Thor: Love and Thunder review
The new Marvel film, Thor: Love and Thunder, is not the MCU’s G.O.A.T., but it does feature the large goats, Toothgnasher and Toothgrinder (Tanngrisnir and Tanngnjóstr, respectively, of the Norse mythology variety) and that’s pretty cool! It also brings back Jane Foster in heroic style, has the greatest villain since Thanos and a lot of fun laughs and incredible action… If only they didn’t get greedy (more on that later.)
The story picks up with Thor (Chris Hemsworth ) getting back in shape and trying to “find himself” while out gallivanting across the stars, adventuring with his friend Korg (Taika Waititi ) and the Guardians of the Galaxy. There is some incredibly exciting and hilarious action here, but I found the Thor/GOTG interactions to be forced, awkward and not very fun at all – not what I was expecting. Fortunately, the Guardians are gone before a half dozen “I am Groots.”
As mentioned, the villain here, Gorr the God Butcher (Christian Bale), is one of the best and most sympathetic MCU bad-guys yet. Bale delivers an incredible performance and raises the quality of this picture by several notches. Gorr is a scary character, and in this film I feel he will be especially frightening for young children – you may want to keep the younger and more impressionable kiddos at home.
Thor and Korg return to Earth and visit New Asgard, where they team-up with Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson) and Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) to follow Gorr to the edge of the universe and save Asgard’s children. Along the way they have an entertaining encounter with Zeus (Russell Crowe) and his gaggle of Olympian Gods.
Unless you’ve gone full Korg and been buried under a pile of rocks, you know that Thor: Love and Thunder brings back Jane Foster as the Thunder God’s love interest, but this time she’s swinging the mighty Mjölnir hammer herself… and you know that “Whosoever holds this hammer, if he be worthy, shall possess the power of Thor.”
As a lifelong fan of the Thor comic books, this was never the Thor I envisioned, but it’s a Thor I love and can’t wait to see again.
I found the Jane Foster plot here to be extremely touching… and if you’ve ever lost someone to cancer you might even find it heartbreaking… but no spoilers here. The relationship between Thor and Foster (and their competing hammers) will make you smile and maybe even cry.
Written and directed by Taika Waititi (Thor: Ragnarok), this film has his signature cleverness and eccentricity all over it – which is a good thing. As a lifelong fan of the Thor comic books, this was never the Thor I envisioned, but it’s a Thor I love and can’t wait to see again.
On the downside, I don’t know who is ultimately responsible for this, but there are several instances where snack foods inexplicably become part of the story in what are simply, in-your-face product-placement sequences. They took me completely out of the story, made me cringe in embarrassment for the actors involved, and just had me thinking, ‘Really, Disney and Marvel are hurting for money that bad that they have to do this…?’ Come on, Man!
Despite the odd “Flamin’ Hot Cheetos” and the awkward Guardians of the Galaxy stuff, Thor: Love and Thunder is still an awesomely entertaining film that I can’t wait to sit through again.
