Review: Thor: Love and Thunder
Thor: Love and Thunder, directed by Taika Waititi, tells the tale of Thor (Chris Hemsworth), the god of thunder and former Avenger traveling across the galaxy alongside the Guardians of the Galaxy in search of a new purpose in life. But Thor’s journey of self-discovery is cut short when he receives a distress signal warning him of an EVIL god-killer named Gorr (Christian Bale) seeking to destroy the gods once and for all. Thor teams up with his best mate Korg (Taika Waititi) and the new king of New Asgard Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson) to stop Gorr’s schemes. Things get awkward, however, when Thor’s old flame Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) comes back to Thor’s life, now wielding a reconstructed Mjolnir and gaining the powers of Thor.
This is the latest Marvel film, the latest Thor film, and…to be frankly honest I got nothing to say here. Not to say this was a terrible film, but my god this was possibly the most unmemorable and dull Marvel film to have come out so far. Much like Thor himself in this movie, this film struggles to find a purpose for existing.
I don’t know about you but I was very content with how Thor’s character arc ended in Avengers: Endgame. I was perfectly content with that film being the last time we see Thor just as it was the last we saw Iron Man and Captain America. But here we are, Thor is still around; Marvel is still trying to figure out what the hell to do with this character. Thor himself starts off at one point in his arc at the beginning of the film and pretty much stays there for the rest of the film.
Most people who have seen this film already noted the jokes here being a little too overbearing, and with that I agree. Taika Waititi doubles down on the comedic tone from Thor: Ragnarok and gives us the goofiest Thor yet, but lightning never hits the same spot twice, and not only was the amount of jokes too much for this film, they also were not really funny in the eyes of this reviewer.
The plot was largely inconsequential; sure there were “stakes” but the film does a poor job emphasizing them. The performances were largely serviceable; nobody here does a bad job but no one here really stands out either, maybe Christian Bale as the villain but I’ve seen him give better kooky performances in other films. The action was there, there was an unusual amount of Guns N’ Roses throughout both the film’s soundtrack and references which I guess is an inspired choice, there were some cool looking sequences involving the color grading, and everything else about the film was servicable.
In the end Thor: Love and Thunder represents the current state of the MCU: tired, generic, overstaying its welcome, and too goofy for its own good. I won’t complain about the fact that this film is one of the more self contained Marvel films we had in a while (there are no surprise cameos or crossovers here from other Marvel films), but much like the films of the DCEU a standalone story won’t work when the story itself is fundamentally flawed in execution.
I guess people who enjoy the Marvel brand no matter how old or stale it’s become will enjoy this movie just fine, but in the grand scheme of whatever the hell Phase IV is suppose to be about I’m sincerely finding it difficult even for Marvel fans to justify this film as required viewing.
Final Verdict: 4/10