'Thor: Love And Thunder' Non-Spoiler Review
Thor: Love and Thunder, the fourth entry of the Thor series, is finally here. It is the first instance of a fourth solo outing for a Marvel Cinematic Universe protagonist, and it belongs to Thor Odinson. Of course, coming right off of Avengers: Endgame, the death of Tony, and the retirement of Steve Rogers, it was going to be difficult for someone to cut in line and beat him to it. Even when the line itself didn’t change any order to affect it. In fact, in April 2020, The Marvels moved up three weeks from its July 29, 2022 date to the July 8 that Thor: Love and Thunder would eventually land at. It’s now back at its original weekend.
Thor: Love and Thunder had considerably less drastic pandemic-caused movement when compared to the competition it faced off against in Minions: The Rise of Gru and Top Gun: Maverick, each having delays of 2+ years, Thor: Love and Thunder started in the November 5, 2021 slot Eternals eventually got, only moving to two dates in February (18 and 11) before being scheduled for this weekend. And boy was it a romp. You could even say, it was goated.
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The film brings back Taika Waititi to direct after Ragnarok, with returning cast Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Tessa Thompson as King Valkyrie, Waititi as Korg, and the biggest splash of Marvel’s 2019 San Diego Comic-Con presentation, Natalie Portman as Dr, Jane Foster, who takes up the mantle of The Mighty Thor. There are many returning faces from all over Thor’s journey, including the Guardians of the Galaxy, and a member I probably should’ve expected but did not (and no it’s not Gamora).
Christian Bale joins as Gorr the God Butcher, a jaded former believer following an encounter with his god. His motives are reasonable, as even without seeing this film, we know how gods have usually been portrayed, whether Roman, Greek, or Norse, in this series or the traditional portrayals in the epics, gods can be pretty arrogant. Heck, Thor was one of those arrogant gods, and it makes sense because we learn he idolized Zeus, who is played in the film by Russell Crowe with a bizarre but hilarious accent that stirred around attempted Greek with Italian and a good dose of Borat. Team Thor visits them to plead about Gorr, which would feel like the tables have turned for the former Jor-El, but it takes a very different direction. Also, Korg brings two goats, Toothgnasher and Toothgrinder, who scream their heads off and I loved it. Goats scream, meme or not, deal with it. There’s an Oscar-nominated film with a gibbon scream joke, surely you can handle the goats.
Now, this film isn’t completely a laugh riot. It is serious when it needs to be. Everything that comes with tackling Jane as The Mighty Thor is adapted and given pathos. Everyone performs well. Though I would warn that if you heard a certain premise from Kevin Feige on Disney Investor Day 2020 (it might have been SDCC 2019, I can't remember which) about Valkyrie finding her king, that ended up cut early in development. It’s not in the film. I don’t know if the lack of a plot element counts as a spoiler, but I’d rather help someone recalibrate and get excited about what they can get excited about.
The plot moves pretty briskly. And I cannot gauge whether it was too quick to let a scene play or if the scenes were paced properly. The music choices are pretty great too, with the choice of “Sweet Child O’ Mine” (yes it’s in the film!) becoming very clear by the end. I definitely find myself wanting a second viewing, and I hope you’ll all give Thor: Love and Thunder a chance.
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