29 – Thor: Love and Thunder
I’ll start this off by saying that I enjoyed watching this movie, but when compared to the rest of the MCU movies, it is one of my least favorites, and I know exactly why. In fact, there are two reasons, and both are incredible missed opportunities. This movie could have been awesome, but instead it was just good. Not even great, just good. First they had Christian Bale, a great actor playing the dark, heavy, and dramatic part of Gorr the God Butcher, but they massively underutilized him. In fact we see him kill only one God in the entire film, so he never really seems like much of a threat. Second, Director Taika Waititi tried to capitalize on the success of the comedic Thor Ragnarok, and failed. Instead of a clever comedy, he made a goofy romp that seemed to be geared to an audience under ten years old. And goofy is exactly the right word.
Chris Hemsworth did his best with the silly script, and I’ll be the first to admit that as completely unnecessary as it was, the naked Thor scene was… gorgeous to watch. But it was juvenile humor and didn’t serve the story or any of the characters in any way. The screaming goats were only mildly amusing, and eventually became just annoying. The entire opening sequence featured the Guardians of the Galaxy as so weak and ineffectual that they couldn’t save the poor alien people from the bad guys without the silly and destructive antics of Thor.
But there were two other characters/subplots in the film that I actually really liked. The first was that of Jane Foster becoming a version of Thor. Her character arch is actually pretty interesting. She has cancer, and when she wields Thor’s reconstructed Mjolnir, it heals her illness and allows her to fight as a superhero, but at the same time, it destroys her body’s ability to fight the cancer when she is not using the hammer. It was an interesting dichotomy, and I thought they did a fair job with the subplot.
The other thing I liked was the character of Zeus. Personally, I though Russell Crowe played it perfectly. He played it goofy, just like the rest of the cast, but not over-the-top. And he was given moments, when not in front of the masses, when he showed that he was both aware of the seriousness of the God Butcher situation, and his reasons for his plan of inaction. I ultimately liked his character, and enjoyed watching Crow on the screen.
Of course, the action sequences were great to watch. The MCU has never failed on that point. The CGI was seamless and the cast was perfect. There was plenty to like in this movie. But I just can’t get past the goofy humor. I mean, the final climactic battle, itself, was a silly, battle. Gorr sends a host of shadow demons to stop Thor and Jane. In order to get past them, Thor imbues a group of children with his power. So now we have a bunch of kids, most of whom are around ten years old or so, and have no battle experience at all, one of whom is wielding a magically enhanced stuffed animal as her weapon, defeating horrible shadow monsters. I’m sorry, but that’s just stupid.
And there were a couple of post-credit scenes that were interesting, but they didn’t really have much impact on the overall MCU tapestry that we’ve all come to love because of the Infinity Saga. So Jane Foster makes it into Valhalla, and Zeus sends Hercules to kill Thor because Superheroes have replaced the gods in the minds of mortals. But who knows if we will ever see Hercules again in the MCU. I hope we do, but the scene felt a little like a throw-away. So would I call this a low point in the MCU? Yes. But as I stated, I do enjoy watching the movie. The visuals and the action sequences alone (except for that final fight) were worth the price of admission. So this movie wasn’t a ten. I’d still say it was a seven. This movie had the potential to be so good, but the ball was just dropped. If you have Christian Bale, USE HIM! And it’s ok to be comedic, but leave out the juvenile humor. It just dumbs down the narrative.
Top 10 Favorite Parts
- Gorr kills his own god, Rapu, with the Necrosword.
- Gorr attacks New Asgard and creates the shadow demons.
- Thor reunites with Jane Foster as the Mighty Thor
- Thor, Valkyrie, and Jane begin their quest and arrive at Omnipotence City.
- Gorr terrorizes the children while trying to talk to them.
- Thor presents his case to Zeus, and… the flick. “You flicked too hard, damnit!”
- Thor and Jane reconcile, and Thor learns of her cancer.
- The battle where Gorr captures Thor, Valkyrie, and Jane, and tries to get Thor to summon the Bifrost.
- Gorr reaches Eternity and wishes for the life of his daughter, rather than the death of all the gods, but both Gorr and Jane die.
- Thor becomes a father to Gorr’s daughter, Love, and the two become a fighting pair of heroes.