Nerdly » ‘Thor: Love and Thunder’ Review

05th Jul2022

‘Thor: Love and Thunder’ Review

by Matthew Turner

Stars: Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Christian Bale, Russell Crowe, Tessa Thompson, Taika Waititi | Written by Taika Waititi, Jennifer Kaytin Robinson | Directed by Taika Waititi

Chris Hemsworth reteams with director Taika Waititi for Thor: Love and Thunder, a direct sequel to Thor: Ragnarok and the 29th film in the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe). As such, it delivers the expected combination of action, emotion and humour, but there are signs that the Marvel formula is starting to wear thin.

The plot begins where Avengers: Endgame left off, with an overweight Thor getting himself back in shape while accompanying the Guardians of the Galaxy on a few missions. Then a new threat rears its head, in the form of a vengeful figure named Gorr the God Butcher (Christian Bale), who, true to his name, is targeting all the gods.

With the Guardians occupied elsewhere, Thor returns to New Asgard and recruits Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson) and Korg (Taika Waititi) for the fight against Gorr. To Thor’s surprise, they are also joined by Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), who has become The Mighty Thor, after reconstructing Mjolnir in the hopes of curing her cancer.

Hemsworth’s Thor has been a consistent pleasure in the MCU series and he’s on typically great form here, with terrific comic timing and a winning way with line delivery. Portman is equally good – she’s given much more to do here than in her previous MCU appearances and it pays off in spades, particularly in the different chemistry she sparks with both Hemsworth and Thompson (whose insanely charismatic screen presence remains as incandescent as ever).

Bale does a decent enough job as Gorr (his creepy grin alone merits his casting), but he’s poorly served by weak writing, especially when it comes to his overall plan – you can practically feel the audience’s eyes roll when the phrase “open a portal” is uttered. He’s also slightly overshadowed by what amounts to an extended cameo by Russell Crowe as Zeus, a truly inspired comic performance with more than a hint of a certain ex-President in its DNA.

As with Thor: Ragnarok, Waititi packs the film with humour and the hit rate is high, although certain jokes (including a Pixar cameo) should definitely have been dropped. That said, there is a splendid running gag involving Thor’s relationship with ex-weapon Mjolnir and new weapon Stormbreaker that just gets funnier and funnier as the film goes on, heightened by some spot-on direction and framing from Waititi.

In fairness, with the exception of the occasional dodgy CGI moment, the film looks fantastic – the costumes are bright and colourful and the design work on the different planetary cities is exceptional. Similarly, Waititi takes a couple of gambles with the direction and tries out some inventive new things, most notably an impressive black and white sequence that feels inspired by old-school animation techniques.

However, the film also has its fair share of flaws. For one thing, there’s some general confusion around the entire concept. The first Thor film went out of its way to say that Thor and the Asgardians were not gods, just aliens, so is he in danger from Gorr, or not? With the introduction of Zeus et al, the MCU now seem to be saying yes, there are gods, but Thor isn’t one of them. And let’s not even get started on Valhalla.

On top of that, the action feels repetitive and even dull in places, with the film lacking a central stand-up-and-cheer set-piece. There are nice little moments – such as Mjolnir’s newfound abilities – but the fight scenes themselves lack both invention and impact.

Similarly, the big emotional moments somehow fail to land this time round. The ending is particularly weird in that regard, essentially asking the audience to care about a character we’ve barely met – as a result, it falls flat because no groundwork has been laid.

In short, Thor: Love and Thunder is a bit of a mixed bag, though the highs are more than enough to compensate for its flaws. The good news is that the film ends with the caption “Thor Will Return”, so at least they’ll get another go at it.