Of
all the individual series in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the one belonging
to the god of thunder did not truly take flight and rise above
middling-to-decent until the third entry, Taika Waititi’s excellent Thor:
Ragnarok. Colorful, hilarious, and exciting, it was just
the jolt that the self-proclaimed strongest Avenger
needed to continue on to an unheard of (for the
MCU, anyway) fourth solo film after the events of Avengers:
Endgame concluded the storylines of many of his compatriots.
What worked so well in Ragnarok, however, wildly misses
the mark in Love and Thunder, and the fourth Thor film
instead stands as a disappointing testament that
lightning sometimes doesn’t strike the same place twice.
Ragnarok's successes owe a
great deal to director/screenwriter Taika Waititi's deft ability
to balance humor and drama. And while the latter mostly works in no
small part thanks to Jane Foster’s storyline (Natalie Portman returns to
the character for the first time since 2013’s Thor: The Dark World),
the former is oddly dull and uninspired. I rarely laughed
during Love and Thunder, even when the film was clearly trying
to elicit such a response. The screaming meme-inspired goats were
more obnoxious than anything else, and the
rock-skinned Korg (voiced once again
by Waititi himself) transitions from fan-favorite
to unnecessary annoyance in record time. The small addition of
Russell Crowe’s flamboyant Zeus helps the funny a bit, as
does the recurring love triangle gag between Thor,
his current weapon Stormbreaker, and his newly resurrected hammer Mjolnir,
but for the most part the humor of Love and Thunder engenders
eye rolls, not chuckles. It’s really too bad, because
Chris Hemsworth and his supporting cast have all proven
themselves to be gifted comedic actors in the past, but here none of them
really have anything funny to say. There also isn’t much story to Love
and Thunder, nor is the action particularly exciting despite
the liberal use of Guns N' Roses songs as backing soundtracks (I
swear the score of Love and Thunder is a 1:1 copy of Appetite
for Destruction, the only GNR album you will ever need).
The actual acting is well
done, however, particularly in the case of Christian Bale as
the terrifying yet sympathetic Gorr the God Butcher (he’s the
bad guy, if the name didn’t tip you off). Every time he is on screen (which
isn’t often, unfortunately), I found myself wishing that the rest of the
film that he was in was worthy of his performance. And
as weak as Waititi’s script is this time around, his directing
remains as impressive as ever, with some interesting shots and
beautiful visuals. Thor: Love and Thunder is definitely not
the worst movie ever and may not even be the worst that the MCU
has to offer, but it really should have been so much better considering the
talent involved. Let’s hope Waititi, Hemsworth and
crew pull things together for Thor 5 and recapture
what made Ragnarok special, because this ain’t it.
Thor: Love and Thunder is
now available exclusively in theaters.
This review was first published in The Keizertimes on July 15th, 2022. Visit at http://keizertimes.com/
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