A review of the new movie “Thor: Love And Thunder”
As a fan of superhero movies, I’ve religiously seen every contribution to the Marvel Cinematic Universe as it was released which is how I found myself at the 27th MCU offering – the fourth devoted to the Norse god and the second directed by New Zealander Taika Waititi.It has an impressive cast: Chris Hemsworth is of course Thor once again but it is a delight to see Natalie Portman back in a more substantive role as The Mighty Thor; we have Christian Bale and Russell Crowe in barely recognisable form as Gorr The God Butcher and the god Zeus respectively; and there are some old favourites like Tessa Thompson as Valkyrie and the Guardians of the Galaxy gang.
On the weaponry side, we have the return of Thor’s Stormbreaker, his earlier weapon Mjolnir (now in the hands of Mighty Thor), the Thunderbolt thrown by Zeus and the Necrosword wielded by The God Butcher. And there are many other characters and features – including flying goats. A lot of the visual are impressive too, notably Omnipotence City, home to lots of the gods.
So there’s potential here for a traditional superhero movie. The thing is that Taika Waititi does not do traditional (think “Jojo Rabbit”) and he has taken the welcome humour of the previous Thor movie “Ragnarok” and run wild with it, so that the first half of the film is not so much comedy as parody, making it all rather silly. The mood switches for the second half with more drama and some romance but, by then it’s too late.
The fault is clearly that of Waititi who not only directs but also co-writes as well as playing the rock character Korg and effectively acting as narrator. I don’t mind my superhero movies having some humour but I want them to have drama and edge and even awe. This one is too much like farce.