Summary
As Thor leans all the way in on comedy territory, an often messy collection of scenes and tones makes us wonder who the intended audience is for this fourth franchise outing.
Let me tell you the story of the space viking, Thor Odinson. When he was first introduced as a Phase One member of the soon-to-be-formed Avengers, he was a character ripe for parody. Kenneth Branagh touched on this briefly, but it wasn’t until Taika Waititi’s Thor: Ragnarok that Disney/Marvel owned the inherent silliness in the God of Thunder.
This irreverent approach to the material is still evident from the start of THOR: LOVE AND THUNDER, Waititi’s first official follow-up by way of Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. Following a dark intro in which the grieving Gorr (Christian Bale) vows to slay all gods, we first encounter Thor (Chris Hemsworth) working off his ‘dad bod’ and fighting alongside the Guardians of the Galaxy.
Yet this only gets the film so far, stumbling through a cameo-filled first act and a series of storybook flashbacks that immediately make us question who the audience is supposed to be. Back on Earth, former flame Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) is diagnosed with inoperable cancer, but finds hope when the hammer Mjölnir chooses Jane to be the Mighty Thor. So the Thors in stereo team-up to fight Gorr, even as Jane slowly loses her mortal strength in the process.
There’s lot of fun to be had with this concept, but the tone swings faster than Thor’s Hammer, stitched together on innuendo and so many Guns n’ Roses tunes. As a central villain, Gorr is a good choice, overcoming Marvel’s ‘weak villain’ problem that has plagued the series for some time. Bale gives it his all, seemingly transforming physically every time we see him. Still, the film seems less concerned with his antics than the group of children he has abducted. Indeed, there’s an interesting psychological parallel between the death of Gorr’s child and his abduction of Asgardian children, but the film doesn’t even consider this a plot point worth pursuing.
A centrepiece sequence in which Thor meets Zeus (Russel Crowe with a scenery chewing Greek accent) and loses his clothes is the kind of high camp we expected based on Ragnarok. However, it too is a bright light in a loose and chaotic narrative. Case in point, only moments later, all the colour is literally drained from the film for a dark journey into a shadow realm. THOR: LOVE AND THUNDER is not so much a movie but a series of scenes.
By the time we get to the last act, it feels like the script was still being was cobbled together after production had started, throwing elements against the walls and seeing which of the four quadrants they stick to. There are times when literal deus ex machinas are tacked on to give it some of that Endgame climax magic. Characters neglected since the beginning are suddenly remembered, and it feels on balace as though whole swathes of story have been cut out.
The real crime is not knowing what to do with Tessa Thompson, who is left to literally watch romantic events unfold or sidelined entirely because nobody quite knew where to fit her into the story. When she does appear, we’re reminded of the commanding presence she had in the previous films. Here we can’t help but feel like she is being set-up for a spin-off series.
Which is perhaps where THOR: LOVE AND THUNDER stumbles the most, arriving as it does in a sea of Disney/Marvel content on screens of all size. As one of three feature films — and as many Disney+ series — in 2022 alone, it certainly brings the big-budget thrills one would expect from a theatrical outing. As just another piece in the content puzzle, one can’t help but feel that this is the kind of narrative Disney could have peppered out over a mini-series on their streaming service with a few tweaks.
As is the way with serialised storytelling, we are assured that Thor will return. Mid and post-credits sequences hint at the future, and — following Eternals and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness — seem to be where Marvel make all their major casting announcements too. Here’s hoping that wherever Thor Odinsson lands next, it lands with the force of a lightning strike. For now, it feels like the distant rumble of a storm that’s passed.
2022 | USA | DIRECTOR: Taika Waititi | WRITERS: Taika Waititi, Jennifer Kaytin Robinson | CAST: Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Christian Bale, Tessa Thompson, Jaimie Alexander, Taika Waititi, Russell Crowe | DISTRIBUTOR: Disney | RUNNING TIME: 119 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 7 July 2022 (AUS)
