Thor: Love and Thunder – Review
119 Minutes, Rated PG-13
Written and Directed by Taika Waititi
**NOTE: Enjoy this brief look at my thoughts on Thor: Love and Thunder, then listen as Ryan and I discuss the film. You can read Ryan’s review HERE.**
Synopsis:
Thor enlists the help of Valkyrie, Korg and ex-girlfriend Jane Foster to fight Gorr the God Butcher, who intends to make the gods extinct.
*Cracks knuckles loudly and reaches for the keyboard*
Well, it may or may not be a secret that I’ve been 100% concerned about Thor: Love and Thunder since the first trailer dropped. It seemed to me that everything I disliked about Thor: Ragnarök was going to be 100% of Love and Thunder.
I was wrong.
I mean, I wasn’t completely wrong; there’s a whole lot of the stuff I hated about Ragnarök in here, but there’s some good stuff, too.
Let’s start with the bad:
Too. Much. Comedy.
Slapstick comedy.
I don’t know when Kevin Feige and Marvel decided Thor was going to be the god of the MCU’s dumb comedy, but he is, and I don’t like it. For all its unevenness, the original Thor still feels the most like a Thor movie to me than any that have come since. The often-inane dialogue still feels out of place in a Thor film, especially when it’s Thor saying it.
Don’t get me wrong; I love Taika Waititi’s work, but he has been reported as saying that everyone threw the stupidest, craziest garbage they could think of into this film… and it shows.
I mean, it’s cool that they included the goats pulling Thor’s ship, but Taika being Taika, they had to be screaming goats.
Let’s move on to the internet’s favorite topic of derision, which here would be embodied by the inclusion of Natalie Portman’s Jane Foster as… Lady Thor (more on that “title” in a second).
Marvel famously pushed the idea that Portman had somehow magically developed the physique of a female American Gladiator (probably Zap, aka Raye Hollitt), which, while she did get into incredible shape, isn’t entirely accurate.
There are clearly scenes in which her arms have been enhanced in post-production, as her biceps are never the same size twice, sometimes in the same fight scenes.
Why couldn’t they run with the naturally developed Portman’s physique instead of jumping through digital hoops to make her look more man-ish to be a hero?
Valkyrie is a hero. Black Widow is a hero. You don’t see them bulking up like Portman is claimed to have done.
Holy crap, Lady Sif is an actual Asgardian warrior and she never looked anything like this, and don’t try to use the “well, Jane’s got the power of a god” argument; “power” and “size” aren’t a package deal when it comes to Space Viking Magic, are they?
There is, however, a very good (according to the film’s internal logic) as to why/how Jane Foster is wielding the restored Mjolnir, so I don’t think anyone should have any problem with that aspect of the story.
She does manage to go off on Christian Bale’s Gorr the God Butcher when he calls her “Lady Thor,” and we get the angry retort of “it’s the Mighty Thor, or I’ll accept Dr. Jane Foster!”
Much as Grogu will always be Baby Yoda, it’s going to be Lady Thor.
Thor, at least, feels less silly than he did in Ragnarök, or at least no sillier, which is good.
But, as I said, there’s some legitimately good stuff in here, as well.
Christian Bale as Gorr is phenomenal, and his story arc is one that would have, and probably should have, been the overriding story of the film. It is genuine, emotional, and dark, and would have made for some smashing storytelling with real consequence instead of being shoved into a film about how stupid two exes can be when forced to deal with one another again.
As it is, Bale chews the scenery each of the too-few times he is on-screen, and even his somewhat silly interaction with the Asgardian children merely serves to enhance the overall creepiness and devotion he has for his mission.
What a missed opportunity. I wish Taika had had more courage with the idea to do a proper look at that possibility.
But he didn’t. He reverted to form.
The appearance of Russell Crowe as Zeus (with an Italian(?) accent) is weird but sets up some future events nicely.
Which brings me to my most basic problem with Thor: Love and Thunder: it feels, like the previous two Thor films, more important for what it is setting up than for what actually happens in it. I don’t feel like any other Marvel character’s solo films have been that limited in what they’re actually accomplishing.
Sure, the soundtrack here is 100% rockin’, and there are some impressive set-pieces, but overall, it’s just too muddled in tone to be anything more than eye-candy. An uneven popcorn film for casual fans, but without any heft in terms of the larger MCU.
There are, as always, extra scenes, and Thor: Love and Thunder includes two: one mid-credit and one post-credit. The first is the standard future-story Easter egg, the second is some fan service/character respect.
Oh, and the screaming magical goats got their own character poster, so you can look at that, too.
Thor: Love and Thunder will hit theaters on July 8 and stars Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tessa Thompson, Christian Bale, Taiki Waititi, with appearances by Chris Pratt, Karen Gillan, Bradley Cooper, Pom Klementieff, Vin Diesel, Dave Bautista, Sean Gunn, Russell Crowe, and Jaimie Alexander.
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