Skip to main content

Thor: Love and Thunder

 A review by Forrest Humphrey


In the aftermath of “Avengers: Endgame”, Thor decides going on space adventures with the Guardians of the Galaxy is just what he needs to get back into his groove. Its on one of these wacky scenes that the Guardians get a distress call, one of particular interest to Thor. Something out there is going across the universe killing gods, and New Asgard might be next. So Thor parts with the Guardians and returns to Earth to confront this new threat, discovering his old flame Jane Foster has also somehow rebuilt Mjolnir after Hela destroyed it in “Ragnarok”. Now Thor, Jane, Valkyrie and Korg have to deal with a new villain, Gorr the God Butcher, before he finishes doing what his name implies.

Up front, I think this is a mix of things I like more than the last film and some I like less. Up front, Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson are still here to put in work, and Natalie Portman's return comes along with what is hands down her best outing in these movies now that she looks like she's really having fun. Hemsworth and Portman have more chemistry here than they ever did in the older films as well. But hands down I have to hand it to Christian Bale, who absolutely kills as the film's villain, Gorr. Also, Russel Crowe is a blast as Zeus. 

However, I also wasn't feeling as much of the humor this time, especially in the early parts of the film. Several jokes play out several times or longer than they should such as the extremely annoying screaming goats. Did you think it was sweet when Led Zeppelin played in a big scene in the last one? They do that with Guns 'n Roses three or four times here. The original music in general was non-existant compared to “Ragnarok's” great synth-heavy score. And as much as Bale really goes hard and makes Gorr a memorable villain, I absolutely wish a few minutes of things that don't land or work could have been trimmed to give him just one more scene, a few more minutes would have taken him from “He's really good when he's here” to “one of Marvel's best villains hands down.” 

Its still a fun time, the cast is great, there's some visually stunning sequences and some genuinely compelling character work, but I do feel “Ragnarok” was a tighter, stronger film. 

Rating: 3.5/5




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Forgotten Film Friday: Absolute Power

Clint Eastwood stars as Luther Whitney, a jewel thief who works in the Washington DC area. One night while he is stealing from a mansion he is forced to hide in a secret compartment with a two way mirror. From there he observes a sexual rezendevous with the wife of a powerful man and the President of the United States Alan Richmond (Gene Hackman) Suddenly the president gets aggressive and while defending herself the woman is shot to death by two Secret Service agents. Luther manages to get away with a letter opener the woman stabbed the president with. At first Luther plans to flee the country. But when he is disgusted by a statement the president makes, Luther decides to expose the crime. I miss these kind of films. The nineties was a great time for thrillers exactly like this. They are not the flashiest films but they are also not obsessed with big action scenes. It's all plot and character with them. Sure this plot might be a little out there but Eastwood makes it work. He's...
1 comment
Read more

John Candy month

 What can you say about John Candy? He was a comic genius who was taken from us too soon. There were a lot of comedic heavyweights of the eighties and nineties but Candy stood above most of them. If there is a Mount Rushmore of comedy I imagine John Candy would be on it. For the month of July we are honoring this comic genius. 
Post a Comment
Read more

Oscar bait month

 The Academy Awards. That time of the year when everyone debates what movies are truly the best and there is never a consensus and no one is ever happy. A movie can be incredibly popular and then it wins a bunch of Oscars and suddenly it's overrated and not very good or downright bad. It happens every year. But for the month of April let's take a look at those films that had Oscars on their mind and instead fell flat on their faces. Now Oscar Bait is a term that can also be applied to winners or films that did score a bunch of nominations. For example Bradley Cooper's film Maestro is very much an Oscar Bait movie even though it had a decent awards season. I want to talk about the films that did nothing. That were early contenders then either faded away eventually or just plain crashed and burned. Oscar Bait's biggest failures. What wrong here with these? Was the movie poor? Did something else just have a dominant run? Or were politics involved? Maybe all of the above. S...
Post a Comment
Read more