I used to love the Marvel Cinematic Universe. A 10-year epic journey that seemingly ended with Avengers: Endgame in one of the most ambitious and famous pieces of media to date. After that 2-billion-dollar film, the future seemed bright for Marvel, especially considering the large variety of shows and movies set to release in the near future.
What followed was a disappointment, as mediocre shows and uninteresting films barely kept me engaged with a franchise I once loved. The light at the end of this tunnel appeared to Thor: Love and Thunder. A fan favourite character directed by the exceptional Taika Waititi, what could go wrong? Well….
Visually, this is one of Marvel’s greatest triumphs. The bright colours pair excellently when combined with the space atmosphere this movie spends a large proportion within. I also found myself enchanted by the black and white effects that are utilised in the final act, as they add a dominating ambience and are excellently utilised.
How do you replace Jeff Goldblum’s charming, pompous role in Ragnarök? Add Russell Crowe with a skirt and the most questionable Greek accent, of course! Crowe is hilarious in his role of Zeus and steals the film every time he is on screen, which is an impressive feat, considering he shares the screen with Chris Hemsworth’s muscled behind.
However, when it comes to characters, no one does better than Christian Bale and his interpretation of Gorr the God Butcher. Bale is clearly giving his all into the film and delivers one of the best villain performances within the entirety of Marvel. What saddens me is that this films biggest strength is also its greatest weakness. Gorr is barely in this film and is so underutilised. The film itself appears to have less stakes or threat, as the film instead chooses to focus on Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and Jane’s (Natalie Portman) love story. Other characters suffer a similar fate, with Korg (Taika Waititi) and Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson) feeling rather shoed in as fan pleasers rather than significant characters.
Thor: Ragnarök was one of the funniest Marvel films due to its quick, largely improvised comedy and brilliant direction from Waititi. It was good to see this film try and follow in its predecessor’s footsteps. However, where as Ragnarök knew when to balance the comedy and dark moments, this film seems to be all jokes. Which is frustrating as not only does the events in the film seem less serious due to a constantly funny tone, but it forces the jokes to suffer as a result. Much of the humour fell so hard, it felt as if Mjnoir had fallen onto your foot.
I did have fun with this film, and it would be a fair assessment to say that this is a great summer film due to its light-hearted romantic-comedy themes. However, its hard not to feel as if this film doesn’t really progress story wise for Thor. As a result, this film feels rather pointless and does not halt the downward spiral the MCU unfortunately finds itself on.
3/5
Image Credits – The MovieDB
