Review written by Christian Garcia
Today I am reviewing Marvel’s latest film, Thor: Love and Thunder!
How does Marvel’s latest installment hold up? Is it another epic Thor adventure like Ragnarök, another disappointing dud like Thor: The Dark World? (Spoiler: It’s not) or somewhere in between?
Let’s take a closer look…
Thor's Journey:
Since Thor: The Dark World, Thor has been trying to rediscover his purpose in life after turning down the throne of Asgard and the events of Avengers: Endgame, Thor has been on a journey of self-discovery. He spends his time meditating and going on adventures with the Guardians of the Galaxy. Despite these awesome adventures, he prefers to stay out of the action and stay retired. Thor feels empty not having any family or partner to care for. Despite getting along with the Guardians, he doesn’t see them as family. When he parts with Guardians, Quill makes a comment to Thor about it better to “feel like shit” about someone than feel nothing at all.
He is called back into the fight when he sees a distress call from his friend, Sif who has been ambushed by Gorr the God Butcher. When he finds Sif, she warns him that New Asgard will be Gorr’s next target. Thor returns to New Asgard and helps King Valkyrie fight off the shadow monster. During the battle, Thor gets a surprise when he sees his ex-girlfriend, Jane Foster, not only to be in New Asgard but to be fighting and wielding Thor’s old hammer, Mjølnir. Their reunion is interrupted when Gorr makes off with the children of Asgard.
Thor and Jane’s romance is given more focus in this film and the audiences is clued in through a flashback montage that could serve as a romantic short film. Thor and Jane’s romance brought out the best in both and it especially helped Thor get more in touch with his human side. Their love grew deep to the point that Thor even made Mjølnir promise him that it would always protect Jane.
However, Jane’s mortality created a fear of loss in both, and they began to build walls that ultimately tore them apart. Thor kept himself away with his work with the Avengers while Jane buried herself in her research. Eventually, Jane could take it no longer and she wrote Thor a letter ending their relationship. Their reunion is awkward at first as they debate over who left whom. They put that aside and create a plan with Valkyrie to track down Gorr and rescue the children. Thor tracks down Gorr’s location in the Shadow Realm and deduces that his strength will be too much for him to take him on alone. He decides to travel to Omnipotence City to convince Zeus to lend his army to help him fight.
Things don’t go as planned and Thor ends up impaling Zeus with his own Thunderbolt. After escaping Omnipotence City, Thor and Jane have another talk about their relationship. Thor repeats Quill’s words from earlier, botched and in a more humorous than intended way, and confesses his love to Jane. Jane responds by admitting to Thor that she has cancer and the two rekindle their romance. When they arrive in the Shadow Realm, they learn that it was a trap so that Gorr could steal Stormbreaker to use the Bifrost to bring him to Eternity where he could wish for the extinction of the Gods. Both Valkyrie and Jane are wounded in the fight which forces them to retreat. While trying to escape, Gorr steals Stormbreaker.
Upon returning to New Asgard, Thor is informed that Jane’s use of Mjølnir is aggravating her cancer and causing her human body to grow weaker after each use. Thor tells her to stay behind and focus on her recovery and promises Jane that he will come back to her.
In the final battle with Gorr, Thor gifts the children with his powers and they help him battle Gorr and the shadow monsters. Unfortunately, Gorr gets the upper hand which causes Jane to wield Mjølnir again. Jane uses Mjølnir to destroy the Necrosword, which ultimately dooms Gorr and herself. Despite losing the Necrosword, Gorr makes it to Eternity, but Thor pleads for him to choose love over death. He rushes to Jane’s side and their love reminds Gorr of the love that he had for his daughter. He uses his wish to resurrect his daughter, Love. Jane whispers in Thor’s ear before succumbing to her cancer. Before dying himself, Gorr asks Thor to watch over his daughter and Thor agrees.
In the end, love does become Thor’s newfound purpose but not in the way that he expected. Instead of romance, Thor now has a new lease on life watching over Love as a daughter. They travel the world known as Love and Thunder starting a new chapter in Thor’s journey.
The Villain:
Gorr the God Butcher, played by Christian Bale, is a man that had worshipped his god loyally for his entire life. After his civilization fell apart, he and his daughter were left to fend for themselves. They starved and prayed every day for their God to bless them with water. Sadly, Gorr’s daughter Love would starve to death in his arms.
Gorr mourned his daughter until he heard a voice calling to him which brought him before his god, Rapu. At first Gorr is grateful to see him, and he was ready to accept the eternal reward for his years of worship. Rapu would laugh him off and tell him that there was no eternal reward. The God’s arrogance and forsaking, causes Gorr to renounce his fate and tells the god he does not deserve to be worshipped. Rapu is ready to kill Gorr but the Necrosword chooses Gorr and Gorr uses it to kill Rapu.
Afterwards, Gorr vows to kill all Gods as revenge for his daughter’s death and for their forsaking of him.
The Film's Pros
Christian Bale as Gorr
Gorr is one of the better and more interesting concepts for a villain to come through the MCU since Thanos. His opening scene is one of the best introductions to a villain that the MCU has done in quite some time. Watching his suffering and having to watch his daughter die in his arms and then to be forsaken by his God makes you immediately understand his motivations. I felt for him and in the opening, I found myself rooting for him to kill the arrogant Rapu. I also find the concept of a man worshipping the gods only to be abandoned by them and then make his life’s work to slay them all to be an incredibly interesting concept for a villain and was interested to see how he would play out.
What really brings the concept to fruition is the performance of Christian Bale. Bale’s acting talent and resume speak for themselves and to have my personal favorite incarnation of Batman join the MCU was a personal treat. Bale’s past performances in the Dark Knight films as well as the film the The Machinist where he plays men who have endured great tragedy make him the perfect casting choice for Gorr. Bale plays him as he should, as a man who has endured great loss and has chosen the dark path of rage and vengeance to avenge what he has lost. While nothing entirely knew, Bale’s performance, when he actually gets screen time, brings across something refreshing.
One scene that at first made me cringe was when he was intimidating the captured children and was cracking jokes. I at first hated this because I felt that the last thing a character like this should do is be comical. But thankfully, Bale turns it around and he goes from goofy to eerily creepy in an instant. Which is a great trait for an intimidating villain to have.
Sadly, Bale is not given nearly the amount of screen time that he deserves in this film which is a real shame. A few more scenes showing Gorr’s suffering, rage, and dominance over the gods would have served the film a lot better. I’d have rather had more scenes with Gorr actual butchering Gods than more screaming goats and lame pop culture references. He had the potential to be the best Marvel villain since Thanos but as is he is still a great villain but one that feels wasted not through his own doing, but by the way the film utilizes him.
Despite not reaching his full potential, Gorr shines through as the highlight of the film and Bale steals the show with another great performance.
The Redemption of Jane Foster
Despite Natalie Portman’s great acting talent, Jane Foster was never really a prominent figure in the MCU. Her romance with Thor always felt kind of forced and Portman’s talents always felt underutilized, not saying that her performance was bad, but she was never given anything great to sink her teeth into. And given that her last appearance was in Thor: The Dark World, her return to Love and Thunder gave her the opportunity for redemption.
Portman’s first scene where she is undergoing chemotherapy is the best use of her acting ability in any of her MCU appearances. We see her vulnerability as she battles cancer but also her charm as she explains her Foster Theory to a fellow patient. Watching her at her weakest brought one of the very few emotionally heavy moments of the film. Love and Thunder also did a much better job of showing her and Thor’s romantic chemistry as the montage of their relationship was very well done and felt like it could have been a standalone mini rom-com film.
Getting to see her throw around Mjølnir and fight some baddies was fun to watch although we didn’t get a whole lot of that. I would have loved to have seen more of Jane as the Mighty Thor and giving her hero persona more time to shine even over Thor. The trailer made it feel like she would be given more focus and while she is given a lot of focus, I left wanting more. But if anything, leaving fans wanting more is a sign of a job well done.
And while I didn’t find it incredibly funny, I do commend the film’s attempt at giving Jane a little more personality with her being obsessed with finding a catchphrase for her new Thor persona. Again, I personally didn’t find it that funny, but I give kudos at trying to inject more personality into someone that was a bland romantic interest previously.
Her final moment with Thor is the biggest emotional highlight of the film, behind the opening scene with Gorr, and sends off Jane Foster in a much more dignified and poetically tragic way. If this is Portman’s final performance as Foster, I think her exit was handled mostly well. Could they have done more? Yes, but what we were given was enough to redeem a character that had long been pretty forgettable and its great to see.
The Film's Cons
Leaning Too Far Into the Comedy
In my review of Thor: Ragnarök, I mentioned that the biggest con of that film was the drastic change in tone from a serious Thor to a more comedic Thor. I said that a change that drastic can catch a fanbase off guard and even be a turnoff for some. I concluded that I enjoyed the more humorous side of Thor and that Ragnarök did a great job of blending in the humor with the serious and emotional elements to balance out well.
I cannot say the same for Love and Thunder. As someone who enjoyed Ragnarök, even I found the humorous tone of this film to be too much. I will say this now, if you weren’t a fan of Ragnarök’s comedic tone, you will not be a fan of this film. They choose to go full board with the comedy and that is what this film is: a comedy. Now I love comedy. It is my favorite genre of film and television. But the choice of a comedic tone did not fit with the story that they were trying to tell, and it really hurts the film.
The trailer made the film feel like it was going to be an epic journey of self-discovery with some laughs along the way. This film is all laughs and not much epic-ness to the journey, at least not what we normally get with Thor. The film tries to tell a story about love and loss, but the gags and jokes get in the way of the emotional heaviness that is trying to get through. The scene where Thor and Jane get back together could have been much more emotional and impactful, given the strong acting ability of Hemsworth and Portman, but the comedic tone gets in the way, and it unfortunately falls flat.
Now all could be forgiven if the jokes are so funny that you can overlook the other issues. Sadly, that is not the case with this film. The jokes in this film either fall flat or outstay their welcome. One bit that really outstood its welcome was the screaming goats that were given to Thor as a gift. At first it was kind of funny, but it got old really quick and became more annoying than funny. The film has a lot more misses than hits with its jokes, which tend to make up a good portion of the dialogue. In the theatre, I did not hear that much laughing throughout the film maybe only at a few jokes, the rest was just people sitting in silence.
I won’t say that this film is not funny at all as there were parts that got laughs out of me particularly the scene with Matt Damon and Melissa McCarthy playing actors reenacting the events of Ragnarök as a stage play. Melissa McCarthy as Hela got a big laugh out of me, and it was great to see Damon return for his bit part. I also laughed at the scene where Damon and his writing partner were demanding to make a play out of an event that just happened. That was an example of where they added to a previous bit but didn’t overdo it. Director Taika Waititi’s performance as Korg also still got a few good laughs and I also enjoyed the bit with Tessa Thompson’s Valkyrie and Natalie Portman’s Jane jamming out to music.
However, despite enjoying these bits, I felt that a lot of the jokes and gags could have been switched out for more dramatic moments to give the plot more stakes. But speaking of the plot..
More Jokes Than Plot
There is a good epic story trying to get through but its bogged down to focus more on the jokes than the plot. Thor and Jane’s story of love got a solid telling in the beginning through some clever flashbacks reminiscent of a rom com montage but by the end felt more hastily forced than organic. Valkyrie felt very underutilized in this film which is a shame because the story of her struggles being the first female leader of Asgard could be a very interesting story to dive into, but she is given very little focus and by the climax is lazily tossed aside.
I also felt that Christian Bale’s Gorr deserved much more screen time to show how big of a threat he was going to be to Thor. Instead of telling us that he killed many Gods, why not show us. Thor gets thrown into the mix after his friend Sif is attacked by Gorr. Why couldn’t we have seen the battle between Gorr and Sif? What better way to establish a threat than showing what he can do in battle and why you should be afraid of him. We are also told that Gorr is cursed and being slowly killed by the Necrosword which also gives him great power. We could have been shown instances of Gorr’s deteriorating psyche because of the sword which would have given us a chance to relate to the character and understand his motivations. The opening scene does a great job of establishing his motives, but we could have been given more to really get a feel for a character that had the potential to be the best Thor villain and one of the best MCU villains since Thanos.
While juggling a lot of plot points is a difficult task, I think the characters are interesting enough that audiences would have gone along for the ride and enjoyed learning more about their heroes. Instead, the plot is overly simplified to the point that it turns a potentially great film into just an okay film.
Making Thor too Goofy
Thor feels like less of a mighty Avenger and more like a meathead. This is not a knock on Chris Hemsworth’s performance as he still is as charming and likable as always. But Thor feels a lot dumber in this film than previously and it feels very out-of-character for him. Thor has never been dumb. He’s been reckless, but he never came off looking like a fool. In this film, Thor seems to be up to more tomfoolery than before and while it is great to see Chris Hemsworth having fun with the absurdity, it goes too far to the point that it feels like Thor has been over simplified. A great thing about Hemsworth’s Thor was his complexities. He is strong and brave, but he can also be reckless and cocky and after having endured the loss of his family and having to watch his kingdom be destroyed, Thor has the makings of a tragic hero.
Sadly, Thor’s tale of rediscovery is barely focused on which is a huge disappointment as there was great potential there. After having endured so much tragedy and then choosing a life of solitude and detachment, Thor was set up to have an epic journey that could have been like a Greek Tragedy. But instead of being a complex hero, Thor feels oversimplified. Of course, he is still likable, but it feels like the honorable and humbled hero that was established in the earlier Thor and Avengers films has been reduced to the role of a lovable meathead.
Hopefully the next Thor can rectify this and return Thor’s complexities but as is, the God of Thunder seems less godly than earlier interpretations.
Final Thoughts
Thor: Love and Thunder is a comedy that packs good action, some funny moments, and an intriguing villain all together for a fun experience that Marvel fans and common movie goers will enjoy.
However, I would be lying if I did not admit to finding the film to be a disappointment for me personally. The choice of going all in on the comedy bogs this film down from being a great film into being just an okay film. The plot is rushed, and not enough time is given to flesh out a lot of characters who had great potential to be so much more (i.e., Gorr, Jane Foster, and Valkyrie). Given the film clocks in under the 2-hour mark, it is an example of a Marvel film that would have benefitted from having been longer. But then again they may have used that time to add more screaming goats and lame jokes so it’s a tossup.
Ragnarök was able to balance out the comedy and the drama to bring a more fulfilling package that had action, drama, and a lot more laughs. Love and Thunder chooses to dedicate most of its focus to the comedy which is a choice that hurts the film more as its jokes bring a lot more misses than laughs.
Love and Thunder has a great film that is trying to get out but is bogged down by the overwhelming presence of the typical Marvel humor that is starting to become tiresome. The story is an interesting concept with Thor on a journey of self-discovery while also battling a villain who is out to destroy his kind. Had more time been given to focus on the plot and to further develop the characters, the film would have reached its full potential.
As is, Love and Thunder still packs that Marvel fun and humor that fans come to expect and is a fun film to go see with friends and family for a weekend. However, I don’t see it holding up as a timeless classic that fans will come back to for years to come. I personally see it as an example of what happens when you do too much of something, in this case, comedy. It is also sign that the Marvel formula is starting to become stale and needs to be shaken up. I hope that the next installment can dial back on the comedy and bring back the emotion and drama that made me a fan of Thor to begin with.
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