Thor: Love and Thunder

Taika Waititi is someone who is known for his wacky style, and Thor: Ragnarok was a great example of that. In the new sequel to Ragnarok, Waititi opts for a rather humorous approach with less drama happening on a plot level. Thor: Love and Thunder is a weirdly-satisfying, fun film that doesn’t contribute much to the MCU dynamics but offers a lot of room for us to laugh in its own capacity.

In the post Endgame scenario, we are shown how Thor Odinson was trying his best to be occupied. He was roaming with the guardians of the galaxy, and one day he got a distress signal from a friend saying a god-killer (Gorr) was out there and he was heading for Asgard after killing many other Gods. Thor’s effort to protect his people from Gorr is the focus of Thor: Love and Thunder.

The first hour of the film is just a hilarious ride. Waititi spoofs the superhero genre cliches, and the jokes really work. I was expecting the movie to go into certain scenes in a particular style, and Taika Waititi surprised me with a rather lowkey presentation of certain pivotal scenes. It is actually in the second half of the film where the drama slows down everything. The plot gets stuck for a while on emotional bits. And the closure that happens at the end feels a bit too simplistic. Taika tries to smoothen the melodrama by throwing in his kind of humor, but the treatment felt a bit confused in that phase. But towards the end, there were set pieces that kind of raised the graph and helped Love and Thunder land smoothly.

Thor has been in that quirkier zone ever since Waititi took over the franchise, and Chris Hemsworth gets to play this funny and confused version of Thor. Natalie Portman reprises her role as Jane Foster, and since it is a Waititi film, she gets to present the wittier side of Foster. Christian Bale as Gorr is menacing, and at the same time, through his performance, he will make us empathize with that character. Tessa Thompson as Valkyrie doesn’t have much to do even though it is a full-length role. There is a humongous list of cameos in the movie that will definitely cheer you up.

As I already said, Thor: Love and Thunder is a weirdly satisfying film. If you look at it, it is almost like a greenscreen skit with a humongous budget. Despite the story not having a major conflict or compelling drama, Taika Waititi was able to assemble the fun bits in his own peculiar way. The Mjolnir – Stormbreaker track looks extremely sloppy on paper, but Taika Waititi somehow manages to make that work. The cinematography follows almost all kinds of color schemes. It is primarily in that vibrant and glossy space. But when it focuses on Gorr, the only character that looks like a misfit in a Waititi universe, the colors drain out from the frame.

Taika Waititi perhaps knows the risk of mounting something like a Thor film with a fragile script like this. Hence he is narrating the whole film as stories told by Korg to the kids of Asgard. The title card, the background music, and the eccentric nature of characters somewhere manipulate us into expecting something more flashy and fun rather than a profound exploration of character. With the story managing to land on the title in a very pleasant way, Thor: Love and Thunder was a fun film.