Courtesy Marvel Studios
Ah, Thor—the mightiest Avenger who, until New Zealand filmmaker/treasure Taiki Waititi got ahold of him in 2017 with the film Ragnarok, was just kind of this over-serious action guy who threw hammers all hard and learned to love even harder. Now, after years spent honing his comedic chops in a decidedly Guardians of the Galaxy-type way, a healthy dose of tedious fat jokes and a whole mess of loss, Thor’s back to just generally do things harder and sexier. And you know what? It’s fine.
We join the God of Thunder (Chris Hemsworth) as his travels across the galaxy with the aforementioned Guardians have come to a close, leading him to become a meditative sad boi who only gets moving when there are battles to be won. Ruh-roh, though, because some dude named Gor the God Butcher (Christian Bale, looking a whole hell of a lot like Ralph Fiennes’ Voldemort from them Harry Potter movies) has declared open season on deities, and Thor is next on the list. Meanwhile, Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) has popped back up for the first real time since 2011′s aptly titled Thor, only she’s got late-stage cancer now and a new commitment to squashing evil. Together, she and Thor and Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson, who is cooler than any of the rest of them) and Korg (a rock guy voiced by Waititi) must seek the help of other gods if they’re going to take down Gor and his magic sword.
Marvel’s fourth film phase (say that five times fast) has proven a bit of a puzzler thus far with movies and Disney+ shows that seem connected only by the mention of the multiverse (in brief, the concept that there are infinite universes all layered on top of each other). Oh, it’s not that every project needs to serve the same over-arching plot, and there have been standout projects, no question (like that last Spider-Man), it’s just beginning to feel like even the Marvel architects don’t know where the meandering stories are headed. If we’re supposed to see so many of these things, they should make it feel more worth it!
Love and Thunder is one of the weaker among them, a tired retreading of Waititi-esque jokery delivered through awkward encounters, silly dialogue—and a couple of gigantic screaming goats. It’s not that you’ll find no sincere laughs, and the Guns n’ Roses-heavy soundtrack does kick ass, but someplace between the long prerequisite watchlist and the same old melodrama, one wonders why we must keep working so hard to stay up to date.
Too bad, too, as Hemsworth turned out to be a pretty funny actor in the end, and his chemistry with Portman (well, with everyone, really) is the closest Love and Thunder comes to magic. The rest is paint-by-numbers humor and that omnipresent Marvel capital-T TONE (regular viewers know what I’m talkin’ about), plus some space-splosions. In other words? The cracks are starting to show, and not just between dimensions.
6
+Taika is still cool; stuff for super fans
-Short on ideas, long on the will they/won’t they?
Thor: Love and Thunder
Directed by Waititi
With Hemsworth, Portman, Thompson and Bale
Violet Crown, Regal, PG-13, 118 min.
