OnScreen Review: "Thor: Love And Thunder"
Ken Jones, Chief Film Critic
Thor: Ragnarok received almost universal praise when it came out. Taiki Waititi, to that point merely a beloved indie comedy director, took over the helm of Thor’s portion of the MCU and knocked it out of the park, finding a perfect combination of comedy and action and adventure for our space Viking portrayed by Chris Hemsworth. After two more Avengers movies and a slew of other Phase IV movies, Thor is back with Thor: Love And Thunder and the results are a bit more mixed this time around.
In a post-Endgame world, Thor (Hemsworth) is aimless and adrift. Whether intentional or not, Thor’s plight is inadvertent meta commentary of the greater MCU and Phase IV, seemingly lacking purpose and direction in a post-Endgame world. Even if the commentary here is inadvertent or deliberate, it offers little in the way of solution. Thor is unsatisfied with galivanting across the galaxy with the Guardians of the Galaxy, who make an extended cameo in the opening portion of the movie before they go their separate ways.
Thor returns to Earth when he discovers there is a villain named Gorr the God Butcher (Christian Bale) who is intent on killing all of the gods, and Asgard is next on his list. Upon his return, he also discovers that his old flame Dr. Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) has assumed the mantle of Thor and is wielding his reforged hammer, Mjolnir, his other old flame. Shocked at the return of these two lost loves, Thor nevertheless sets out to stop Gorr with the help of Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson) and Korg (voiced by Waititi) and a soundtrack that is overly reliant on Guns N’ Roses (THREE SONGS!!!).
While Thor is trying to find his place in this great, big galaxy, the returning Jane has a clearcut, fleshed out story. I was curious to see how and why they managed to bring her back, but also how she became “Lady Thor” from the comic books (which is also a name she doesn’t take too kindly to here). Surprisingly, they manage to pull off her return fairly convincingly and with significant stakes involved too, and the Mjolnir stuff even works too. In fact, there is a pretty running joke of a love triangle between Mjolinir and Stormbreaker for Thor’s attention. The reunion between Thor and Jane is awkward, and the earlier scenes even seem to be lacking a bit in chemistry between Hemsworth and Portman, but they eventually find the magic that worked between them in the first two Thor movies.
It is funny that Thor is lacking in direction and purpose, because his brother Loki was constantly saying he was “burdened with glorious purpose.” This is the first Thor film that is lacking in Loki, and his absence is definitely felt. Valkyrie and Korg are really good supporting cast for Thor, but the complicated brotherly relationship between Thor and Loki is an element that is missing, a wild card that made things 5-10% more interesting.
Most of the audience loved the increased laugh quotient that Waititi brought to the Thor franchise, though there were a vocal minority that thought it undermined the character. There are still jokes aplenty this time through, though they don’t land with the same success rate as in Ragnarok. Jane’s attempts at finding a catchphrase mostly fall really flat. Russell Crowe has an extended cameo as Zeus that elicits a lot of laughs. And Thor is gifted two large goats early on that are arguably the comedic MVPs of the movie. In Ragnarok, everything felt like it was in near-perfect harmony with the balance of humor and action without undercutting anything. This time around, the formula is just a bit off. It’s like the Ghostbusters 2 to Ragnarok’s Ghostbusters, same ingredients, still a lot of laughs, just not quite mixed together to the same effect as last time.
In the villain role this time around is Gorr the God Butcher and Bale’s portrayal is pretty sinister. Betrayed early on by the gods, his visage is ashen white and cracked black, his body slowly being drained of life by the sword he carries that has the ability to take the lives of gods. Bale’s Gorr is certainly menacing, but the problem is that the film leaves too much meat on the bone. Aside from the opening scene of the film, we never see Gorr the God Butcher actually do any butchering of any gods, we only see the aftermath of his actions. We see him in action, fighting and unleashing shadow monsters, but just one or two scenes of god-butchering would have gone a long way here. Also, aside from being the end of Thor, it’s not entirely clear what impact the death of all the gods would have on the galaxy.
Taika Waititi and Chris Hemsworth built up a lot of good will with Thor: Ragnarok, so it’s easy to be forgiving of a film that is still fun but doesn’t quite measure up to that standard. Thor: Love And Thunder has its share of problems, but there are still plenty of enjoyable moments and compelling action and personal stakes to entertain audiences. But it is also hard to ignore that its questions for Thor regarding who he is and what his purpose is also reflects the larger questions for the MCU itself right now. And they are still largely unanswered.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars