Thor: Love and Thunder Review: More Blunder Than Thunder?

Thor: Love and Thunder is directed by Taika Waititi and stars Chris Hemsworth, Tessa Thompson, Natalie Portman, Russell Crowe, Christian Bale and Taika Waititi. This is the second time Marvel has employed the skills of Taika Waititi on a Thor Movie. This film marks the reunion of Chris Hemsworth and Taika Waititi. Many fans including Hemsworth himself credit Waititi for singlehandedly saving Thor solo movies. Since, Waititi’s arrival Thor movies went from one of weakest to one of the finest movies in the MCU. Thor: Ragnarok is still considered to be one of the best solo entries in the MCU and rightly so. So we have a follow up to Ragnarok after 5 years. The director Taika Waititi often described the film his new venture as a Rom-Com in space.

This film also marks Natalie Portman’s return to the MCU after not appearing in Thor: Ragnarok. She did have a cameo in Avengers: Endgame though that scene was simply a deleted scene from Thor: The Dark World. Thor is one of the OG Avengers and his story always felt incomplete even after Endgame unlike Captain America or Iron Man. So, I’m glad Marvel has decided to continue his story. The 4th Thor movie is made on a budget of $250 Million. That’s a lot of money. Although the film is expected to open around $150 Million. Coming back to the point though, is Thor: Love & Thunder raises the bar like Ragnarok did or does it at least touch that threshold? Let’s find out.

WARNING: The following article contains mild spoilers

Rating – ★★

Thor: Love and Thunder – Does the Taika Waititi Magic Work again?

I would say this the movie is definitely is a breath of fresh air from the rutt of MCU duds we’ve been getting. It is different from what we’ve been seeing. The film opens with Christian Bale’s Gorr the God Butcher and it is definitely one of the coldest openings in the MCU. The film opens on a promising note but from there it does lose out on the audiences’ attention it had grabbed. The film explains us Thor’s journey after Endgame. How he has teamed up with the Guardians of Galaxy.

This entire concept of there being a rom-com in space was admirable but I think Waititi has gone a bit overboard with his dry humor that he always uses in his films. It worked in Thor: Ragnarok because the humor was placed at particular moments and the overall tone of the movie was light. The same case cannot be made here. The humor is infectious almost in every scene of the script and the film deals with some mature themes like loss and impending doom.

Whilst dealing with such topics humor can be used as a relief but the constant use of it simply feels like everyone running away from the real emotions and depth of the subject. To be honest at many moments the film feels like a parody version of itself. Like for instance the love triangle between Thor, Mjolnir and Stormbreaker did give me a chuckle or two but the constant use of it felt caricaturish. You run the joke so much that it runs out dry. So, no the Waititi magic is still there but has turned pale.

The Cast Saves the Day?

Christian bale as Gorr is absolutely terrifying and everything you’d want from a proper big bad….except screen time. The veteran actor coming on board in a Marvel film that too playing a villain was a dream come true for many. The amount of acting wizardry this man possess is simply beyond us mortals. The film opens with him and that is always great when the film opens with the villain but he is rarely seen in the film after this.

Whenever he is seen he uses the Necrosword or summons the shadow monsters. There are only a handful of scenes where the Oscar winning actor is given the time to shine and he doesn’t let it go to waste. So every time he is on screen his presence is enough for stealing the show. The other actors like Chris Hemsworth and Natalie Portman do their part. I mean mostly repeating themselves and playing the characters exactly the same way they’ve been playing these characters. There is no real change in them.

Although I won’t call their performance weak. Tessa Thompson is fine in the limited amount of time she’s been given. The worst perfomance from the lot is from Russell Crowe as Zeus. His hammy performance with that weird Greek accent that borders on Russian is painful to watch. He didn’t feel funny rather annoying and an absolute drag. The film does have a few fun cameos similar to Ragnarok and that was fun to see. Overall, the performances are good but it does seem like they wasted a talent like Christian Bale by not giving him enough screen time.

Verdict

To wrap up, I’d say Thor: Love and Thunder is an okayish film to catch this weekend although as a fan of the MCU and particularly Thor: Ragnarok, I did expect more. The film has scored 7.3 on IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes have deemed it 72% fresh and honestly it does feel justified. The film has good music, great visuals like truly spectacular especially the Shadow Realm. Now I know where those $250 Million went. The story could’ve been better. I just wished the some aspects of the story would’ve been given more time like Jane’s story because for those parts the film simply resorts to montages that quickly spew information on us. It felt a bit boring in the middle but I like how they wrapped it up.

The climax and resolution was better in comparison to the whole film. For me, Thor: Love and Thunder is a 2 out of 5 stars. I stand by my opinion that Marvels is struggling in their Phase 4 and this film didn’t change it. Let me know what did you think of the film. Do you agree with my views? Do you think I missed something? Its a good film to catch with your family. Especially because they cut out Hemsworth’s butt in India. That was a bummer, pun intended.

Thor: Love and Thunder is currently playing in theatres.

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