It’s another Marvel property folks and it’s Thor: Love and Thunder. It was definitely a movie that I watched and one that I experienced in the cinema. I had hopes that Thor would prove to be better than just another serviceable Marvel movie, that every new MCU movie seems to strive towards nowadays. I was looking forward to Taika directing again after taking Thor in a more comedic direction in the very entertaining Thor: Ragnarok. Plus, thanks to Endgame, Thor is now hanging out with the Guardians of the Galaxy so the possibilities are endless of where we can go. My reward for having expectations is a flawed, but certainly watchable thing.
If you wanted Thor and the Guardians of the Galaxy to go on exciting adventures, then let out your disappointment now. The trailers sort of hinted at this, but those guys get out of there as soon as the script allows them, as after all those great off screen adventures we never hear of the Guardians are sick of wacky stupid Thor and ditch him. Thor ends up teaming with his new mates from Ragnarok and a newcomer only known as Lady Thor. Though it is quickly revealed to be Thor’s ex, Jane, aka Natalie Portman, in the Thor costume along with a reforged Mjolnir. The stages of how Jane becomes the next Thor is very muddled, but in recent times I accepted to not question details in movies because otherwise I may never enjoy a modern blockbuster again. Figure out the rest of the plot for yourself, because it will always involve a band of quirky heroes going on an adventure to stop the evil crappy bad guy of the week.
If I must share positives, it is certainly a movie that I enjoyed watching. Some parts are funny and I enjoyed the over the top violence. It is visually appealing as it is very colourful and even the very obvious green screen backgrounds look nice. The best performance in the movie is Chris Hemsworth as Thor as he seems to work regardless of whether this movie is doing something good or bad. He works with Jane the best, probably because they have the longest history together, and all the scenes when it’s just those two is great. The acting from the rest of cast is pretty damn solid despite how problematic their characters are.
What I didn’t like is most other things. There is not much meat in Love and Thunder besides Jane Foster and is the only thing that works in regards to emotional investment. It’s definitely a comedy, more so than your typical MCU movie as Love and Thunder is very goofy and random with it’s humour, but the problem is it is almost impossible to take this movie seriously and care for its stakes. The biggest caveat would be the villain of this movie the scary dangerous god killer who you’re supposed to fear for those reasons in this comedy movie. He is such a big misfire as he rarely ever does anything threatening as most of the time he is unintentionally funny and you never really feel he is a legitimate threat to our unkillable heroes. Such a waste of Christian Bale too as I thought he was terrible in this role and it is largely down to the writing of this character.
Some more issues would be most of the jokes aren’t that funny, some of which even overstay their welcome. They make a big deal early on when Thor is rewarded these screaming goats, the joke is that the goats are constantly screaming. I have already seen this type of thing in Rick and Morty thanks, but at least there it was a one off thing, while here it got old and very grating right away because these goats stick around for the entire movie. Another one would be how pointless some of the characters are. Thor and Jane are the focal point of the movie so when Valkyrie and Korg tag along for the ride I kind of groaned as they felt like unnecessary baggage, robbing precious screen time that could be placed elsewhere. Valkyrie especially as I don’t recall her being this interesting in Ragnarok as she sort of has this drunk warrior badass persona going on and I would be up for learning more about her if she was on this journey with just Thor or she was off doing her own thing, just not here where there are more interesting characters hogging the whole spotlight.
I think the biggest problem with Love and Thunder is I’m just tired. I am over these below to average MCU movies doing nothing but giving me the bare minimum of what is considered entertainment. I wouldn’t be this annoyed if it wasn’t the MCU relentlessly serving me the same mediocre product for the last year now. There are too many good movies coming out this year to waste my time on this rubbish, so from now on I will only be catching the ones that grab my curiosity. Like when the new Guardians movie comes out or whenever the MCU get around to releasing their take on the Fantastic Four and X-Men.
Steering towards my final thoughts on Thor: Love and Thunder, my negativity stems mostly from my frustration with this franchise, not with this movie. It is certainly watchable and it should entertain some, so if you really need to see this then go for it. Though I would personally recommend you see something else these holidays as there are still better movies out in cinemas, but if you want more superhero content, then just watch The Boys – the season finale just dropped and is far better than anything that is being churned out on Disney+. Blog Complainer, signing out.
