The god of thunder returns in a confusingly, cuddly storm. Thor: Love and Thunder is full of family squabbles and massive fantasy action. It’s pure chaos, but Thor’s morals eventually both save the day and save his newest movie.
Marvel continues their big screen onslaught with their first crack at a fourth movie. That’s why it seems strange that instead of the most popular characters, it’s Thor who gets a continuing legacy. Thankfully, by the end it becomes clear why Thor needed one more film to neatly sum up his drawn-out chronicles.
Taika Waititi, who was director, co-writer and actor in 2017’s fan favourite Thor: Ragnarok, returns to all three roles with his colourful, rock n’ roll style for this new sequel, picking up Thor’s adventures in the aftermath of the Thanos saga that ended three years ago.
Hero Thor Odinson (Chris Hemsworth) is taking up a new mission to help his fellow gods when a new enemy is using a powerful sword to kill gods around the universe. But to do so, he must first re-team with his brilliant ex-girlfriend Jane (Natalie Portman) who’s acquired superpowers of her own since last they met.
Marvel super-fans (and by that, I mean the most dedicated) will find the most nuance and texture to this over-loud entry to the MCU. It’s otherwise similar to 2013’s The Dark World in that the plot is too scattershot and isolated to Thor himself for the audience to engage with the greater threat at large.
What I do appreciate is how neatly the ending is crafted. Neither Thor nor Jane Foster had definitive endings to their stories from their previous film appearances, so to see each of them at last have a satisfying end makes for a hopeful post-Thanos epilogue.
The title Love and Thunder is greatly appropriate, and while the breezy pacing is narratively simple, I applaud the titular theme in how our love for others is more powerful than the raw might of battle. But that doesn’t forgive the shallow antics of our main hero.
How is it that, after being thousands of years old and appearing in several Marvel movies to date, the character of Thor is as equally wiser and more clueless than when we first met him in 2011?
Thor’s movie arc began as too serious, and now it has swung too far in the opposite direction to be soullessly silly. If he truly is "the god of thunder", his immaturity and brash behaviour needed to be overcome eons ago.
The man-child act is no longer amusing in his character, nor in his movies. (My opening day audience was laughing noticeably less in this entry than they did during Ragnarok, when the injection of humour was heavily praised.)
Speaking of which, in reviewing Ragnarok for Oakville News five years ago, I wrote it was "unquestionably the best Thor movie…less regal and forced than before, instead opting to be more inter-dimensional and giddy. The style is sometimes too slick, but it’s satisfyingly clean and smooth."
Now in Love and Thunder, many of those qualities have carried over with Waititi’s second Thor entry. But after the ensemble movie bombardment from Marvel in the past five years, the same goofy, inter-dimensional chaos is boring instead of refreshing.
By the movie’s end, however, Thor is closer than ever to finding middle ground when he focuses on the love of others instead of the thunder he brings in battle.
Thor: Love and Thunder
6 out of 10
PG, 1hr 59mins. Superhero Fantasy Action Comedy.
Co-Written and Directed by Taika Waititi.
Starring Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Christian Bale, Taika Waititi, Tessa Thompson and Russell Crowe.
Now Playing at Film.Ca Cinemas, 5 Drive-In, Cineplex Winston Churchill and Cineplex Oakville & VIP. Also in IMAX.
