Thor: Love and Thunder film review by Raphael Borg

Directed by	Taika Waititi
Written by	Taika Waititi Jennifer Kaytin Robinson
Based on	Thor by Stan Lee Larry Lieber Jack Kirby
Produced by	Kevin Feige Brad Winderbaum
Starring	Chris Hemsworth Christian Bale Tessa Thompson Jaimie Alexander Taika Waititi Russell Crowe Natalie Portman
Cinematography	Barry Idoine
Edited by	Matthew Schmidt Peter S. Elliot Tim Roche Jennifer Vecchiarello
Music by	Michael Giacchino Nami Melumad
Production company	Marvel Studios
Distributed by	Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

I think I may need a safety bunker after this.

I am not a fan of what Taika Waititi has done with the Thor mythos. Don’t take me wrong, I like it as its own interpretation separate from it’s comic book counterpart. The problem is that it borrows so much heavily (and brilliantly so) in it’s aesthetics from the comics – particularly Walt Simonson’s and Jason Aaron’s respective runs here, that separating the two other than by way of medium is difficult. I was able to appreciate Ragnarok as its own thing. But here, it’s difficult.

There are things that I like here; the aesthetics are brilliant, other than some instances where the costumes are way too glossy to see them as anything other than plastic Power Rangers fare; I particularly liked the design choices for the Gods. Any moment Christian Bale was on screen, particularly the last third, was incredible. Speaking of the last third, THAT felt more like the Thor movie I would have liked – grandiose, operatic and full of emotion. Most especially glaring was that suddenly all the actors gained the chemistry and actual enthusiasm that was weirdly absent from the first two thirds.

And that was the most distracting for me; these actors had previously held a LOT of chemistry together. The first two thirds amounted to a none-stop salvo of SNL skits weakly tied together by a narrative a la latter-stage Leslie Nielsen movies; a parody of a Thor movie rather than a Thor movie, really. Some jokes here also become so repetitive that they become annoying – sadly coming from part of the movie I was really looking forward to, the goats Toothgrinder and Toothgnasher. It’s not that I dislike Taika as a director; where he excels, he does so brilliantly – as seen in the last third of the movie as well as so many movies away from the MCU – but here, I am led to believe that the studio saw how well-received Ragnarok was and urged him to splurge with the humor to the point that it wasn’t funny anymore. At least not for me.

Not bad, but not good either. A complete middling feature with great talents involved and an awesome third act; 6 out of 10 for me.