. Though succinct, Gorr’s MCU introduction was extremely clumsy, unfortunately setting a standard for the film that was only shaken with difficulty. What was consistent though, was a very strong, emotionally convincing performance from Bale, who certainly set a standard for villains in the MCU. After this intro, the audience is brought through a, there’s no better word for it, clumsy recap of what Thor (Chris Hemsworth) has been up to since his last appearance in Avengers: Endgame. Narrated by Korg (Waititi) the recap sets the stage for a far-too-long string of awkwardly forced humor; so awkward that it bled into performances that I previously appreciated (namely, Chris Pratt as Star-Lord). Ironically enough, I recall telling a friend that one of the reasons I disliked Ragnarok was because it was trying too hard to be Guardians of The Galaxy, with its classic music and off-the-cuff silly humor. Thor went off to travel the universe with the crew at the end of Endgame, and blending the two worlds together, however briefly, instantly felt like a mistake, with the audience being spoon-fed a recapped story in the effort to make it seem like there was even a semblance of a quality relationship/friendship between the Thor and the Guardians. Much like Dr. Strange’s new awful adventure, Thor: Love and Thunder struggles to give the same respect to combining Marvel titles. Luckily enough for the audience, the Guardians leave as quickly as they appear and we move on to the real point of the film, exploring the complex relationship between Thor and Jane Foster (Natalie Portman).
Besides Bale’s portrayal of Gorr, the newest approach to Jane Foster as the “new” god of thunder is the other biggest highlight of the film. The audience is finally treated to an explanation of what happened between the couple (albeit through another awful Korg recap) and as the previews disclosed, are given the grand reveal of a buffed-up and ready to throw down Portman. The love story between Jane and Thor has all of the “will they, won’t they” moments of a classic rom-com and the banter between the two is fairly natural throughout most of the film. Unfortunately for Portman, she was fed a number of dialogue/lines that were so awkward and clumsy I doubt even the greatest actor alive could deliver them well. After Gorr kidnaps a group of Asgardians, the quad troupe of Thor, Jane, King Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson who put on a great performance and deserved more screen time), and Korg set off in an adventure that is filled to the brim with new gods, unbelievable CGI, and some quality fight scenes scattered throughout, no matter how asinine they might be.
An attempt to stay away from spoilers is difficult when evaluating Thor: Love and Thunder mainly because the biggest fault of the film is its excessive amounts of plot holes. There certainly is a strong argument that what happens in the MCU can’t/shouldn’t be beholden to the comics, but all I’ll mention here is that there is a really confusing question as to the dynamics behind Stormbreaker, what it can do, and who it answers to. Giving personality traits to inanimate objects (weapons) is a concept I actually enjoy. Unfortunately Thor: Love and Thunder took the concept on a weird path, using it as an attempt to inject some humor that didn’t really work. Waititi as Korg, consistently injecting himself into his own projects, lends almost nothing of substance to the film and actually hinders the fluidity of the story with his non-humorous narration. Also, (and I hate to bring this up) the MCU injected its first non-CGI nude scene, pushing the Hemsworth fan-service to a new level. Now, Waititi had already broke ground on this with the similarly unnecessary Hulk butt in Ragnarok and for some reason decided it wasn’t adequate. The scene, however brief, lent nothing to the story and was hardly funny enough to be worth it in my opinion. There is also a very strange take on the climactic battle scene, where the dynamics between Thor and the captured Asgardians really blurs the line between what is possible. Considering the run-time of 1:59, there should have been plenty of time to flesh out the characters. In many scenes, it felt like something was missing and several articles attest to this being the case. Perhaps Marvel will release an extended version that will help expand on the character development that was missing from the theatrical cut.
Riot’s Rating: 7/10: At the end of the day, I didn’t hate Thor: Love and Thunder regardless of its many pitfalls. It was reminiscent of the feelings I had walking out of Jurassic World: Dominion. Did it live up to Ragnarok? No. But its commitments to exploring relationships and Thor’s personal/emotional journey is enough to garner respect. Dopey/Goofball Thor is getting a little old already and with the revamp of the character, I think Hemsworth’s acting chops should have earned more than enough respect by now to allow the character to be more of the traditional Thor that exists in the comics. There is plenty of allusions to the story arc where Thor takes over as the new Odin and I hope new iterations will explore that more. Thor: Love and Thunder had the most convincing antagonist since Thanos, was chock full of visually stunning action scenes and ironically enough, really shined when it wasn’t trying to be funny. It was certainly worth the $8 matinee price for Bale’s performance, any higher and I would say to wait for a cheaper option. And of course, stick around for the mid and end credit scenes!
*Parents, there’s a nude scene. The trailer warned you as did I, you can make the choice from here.
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