Thor: Love and Thunder
Director: Taika Waititi
Writer: Taika Waititi, Jennifer Robinson, Stan Lee (original creator), Jason Aaron (original story author)
Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Christian Bale, Tessa Thompson, Taika Waititi, Russell Crowe, Jaimie Alexander, Chris Pratt, Dave Bautista, Karen Gillan, Pom Klementieff, Sean Gunn, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper
Reason for watching: Staying up with the MCU (as per usual)
Number of times I’ve watched it: first time viewing
***
Puzzles are complicated. Especially those 1000-piecers where every little piece looks exactly the same and has the same shade of coloring as the others. You can cran your neck over the pieces for hours trying to find the two pieces that fit together, and you will make the smallest amount of progress. My mom brought this very funny cats as the cast of Star Trek puzzle to the recent family reunion this year, and we worked on that thing for days. It was awesome to see it all come together, but it took so much effort. Now lucky for us and anyone who puts together puzzles for fun, there is only one solution for puzzles. Only one perfect combination of pieces works. You just have to find it. Movies are not always treated like a puzzle, and with good reason. The cast and crew have lives and families to get home to and doing takes over and over are not exactly good for one’s mental health. Writing the perfect script can take years, and if you are a part of a large franchise you may not have that luxury. But you can still do your best with what you have.
Thor: Love and Thunder takes place a few years after the events of Avengers: Endgame. Now traveling with the Guardians of the Galaxy, Thor (Chris Hemsworth) is on a quest to find his place in the universe. After realizing he upstages the Guardians every time they work together, the god of thunder journeys home to New Asgard on earth. There he runs into his old flame Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), who has since been imbued with his powers and is wielding his old hammer. They quickly run into trouble though as they are faced with Gor the God Butcher (Christian Bale), who is on a warpath, killing gods and kidnapping children of Asgard. Together with Valkeryie (Tessa Thompson) and their rock friend Korg (Taika Waititi), the team will journey to the far reaches of the universe to stop the God Butcher on his mad rampage.
Look, there is a reason why Chris Hemsworth is still here, because Waititi saved the franchise and the character with Thor: Ragnarok. When a director like Waititi manages to bring new life to floundering franchise, he definitely bred some loyalty with the stars of his show. So when Hemsworth shows up, you are going to get 110% from him. So I commend him for that. He looks great wielding that hammer or axe. But I think after the improvisation worked wonders in Ragnarok they let it go a little too far here with Thor. Jokes are not always interesting and usually seem awkward and forced at times. He makes too many awkward and weird comments that a god as powerful as thor should not be making. I know making Thor relatable is what saved the character, but weird “trying to look cool for my crush” lines seem beneath him.
To be honest, my biggest problem with this movie is that a lot of it feels very mismashed together and uncoordinated. One scene we get a big epic fight with lots of CGI. Then another it is very rom-com-esque. Even another looks like it is straight out of a horror movie where our heroes descend into the darkness. Then we are back to the regular MCU schlock that we have been dealing with since The Avengers 10 years ago. None of these scenes or styles are particularly bad, and I like when Thor gets a little more dark or lets his emotions out. But it all felt cobbled together oddly. We could have done without some of the side quests to see other characters like Zeus (Russell Crowe) or screaming goats. Again, more comedic elements that did not work.
Alright. I need to lean off this movie a little. It is still better than some of the recent crappy MCU shows we have seen (LOOKING AT YOU Moon Knight!!!). Again Hemsworth is working hard here. Portman, Thompson, and Waititi are all interesting characters and make for a strong supporting cast. The biggest and best performance here is Bale as Gor. I do not know if he had notes from Waititi as the director or from anyone, but he just goes all out as a vicious monster set on destroying all gods. He is ruthless, scary, and reasonably relatable as a villain. Early on we get good reason as to why he seeks vengeance against all gods, and I cannot fault him for his actions. The way he was treated in his early life sets him up to be a villain and to get his revenge against those who wronged him. Bale is just the right amount of unhinged to pull off this type of performance. His face flexes easily into anger and madness that makes him perfect casting for this role.
I have to ask though (once again): where is the MCU going now? What is the setup here? What is happening with the Avengers? If the point is to show how scattered the world is after Thanos’ snap and the sacrifice of Iron Man, mission accomplished. We get it. We are in a bad spot. But there is not a converging point that I can see. There is no one who all our heroes have a common problem with. Maybe we will not have one for some time, and all this will seem like set up for something great. But after we took all the toys out of the toy box for Endgame anything that tries to go that big again will have some shoes to fill for sure.
7/10
Until I see another one.