Thor: Love and Thunder Movie Review by Steven Redgrave : Pop Culture Leftovers

Thor: Love and Thunder Movie Review by Steven Redgrave

July 18, 2022 6:32 pm |

WARNING: MAY CONTAIN SOME SPOILERS

Thor: Love and Thunder is the latest installment in Marvel Studios’ long standing odyssey, with Director Taika Waititi returning after his success in refueling the franchise with the well received film, Thor Ragnarok, and shifting from the franchise’s more serious and bleak tone that started in Phase 1 of the MCU. Waititi co-wrote the script with Jennifer Kaytin Robinson, giving us endless jokes, outlandish space travel, and pitting “Team Jane” against the newest threat to the gods, Gorr the God Butcher (Christian Bale), all sprinkled with 80s rock nostalgia! This all sounds like a surefire formula to another great adventure for audiences, but somehow Waititi found a way to over saturate his comedy with too many jokes and a tone that is splattered all over the place, never really knowing which direction it wants to go. All of this, unfortunately, overshadows Gorr himself, which seems like a tall order for someone who wields darkness itself in battle.

After an undisclosed amount of time has passed, Thor (Chris Hemsworth) returns to Earth with Korg (Taika Waititi), since separating from the Guardians of the Galaxy. He finds his old trusty hammer, Mjolnir, alive and well with his lost love, Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), as they fight off Gorr the God Butcher’s shadow monsters in New Asgard with the new villain exacts revenge by ridding the universe of gods for not preventing a tragic event in his life, forcing the Thors’ to stop him, while confronting their lost romance.

Jane Foster has returned after being absent in Ragnarok, now going by Mighty Thor and her relationship with Thor was the highlight of this film. Portman and Hemsworth’s chemistry didn’t miss a beat and the relationship we see here retroactively strengthens their arc from past films, giving a nice redemption to the character that felt underused previously.

However, the way Jane as Mighty Thor was utilized throughout the film felt like it was missing the potential to be something greater. She has an entire cancer backstory that was adapted from the comics and on its own, carried a serious weight, but could have been threaded into the bigger picture of the MCU, while providing its stakes in this story. The how and why of her condition was brought with a vague and surprising absence, but her arc did touch upon some interesting concepts with her personal battles and connection to Mjolnir. Mighty Thor even had some fun moments with new attacks we have not seen used with Mjolnir before, which gave a nice shift to the weapon in battle.

Thor was used much more comedically this time around and while it felt over the top at times, his character journey still progressed, arguably being one of the strongest we have seen throughout the MCU. As powerful and godly as Thor has proven to be by battling giant beasts and armies, more importantly, he has also battled grief and depression. A very relevant and serious topic that seems to be overlooked in his arc. Love and Thunder continues to build on that struggle and gives him an identity crisis of sorts, even using Jane/Mighty Thor as a way to reflect on his role in the universe, at the very least, his priorities by touching on some deep and recurring issues in his life.

Given the relationship focus between Thor and Jane’s history, Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson) and Korg were sadly underutilized. We receive some returning backstory with Valkyrie’s substance abuse that could have been better touched upon, but ultimately it was sacrificed for Korg to use some throw away jokes and never really amounted to anything significant enough. It felt like Korg was used because he was so popular in Ragnarok, but his role lacked direction or purpose, instead providing one-liners that typically fell flat rather than landed. The character was used literally and figuratively between a rock and a hard place. Even the Guardians of the Galaxy were noticeably a minor role to this film and was a hugely missed opportunity, especially when humor is being used at the forefront and we could have had some really memorable moments with everyone, new and old, interacting. Instead, we got two goats that didn’t just drag the ship, but also the same joke throughout the film.

Russell Crowe was certainly a welcome addition with his character, Zeus. His use of a thick Greek accent and over the top portrayal of the God of Lightning was a fun interaction with Hemsworth’s Thor. Crowe’s Zeus was something that might have even outshined Jeff Goldblum’s character, The Grandmaster, from Thor Ragnarok.

Of all these characters, Gorr the God Butcher was unquestionably the most disappointing. Christian Bale morphs into the character and gives a strong performance, even at times pulling Pennywise vibes from IT, but it’s the character’s role where Gorr couldn’t succeed. As much as we are told what a threat this being is, the film never really gives us any moments that justify his title of power. He goes from beloved father to deranged god killer in a matter of seconds, but even with a high caliber actor as Bale, the lack of screen time and direction for this character’s motives just don’t help sell his ability to cause the harm we’re told and tonally his presence doesn’t match any of the films vibrant and slapstick humor.

Gorr’s contrasting tone wasn’t the only aspect that felt off. Tonally, Love and Thunder feels disjointed using multiple stories that cover large and impactful issues. Waititi seemed to have an interesting concept somewhere, but it got lost with the need to out do Ragnarok‘s humor and popularity, overshadowing what could have been some really moving moments on screen. It’s a surprising misstep from the director that balanced humor and story so well with Jojo Rabbit. One portion that, while feeling out of place, was also an interesting choice by using a lack of color to depict the balance of power between Gorr and Thor’s team. It was similar to what Sin City did, using one color to emphasize something on screen and watching that shift of grays and colors was oddly interesting, helping this film stand out from other Marvel properties.

Overall, Thor: Love and Thunder is a solid addition to the MCU and filled with plenty of laughs and thrills that move characters forward along with more stories to be told in the greater universe, but it ironically struggles with its identity, just as Thor seems to. As the relationship arc that is built for Thor and Jane really flourishes, the film also sidelines other characters and story beats that could have helped navigate the film to give it a better vision. Unfortunately, as threatening as Gorr is described, he feels like a Marvel villain that was under developed and over hyped, despite having a high caliber actor showing up.

PCL Rating: Taste It

Rotten Tomatoes Rating: FRESH