Thor: Love and Thunder Review

Thor: Love and Thunder reunite Taika Waititi with Chris Hemsworth to bring Thor and the rest of the Asgardians back to the screen.

What’s It About?  

Gorr (Christian Bale) and his daughter, Love (Kieron L. Dyer), are barely surviving on an alien planet. The world is desolate with famine and drought. Gorr prays faithfully to his god for relief, but that relief never comes, leading to Love passing away. After Love’s passing, Gorr finds himself in the oasis of his god.  He makes his plight known to the god and asks for his assistance. The god makes fun of Gorr’s plight and dismisses him as not worthy of his time.  Gorr chastises his god, leading to the god trying to strangle Gorr. It was then that the Necrosword, capable of killing gods, chose Gorr as its owner.  Gorr kills his god and then sets out on a quest to kill all the gods in the universe as revenge.

Meanwhile, Thor (Chris Hemsworth) joins the Guardians of the Galaxy on adventures, helping those in need throughout the universe. However, he feels like he is being pulled to be somewhere else.  He receives a distress call from Sif (Jaime Alexander) who is fighting Gorr the God Butcher.  He uses his enchanted ax, Stormbreaker, to transport himself and Korg (voiced by Taika Waititi) to Sif’s side.  When he arrives, Thor finds out about Gorr’s plan and learns that Asgard is next.  

He immediately returns to earth, where he finds new Asgard under attack.  He joins the battle and is surprised to learn that Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) now has reassembled his hammer, Mjolnir, and now has the powers of Thor.  They do not have much time to discuss as Gorr kidnaps all the Asgardian children. Now Thor, Natalie, Korg, and King Valkyrie (Tessa Thomspon) set off on a quest to save the children.

My Reaction

Thor: Love and Thunder is a fun movie with all the signature traits of a Waititi film.  Its set pieces are bright and visually stunning, plenty of banter between the characters, and character growth is key. Waititi’s colorful, visual aesthetic works well in this film when juxtaposed with the dark, black-and-white visuals of Gorr the God Butcher and his shadow realm minions. 

Gorr is a great villain because you have empathy for him. He is rightfully justified in his outrage towards his god, and you understand why he would place the blame on the god/servant system itself.  Christian Bale makes good decisions on how to approach the character, turning him into a sort of boogie man for the Asgardian children.  The only problem is that you don’t see Gorr nearly as much as you should.  More of Gorr vs. other gods would have made his mission feel more relevant to the movie.

Someone else that deserved more focus was Valkyrie.  Being the King of New Asgard comes with many responsibilities, including paperwork, town halls, and economic growth. Thor made the right decision in giving Valkyrie the throne, as he would be terrible at bureaucracy. Hopefully, they will give Valkyrie more of a diplomatic role in future MCU crossovers.

Thor is stunted as a character.  He continues to be the loveable jock that isn’t the smartest but has a heart of gold. Sure, he learns life lessons in every property he is featured in, but those lessons do not seem to change his character in any meaningful way.  Juxtapose that with Loki, who has shown tremendous character growth since MCU’s Phase 1, and you realize how stale of a character he is.  He again learns some critical life lessons in Thor: Love and Thunder. But, without a promise of impact on future portrayals, it is hard to appreciate them.

Thor: Love and Thunder is probably the lightest and most self-contained movie in the Thor franchise.  That is ok, as not every MCU film needs to be overly dark or have some significant impact on the MCU.  Waititi constantly makes decisions that pull the viewer back to say, “Hey, it’s just a movie.  Try not to take things so seriously.”  A scene with the kidnapped children towards the end of the film is a perfect example of this trick of pulling the audience back with self-aware humor.  

However, the film may have too many jokes and throwaway scenes.  The revisited gags from previous movies fall flat. I wish there were enough discernment to remove some of the comedy that doesn’t work for more screen time with a fantastic villain or a subplot for Valkyrie.  

Overall Rating

Thor: Love and Thunder is a fun film, introducing new characters and providing impressive visuals. The movie’s romance and other subplots are interesting enough, and the action looks great.  As of now, it seems to be a reasonably self-contained film without much impact on MCU’s Phase 4 (who knows, maybe the Shadow Realm will be featured in later properties).  And yet, the movie misses opportunities to flush out a great villain, and the comedy does where thin.  The theater would be a great way to experience some of the visuals, but a family movie night at home seems more fitting.