TAS Reviews: Thor: Love and Thunder
As someone who loved the first Thor movie, I never thought the character needed saving. But there's no denying that with Ragnarok, Taika Waititi elevated the character to new and unimaginable heights, with a tonal revamp that took the series from Shakespearian drama to essentially being the rock and roll movie equivalent of the MCU. In addition to being an all-time great superhero movie, Ragnarok felt fresh - the movie equivalent of eating a pizza that's been freshly pulled out of the stove. The movie's coolness just felt effortless. So it was good news to all when it was announced that Waititi would be returning to direct the 4th instalment in the series. But as someone who likes to remain cautiously optimistic, there was no guarantee that Waititi would be able to recapture that magic of Ragnarok. Perhaps he caught lighting in a bottle. Now the time has come to find out whether or not that is the case.
There's no denying that with Love and Thunder, Waititi does not recapture that effortless coolness and freshness of Ragnarok, but perhaps that was inevitable. After all, it's impossible to be the new kid on the block twice in a row, no matter how much we would like it to happen, so that's no surprise. What is pleasantly surprising is that Waititi seems to have understood that, and instead creates a follow-up that carries elements from the previous movies, yet also has an identity and DNA of it's own. Make no mistake: this is not Ragnarok 2.0. This is Love and Thunder 1.0, and it is that fact which makes this such a triumph of a movie. While Ragnarok was not devoid of emotion by any means, this movie delves much deeper into its emotional beats, which is the way in which it most differs from its predecessor. The emotional moments, for the most part, really land when they need to, resulting in one of the most emotionally impactful finale's in Marvel history and a narrative this is pleasantly willing to take more bold swings than expected.
But make no mistake. This is a Taika Waititi Thor movie, and just as Waititi doubled down on the emotional depth, he tripled down on the irreverent tone he established previously. This movie is easily one of the funniest superhero movies ever made, and a specific scene at around the half-way point had me laughing harder than I've laughed watching any movie in recent history. You would be right to describe this movie's predecessor as zany and irreverent in tone, but if those are the words you describe Ragnarok, you might want to pay a visit to the word bank for this one, because there are moments in this movie that make Ragnarok feel like Batman Begins by comparison. And although I acknowledge that many may accuse this movie of veering too far into parody territory, it absolutely worked for me. The movie just has a great sense of fun and a pace that is quick and breakneck in the best way imaginable. But of course, this is an action movie just as much as it is anything else, and the action is absolutely stunning. The MCU is often criticised for its drab visuals, understandably so, but this movie is anything but. The visuals are lush and colourful when they need to be, which only serves to extenuate the moments in which the movie is purposely visual dark, particularly revolving around Gorr's scenes. The trailer showed teases of black and white visuals, which are an absolute delight and a clever creative decision from Waititi. The MCU has also suffered from weak soundtracks throughout, so I was surprised to see that Love and Thunder's original score is genuinely impactful and elevates the scenes, instead of being the least offensive thing possible. The design of the credits is also fantastic, but I'll let you experience that for yourself if you haven't seen the movie yet.
This is now Hemsworth's 8th or so time playing this character, so it is no surprise that he feels absolutely at home in this role, and continues to explore fresh, never-seen-before facets of the character. The same can be said about Tessa Thompson, who is predictably fantastic once again as Valkyrie. But the character who many people might be surprised to hear is the heartbeat of this movie is Jane Foster AKA The Mighty Thor, played to perfection by Natalie Portman, who imbues the character with a sense of fun, irreverence and heart that was previously missing. I also love the dynamic she forms with Tessa Thompson. But as amazing as that dynamic is, it doesn't hold a candle to the dynamic between Jane and Thor, which is just ridiculously entertaining and heartfelt. Particularly when you consider that their romance has often been cited as a weak-point of these movies. This dynamic is everything, ranging from touching to funny - and often hilariously awkward - but inevitably, is incredibly human and relatable. It is also incredible how the dynamic between these two characters opens the room for the Marvel Cinematic Universe to explore a genre it is yet to explore: a rom-com. But as fantastic as Portman is, the true scene-stealer and MVP of this entire movie is Russell Crowe as Zeus, who had me laughing at nearly every line delivery and little gesture he did throughout his limited yet impactful screen-time.
But as much as I loved Thor: Love and Thunder, few movies are perfect, and this is no exception. I mentioned that the movie has its fair share of emotionally impactful moments, but for every one of those that I can think of, I can also think of a moment that fell flat because it wasn't set up well. Throughout the movie, Thor goes through a journey of self-discovery and essentially wants to find out what his place in the world is. So while the attempt is there, it feels severely undercooked and relies a little too much of exposition. I also feel that the arc that Thor goes throughout the movie and the grand realisations he has feel a little unremarkable, anti-climactic and hollow, as if the needle barely moved, despite the movie pretending it did. For a character who we've followed for so long across numerous different movies, his character arc should feel like a natural progression up to this point, yet it never really did. It just felt like Taika sit in a room with his collaborators and said "so... what's this guy's deal?" Unlike the character work that Thor received in, say, Infinity War and Endgame, where you could tell that the writers of those movies carefully traced Thor's arc from his first movie till now.
The trailers and marketing prominently featured the Guardians, and I was shocked at just how little they contributed to the movie. They show up for 5 minutes, and outside of Star-Lord, they barely say anything, and they do even less to move the story forward in any meaningful way, and fail to serve any function that couldn't have been easily served by Valkyrie, which inevitably would've better served the movie overall, as Tessa Thompson's treasure of a character is underutilized. But by far the biggest issue with this movie - and far and away the most disappointing aspect - is the villain: Gorr The God Butcher played by Christian Bale. Though I enjoyed the character's visual presentation, the character is severely underutilized, feeling like an afterthought in his own storyline. And more so, Bale delivers a tragically woeful performance as the character, one which reminded me of Leto's Joker, in a sense where I can imagine the actor's mindset toward the performance was "well, let's just say weird stuff and it'll be good!" It is a painfully inconsistent performance that is impossible to track, ranging from genuinely chilling to being comparable to Jim Carrey's performance in The Mask. You end up being undecided as to whether you're upset the character was underused because it's Christian Bale, and also glad that you didn't have to endure more of this terrible performance. Because such a disappointing performance comes from such a respectable and prestigious actor, you're also left thinking "wait... just how did Christian freakin Bale agree to this?" Multiple times throughout the movie, which makes it all the more distracting.
Conclusion
Though the movie suffers from writing issues and an incredibly disappointing villain, Love and Thunder is still a hell of a fantastic time that delivers on both the love and the thunder. It is every bit as hilarious and visually stunning as one would hope, while simultaneously delivering on a surprising amount of emotional depth. Natalie Portman is also an absolute revelation as The Mighty Thor, and her dynamic with Thor is the stuff of dreams. The MCU has been quite hit or miss in their fourth phase, but Love and Thunder is one of the best MCU entries in years, and perhaps the second best Phase 4 entry. It doesn't quite reinvent the wheel, but when the wheel works as well as it works, does it really need to be?
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