Thor: Love and Thunder
Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tessa Thompson, Christian Bale
Directed By: Taika Waititi
Rated: PG-13
“Rebecca, why are you reviewing Thor: Love and Thunder one month late? We’ve been waiting to hear your thoughts!”- the 3 people who will inevitably read this. Listen, I saw this movie when it was released. I have had a draft of this review sitting here. Yet, there has been no motivation to write about it. It’s a movie that exists, yet my enthusiasm to talk about it is simply non-existent. I am unfortunately suffering from Marvel fatigue.
Let me defend myself. I’ve been a Thor fan since the beginning. Since his first movie, it’s safe to say there have been ups and downs with the quality of the character’s standalone movies. “THOR movies ARE LAME!” people would say to me. “No, they are not!” I would say back with a single tear in my eye. (Ok, I never cried but I wanted to add a little something for dramatic effect.) I even defended The Dark World back in the day. Now I can recognize that the Dark World certainly made some choices, many of them not great! When Ragnarok came around, everything changed! It was, without a doubt, my favorite of the Thor solo films and one of my favorite Marvel films. Thor was cool now! Things were turning around if you were a Thor fan. With Taika Waititi returning to Love and Thunder as director, I figured Thor fans were in for another excellent entry! What could possibly go wrong? Famous last words before going to see a movie with high expectations. What exactly went wrong with Thor: Love and Thunder?
Before we analyze my issues with this movie, let’s take a look at the plot.
After the events of Avengers: Endgame, Thor and his friends must go on a quest to stop Gorr, the god butcher (Christian Bale) who is set on killing all of the gods in the universe. Along the way, Thor reunites with Jane who has been deemed worthy to don the hammer as Lady Thor. They take a wacky trip through the universe where shenanigans ensue including a trip to meet Zeus. Can Thor and Jane/Thor stop Gorr before he kills all the gods?
Director Taika Waititi is back as director for Thor’s latest adventure. I’ve been a big fan of his previous films (Ragnarok, Jojo Rabbit, Hunt for the Wilderpeople). He has a zany comedic style that works so well. Ragnarok completely revitalized Thor as a character. That movie is like a shot of adrenaline with the perfect balance of humor, action, and Led Zeppelin needle drops. The same cannot be said for Love and Thunder. Something wasn’t clicking here. Jokes are thrown around every 5 seconds and before one even has time to land another is thrown in.
Thor: Love and Thunder feels like a straight-up kids’ movie at several points. The humor complete with screaming goats, laser-eyed children, and Greek gods with Italian accents reaches for laughs but falls flat so many times. There is a serious tonal issue at play here as Thor and his friends have a whimsical time fighting bad guys and making jokes. All the while, Jane is fighting stage 4 cancer, and Gorr, the god killer grapples with a life-altering existential crisis. These two major events could have been interpreted in an extremely interesting way, especially in a superhero film. In the past, Waititi has been able to juxtapose heavy issues with humor like in Jojo Rabbit. Unfortunately, as a viewer, we’re given tonal whiplash by screaming goats in one scene and Jane getting chemo for stage 4 cancer in the next. To say there’s a lot going on in this film is an understatement. Unfortunately, it just doesn’t work together that well for the advancement of the plot.
There is nothing groundbreaking about the acting in Love and Thunder. The cast does fine with their material. I will simply never object to seeing Chris Hemsworth play Thor on the big screen. It’s always a great time. He seems to have a blast with the character. It feels like all of the cast is having a good time including Tessa Thompson reprising her role as Valkyrie, Taika Waititi as Korg, and Russell Crowe as Zeus with a questionable accent. I feel like Thor doesn’t have that much progression through the course of the movie. Things just happen and he goes along with it. That’s unfortunately been the theme of Marvel’s stage 4. None of the main characters or their films feel important. They simply feel like filler. While all of the films leading up to Avengers: Endgame felt like can’t miss event films.
Natalie Portman returns as Jane and her character has an interesting arc as Lady Thor (but don’t call her that.) It’s a unique dynamic seeing Jane and Thor fight alongside each other throughout the film after they’ve been apart for so long.
Christian Bale is Gorr, the god butcher. He completely disappears as the villainous character who has lost everything. (If there’s one thing Christian Bale is gonna do, it’s disappear into a role.) He’s an unrecognizable disturbing villain who should have been given more time in the film considering how intimidating he is during his screen time.
After Ragnarok, Thor: Love and Thunder is a disappointing addition to the Thor franchise. It is plagued by flat humor, tonal issues galore, and a lack of character development. What could have been a whimsical and fun continuation of Thor’s story ends up childish and unmemorable.
My Rating: 5/10