Thor: Love and Thunder
The next installment of the MCU just landed. It definitely lives up to the reputation of Ragnarok, in some cases a bit too much. Let’s jump in and have a spoiler free review of Thor Love and Thunder.
Taika Waititi has done a great job making the Thor movies very fun and exciting to watch. I would even say he single handily resurrected the Thor franchise to be entertaining and more relatable. He gave Thor the 70s sci-fi adventure with just enough cheese to keep audiences smiling. He continues the tread with Love and Thunder. Thor is less and less of a Fantasy RPG setting and more of a sci-fi space romp akin to his new companions The Guardians of the Galaxy.
In true comic book fashion, we don’t get an AsGuardians of the Galaxy adventure, the story starts off with them parting ways and Thor moving on to his next adventure. We get a taste of what their adventures together were like but just a small sample. Thor goes on another adventure of self-discovery and coping with relatable issues that everyone has gone through. As the trailers show it’s the meeting up with your seemingly successful EX. Who not only is doing well, but has taken your place as a hero among your people, and is using your favorite tool for the job. This is where the movie really shines as we get very relatable situations and conversations, but this is also the best part of some added comedy that Taika gives the tools of the trade personalities. Not only is Thor off his game around Jane, Stormbreaker is acting like the jealous girlfriend as Thor pines for Mjolnir. We don’t go as far as talking props but it’s done in a very funny and cool way in my opinion. It will put a smile on your face.
Christian Bale delivers a great performance as the villain Gorr, but I would have love to see him take the mantle of a much bigger bad guys with his talents. Gorr is a great villain but just a one-shot villain. As a man betrayed by his God and spit on when met face to face, we understand his crusade to destroy all Gods and basically other than Thor it seems like most of the Gods in the universe probably deserve meet Gorr’s wrath.
So, we have a relatable hero, a good villain, great comedy, and cameo characters that all deliver perfectly. We even have another round of some of the best needle drops in a soundtrack, what could be possible negative for this movie. The only thing that stands out is that this movie repeats some the beats that we saw in Ragnarok. Almost to the extent that if Taika didn’t have so many other projects under his belt you would think he was a one trick pony. Which kind of makes it feel like he might have phoned this movie in a bit since we have seen him do great work using other methods. Where Thor The Dark World didn’t really feel like a sequel more like a one shot, this definitely feels like a sequel to Ragnarok, in the sense that it give you more of the same but with a new backdrop.
The Verdict
Over all if you enjoyed your self in Ragnarok you are going to have just as much fun watching Love and Thunder. It’s a great way to move Thor as a character forward, but leaves questions on how we move forward as a hero. This is still a must see in theaters specially if you are a fan of the MCU. If you are not a huge fan of the MCU, this is still a fun movie to watch and well worth the price of admission. So check it out.