Thor: Love and Thunder Review
The Thor character has had a rather ropey time within the Marvel Cinematic Universe. His first two films left audiences rather unsatisfied and the character himself felt rather wooden due to some underwhelming scripts. It was not until 2017’s Thor Ragnarök where Chris Hemsworth got a chance to truly bring the character to life, flexing his comedic muscles and quickly becoming a fan favourite character. Thus, it was a no brainer for Disney to bring back writer/director Taika Waititi to double down on the comedy and hope for another homerun. However, the results are less thunderous.
The story of Thor: Love and Thunder follows Thor (of course) on his quest to find a sense of purpose within the universe. Meanwhile, Gorr (Christian Bale), is on a murderous spree across the stars with one goal in mind – kill all the Gods. On Earth, Natalie Portman’s Jane Foster is back (last appearing in 2013’s Thor: The Dark World) however, now suffering from cancer, seeks the magic of Mjolnir in order to heal her body. On paper, it seems the film has a lot to deal with, however what is so baffling about the film’s first half is that it feels like it is going nowhere. While Gorr’s introduction is engaging, everything else comes across as rather half-baked, with Waititi padding out time with bland and poorly put together action sequences. There is a lack of a natural rhythm to the film’s structure, haphazardly jumping from one sequence to the other in hopes to excite the audience in some way. The cancer storyline, while taken directly from the comics, is handled with little depth or nuance, coming across as a hollow and cheap method to garner some emotional weight, even acting as an afterthought at points. It is not until a journey to Omnipotent City halfway into the film where the plot feels like it has kicked into gear and maintained some level of focus.
Hemsworth is predictably solid as Thor, with this being his seventh turn as the God of thunder. Yet, the faults with his character mainly come down to his writing, dialling up the dumb that people grew to enjoy in Thor: Ragnarök, but now leaning too far in that direction that it just feels inconsistent with the Thor we saw in the last two Avengers film. At times his behaviour even comes across as ignorant, seemingly disinterested in his own people’s plight. Natalie Portman’s Jane Foster is definitely more likeable than her previous incarnations; Tessa Thompson’s Valkyrie adds a fun dynamic to the team and Taika Waititi’s Korg is always a delight. Christian Bale is undoubtedly the standout here, however. His menacing demeanour and demonic design are captivating, while Bale himself is clearly having a blast in the role. Along with a convincing motivation, you will wish Gorr was a larger part of the feature, as he too brings with him a distinct visual flare that film lacks without him.
Even with some heavy subject matter, Thor: Love and Thunder is undeniably a comedy through and through. While this will differ for every person, the comedy here does fall a bit flat. The film has its moments, especially with Korg, but overall, there are not many laugh-out loud moments, more slight chuckles if anything. There is definitely some mild fun to be had with Thor: Love and Thunder. Bale is brilliant, the omnipotent city sequence is enjoyable and there is a particular fight in the third act that is stellar. But the film is held back by a clunky first half, a lack of balance with its heavier subject matter and its limited laughs.
Thor: Love and Thunder is indicative of where Marvel Studios is at right now. This is yet another fairly standard superhero movie that feels rather purposeless in its being. It seems as though this is a studio that ran out of ideas a long time ago, trying to repeat its own cinematic release structure that made them so successful a decade ago. Only now, patience is wearing thin as to why we should stick around and see what they are building to this time. The film may end on an interesting note, but the journey is nothing particularly special, just another marvel film that follows its now exhausted formula. If even the Thor and Waititi partnership has lost its magic, then where exactly can it be restored within this tired universe.