2022 Reviews – Thor: Love and Thunder

Off to the cinema for another Marvel movie we go. I’ve already seen YouTube thumbnails labelling Thor: Love and Thunder ‘hot garbage’ and ‘a bad joke’ though, so this doesn’t bode well. Honestly, I wouldn’t mind if I hated this movie, as I’m not the biggest fan of Taika Waititi anyway – I sometimes wonder how different he must be in real life to his character in Free Guy, where everything has to be fun and it’s only ever a super wicked-cool idea if it’s his. Although, as a fan of both the serious Thor movies (and in the minority there, I know), even I must admit that Thor: Ragnarok is the best Thor movie to date, pulpy silliness and all – and that’s why Waititi is the filmmaker, and I’m just a guy on the internet. I do wait with bated breath, however, to see how this movie will ever justify Jane Foster’s return as ‘Mighty Thor’… 😬

Thor Odinson (Chris Hemsworth) has undergone some changes since Avengers: Endgame. He is buff again, regained a carefree attitude, and travels alongside the Guardians of the Galaxy, helping out the good guys wherever the fight may be. But somewhat cramping their style, Star-Lord (Chris Pratt) of the Guardians suggests that maybe Thor still has some inner soul-searching to do, and maybe it’d be best if he went it alone, leading him back to Earth, where New Asgard sits, ruled by King Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson). The Asgardians are soon set upon by a new threat, Gorr the God Butcherer (Christian Bale), wielding the Necrosword, powerful enough to defeat all Gods, and fueled by his own personal grudge. Thor, Valkyrie, and loyal companion Korg (voiced by Taika Waititi), plan to travel to Omnipotence City, the city of the Gods, to ask for additional help, alongside another unlikely ally, Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), the Mighty Thor.

Well, this could be the worst MCU movie. My previous least favourite Marvel movie was Iron Man 3, but I don’t remember ever seeing an MCU movie like this, containing parts where I was bored out of my friggin’ mind. There were moments when Jane and Thor are making awkward small-talk that I couldn’t believe were taking place in the same cinematic universe that also gave us the high-quality conversations between Aunt May and Peter Parker most recently in Spider-Man: No Way Home (a high bar, maybe). In the end, I don’t mind that Jane Foster’s three-movie story-arch ends with her taking on the powers of Thor, but this movie was up against it, trying to recreate the chemistry between Thor and Jane in a tonally juxtaposing movie to the first two, especially after so much time has passed in the MCU. Just think on the small cameo from Darcy Lewis (Kat Dennings), who was once a teenager in awe of Thor, but has now gone on to contend with her own Earthly problems – witches and androids (WandaVision); friendly alien-Gods are small potatoes in the MCU now. I would assume that Foster, always hunkered down in her research, would have matured too. Ultimately, I think the audience can use Thor: Love and Thunder as evidence that sometimes it’s not worth getting back in contact with your ex – these once idealistic and boldened characters now use self-depreciating humour and fake bravado to make up for lost time, and it’s not so much ‘awful’, as it is just not very engaging. I hardly laughed once through this very jokey movie. I couldn’t have cared less for Thor sweet-talking his weapons and assuring Stormbreaker that it’s still his baby! And on a grander scale, I reckon it’s hard to balance comedy and develop the stakes of action at the same time. Thor: Ragnarok‘s stakes were fairly muted, even when Hela was involved, but that movie also had the Hulk; a bigger and greener asset than Jane Foster has ever been. What’s most funny is that I was sad to see Jane Foster left out of the third Thor movie, and now I’m disappointed in her return – I’m a hard guy to please.

It’s a tiny nitpick, but what if Jane actually had to do more to earn her powers – maybe Mjolnir was calling to her from where it was destroyed on the hilltops of Norway, and she had to use her smarts to track it down or uncover it somehow. I also wonder if the movie was presented in the best way, starting with Gorr instead of getting us up to speed and primarily focusing on what Jane had been up to first. Gorr could have come in as a frightening villain, and we could have caught up with his tragic backstory halfway through the movie – I would’ve experimented with that. Positively, Christian Bale seemed to be professionally invested in the project – Gorr had the potential to be an amazing villain, and I guess his ending is sweet, but he didn’t grab me much before that. It’s a bit like Jared Leto’s Joker in Suicide Squad, dare I say, where just as it’s about to be his turn to be the focus of the movie and get some juicy screen time, it never lasts long enough to know how truly bad or great the characterisation really is. I suppose all you need to know about Gorr is given in the opening scene anyway; he had a daughter, the God’s betrayed him, and now he has been empowered but cursed by the sword.

I like the Guns and Roses soundtrack: it fits so well and is reminiscent of the early Iron Man movies pairing with AC/DC too. But I’m also a guy who likes my ducks in a row, so if you’re going to commit to a musical pairing, why not carry it through the entire movie – I think there’s an ABBA song playing during the montage of Thor and Jane’s relationship, that seems like another joke instead of being aligned with Korg’s overall story. I also thought the movie looked very cheap through those Guardians of the Galaxy scenes, and that’s not something I ever thought I’d suggest of a Marvel movie. There’s one early scene where Mighty Thor’s make-up, or post-production touch-up, is so not ‘on fleek’ that it took me out of the movie too, but these technical problems melted away for me in future scenes, and I was impressed with the decision to present the fight in a colourless palate towards the end of the movie. The kids that take up the fight in the finale didn’t bother me, but Korg always seemed out of place, just like another element this movie had to cram into an already clustered story. I was sad when Valkyrie copped her injury though, so that’s something; I hope she’s okay, looks like she will be. I feel I’m massaging this movie, noting some smaller kinks, but the fact of the matter is that Thor: Love and Thunder is way too busy, and the story is not as charming as it ever hopes to be. I haven’t even written about Zeus (Russell Crowe), or Hercules (Brett Goldstein), or Thor’s new surrogate daughter because who’s got the time? We’ll see how it pans out.

1.5