Movie Review: Thor Love and Thunder

Anyone who know's me, knows I was one of the rare people who didn't get along with Thor Ragnarok. I think Thor as a character isn't really my favourite but I enjoyed the original Thor movie for how it felt like a great homage to the Norse Mythology in line with the Marvel established world. Thor Dark World I recognise had a lot of faults and took itself way too seriously at times. So with Thor Ragnarok and the inclusion of Taika Waititi as the new creative director behind the God of Thunder, it makes sense his movies were looking to take a more creative and humorous approach to shift up the appeal behind the character. This shift up while many people appreciated it, I found too much of a jarring experience. I think the humour and tone didn't work in line with a lot of the serious elements half the time. I had hoped with the initial shock already over, that Love and Thunder would be a much more adaptable experience and while the tone was not nearly as difficult to get along with it's hard not to feel this film goes too fast with too much.

Love and Thunder features the return of Thor and his Asgardian friends as they seek to stop a new threat to the gods of the universe. Betrayed and angry, Gorr the self proclaimed God Butcher is out to end the reign of any and all gods and his mission leads him in direct confrontation with Thor. It turns out however that Thor is not alone in his quest to defeat Gorr, as his ex-girlfriend Doctor Jane Foster returns gifted with the powers of Mjolnir and titles herself the Mighty Thor. Together the duo head out across the realms to gain allies and stop Gorr before he achieves his goal.

I think the narrative element of Love and Thunder is equal parts good, equal parts underwhelming.  I like the concept of Gorr and why he's out to destroy the gods. He has a very empathetic origin and his character motivation and actions are really interesting. Though let's be honest the main reason Gorr is so good is because of Christian Bale. The man sinks himself into any role he gets put into and he plays Gorr with every ounce of passion in his body. His drive and goal throughout the story as easily the best elements of it, which in contrast only magnifies the weaker elements to me. Thor and Jane's personal relationship and the drama that is tied between them feels half-baked. I think some of the ideas that the film tries to play around with have merit and with a more mature tone, I might have come to respect this story a bit better. Similar to Ragnarok the tone just doesn't work when it's layered in with storylines which are meant to be serious. It struggles to play  it both ways too often in this film and it's short runtime means a lot of the pacing and breathing room for these stories is severely lacking. I got along with the comedy a bit better this time around though, as the expectation was there already. 

I think upon reflection though, Thor Love and Thunder fails to be anything more than a weak footnote in the current line up of Marvel films. It doesn't seem to push Thor any further or analyse who he was after the events of Endgame, it just resets the landscape and puts him in a new setup for whatever his next appearance will be. It's harmless enough and has a lot of spectacle and humour, but it definitely feels lacking in value and doesn't utilise it's storyline or characters nearly as much as I hoped.