Having been an avid comic book junkie since I was a kid, I’ll admit that I was concerned when Marvel announced they were going to be producing a Thor movie back in 2011. I wondered if they would be able to pull off the considerably improbable world of Asgard and mesh it with the more realistic worlds of Iron Man and Captain America. I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised; Director Kenneth Branagh was able to blend the cosmic with the scientific in an admirable way.
Then in 2013, Thor: The Dark World was released. In spite of the majority of critics having negative reviews, I gave the movie a 6 out of 10. The majority of the movie had a serious tone and we got to see another level of the characters. We were also exposed to yet another Infinity Stone. Amidst all of the seriousness of the film, Loki’s character growth stood out to me the most. We got to dive into his complexity, which only complimented his villainy.
This takes us to November 3rd, 2017, the release of Thor: Ragnorok. What a spectacle! Director Taika Waititi was able to take the somewhat hard-to-swallow and strained aspects of Marvel Thor Lore and make a hilarious drama while at the same time making it believable for the audience. There was even a scene that poked fun at the seriousness of Thor: The Dark World. Waititi was able to marry the laughs throughout with the action in a way that created an engaging story. The contrasts throughout the story were pure comic book genius. Just a fair warning that there are slight spoilers ahead.
We were also introduced to a more intelligent Hulk that proved to be one of the most enticing parts of the movie. Hulk’s arch in the film is taking the audience to the next level of Hulk’s complex character. Mark Ruffalo motion captured and voiced the green giant this time around causing the audience to be drawn to the Hulk as if they were being entertained by the antics of a 3-year-old. In fact, my wife leaned over to me during the film and said, “Doesn’t his mannerisms remind you of Pockets (our 3-year-old)?
I was glad to see Chris Hemsworth embrace Waititi’s vision of a more seasoned, smart-alecky Thor. It was almost as if Thor’s time on earth with the Avengers made him less-serious, and more sarcastic. Yet the audience still gets to see how connected he is to his Asgardian heritage as the story progresses. Again, beautiful use of contrasting approaches.
There were just a few cons to the movie that had me wondering. The first was the soundtrack. Don’t get me wrong, I do love funky 80’s music, but it seemed like Waititi was jumping on the Stranger Things and Guardians of the Galaxy funk bandwagon. It felt a little forced and didn’t quite work for me. The other thing is that I did feel it was a little rushed with some of the surprise deaths in the film. Maybe adding 25 more minutes into the runtime to allow the audience to reconnect with some of those characters before killing them off so abruptly. All in all, I give Waititi’s action comedy 9 out of 10 for its ability to blend so many contrasts into one hilarious whole.
-Stu
