REVIEW: Thor: Love and Thunder

This review contains spoilers for Love and Thunder and just a brief one, in passing, for Ms. Marvel. On a related note, I swear I'll get those reviews of Shang-Chi and Black Widow up before they're two years out-of-date.

REVIEW: Thor: Ragnarok

By rights, marvel should be slowing down and flagging a bit by now. Thor: Ragnarok is the seventeenth movie in the MCU, which has been going for a good nine years. No one would be surprised if things were becoming stale by now. Yet somehow, this year has seen a run of films that have just gotten better and better. After the excellence of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 and Spider-Man: Homecoming, Taika Waititi has created what may be my comicbook movie of the year.

Waititi is a real left-wing choice to direct a Marvel movie. Only Edgar Wright seemed more of an odd fit, and we saw how well that partnership ended. Nothing in Waititi's previous work, least of all his celebrated What We Do in the Shadows, makes you think “this guy needs to do a superhero movie.” In a weird way, though, he's a perfect choice, and what he does here with Norse mythology and operatic superheroics is much like his deconstruction of vampire lore and gothic romantic literature in Shadows. Hats off, too, to the writing trio of Yost, Kyle and Pearson, who put together a script that, for the most part, manages a fine balance of the grandly dramatic and the overtly comedic.

It's obvious that Marvel wanted to grab some of the success of Guardians of the Galaxy in restyling the Thor movies, which haven't generally been the most popular of the ongoing MCU series (although I've loved both previous instalments). Ragnarok explores the cosmic side of the Thor comics, something that the previous films have largely overlooked, as well as accepting just how ridiculous a character he is. Thor is at his best when simultaneously an amazing hero and a figure of fun, as he is in the best moments of 2011's Thor and in Avengers Assemble, and it seems film-makers have finally realised what excellent comic instincts Chris Hemsworth has. (Say what you like about Ghostbusters, Hemsworth made a one-joke character work far better than he should have there.) Ragnarok combines Thor's mythical side with the galactic comedy of Guardians, and also jumps on the same retro bandwagon to great effect. After all, the eighties are the decade right now, and the Masters of the Universe, synth-rock, Led Zeppelin mix just work perfectly. The other obvious comparison is the 1980 Flash Gordon movie, and Waititi has said that really Queen should have provided the songs for this film, were it not impossible for obvious reasons.

As with all the best superhero films, Ragnarok benefits from an exceptional cast who give their all in playing these absurdly over-the-top characters. Tom Hiddleston grins that grin to maximum effect throughout, although his usurping of the Asgardian throne is dealt with far more quickly than we might have expected, and he's so perfect as Loki that he can nail the character both as out-and-out villain and shifty ally. After a fair few ineffective and underwhelming villains (in spite of some excellent actors) Marvel has come out on top this year with its baddies, and Cate Blanchett as Hela, Goddess of Death is the best of the lot. Not only does Blanchett look incredible in the costume (damn, now my goth thing is back), she drips with menace and contempt. As secondary villain the Grandmaster, Jeff Goldblum basically plays Jeff Goldblum, but frankly, would you want it any other way? Then there's Karl Urban as Skurge the Executioner, somehow looking exactly like the comics character, clearly having a whale of a time as the scurvy thug.

On the heroic side of things, we have Tessa Thompson as Valkyrie, who is just stunningly good as the tough, beautiful, drunken warrior woman. She's a perfect foil for Hemsworth's Thor, a far better match as a potential love interest than either Jane or Sif (both of whom hero worship him too much), and I'm so glad we'll be seeing more of her in Infinity War. A fun cameo from Benedict Cumberbatch as Dr. Strange makes the brief terrestrial scenes feel as wonderfully odd as the scenes in other realms, while Anthony Hopkins makes his surprisingly brief appearance as Odin his best in the role yet.

And then there's the Hulk. The idea of a Planet Hulk film never really appealed to me, no matter how much fans clamoured for it. I mean, I love monsters, I really do, but the idea of two hours of green CGI musclemen pummelling each other seems tiresome in the extreme. Making it part of a larger storyline, though, is a brilliant move, and dumping Thor in the middle of it is a stroke of minor genius. Cutting him and his pomposity down to size by leaving him reduced and defeated is, of course, part of the reason that initial Thor storyline worked so well, and he needed a dose of that again. Thor is at his best when he doesn't have his hammer. His weirdly tender interplay with the Hulk is a winning factor for the film, and Mark Ruffalo is as perfectly cast as ever as the uncomfortable Banner, having to rediscover his balance all over again after two years in Hulk mode. The Hulk's chattier than we're used to on film, but his intelligence has always fluctuated in the comics, and it's reasonable that he would have developed somewhat given longer to learn and explore his existence.

Sakaar is an incredible location, a cesspit of a planet in an unstable region of space/time, where the passage of time is unreliable and wormholes dump miscreants without hope or warning. It's exactly the sort of place you'd expect the Guardians to turn up, and they probably will at some point when they want to link the series together. (In fact, the time dilation on Sakaar would be a good way of syncing up Star-Lord's timeline to the Avengers movies, if need be.) The planet features a colurful bunch of monsters, although the standout is, of course, is the rock-man Korg, played by the director himself (although at first we thought it might be Rhys “Murray” Darby, such is the intense Kiwi-ness).

Bookending the cosmic hijinks is Ragnarok itself, the end and rebirth of Asgard and the ultimate battle of Norse mythology. As a huge mythology buff I adore this aspect of the film, and the storyline, via the comics, sticks surprisingly closely to the legendary sources. Naturally, there are some differences even before you chuck all the spaceships in – Hela is Loki's daughter, rather than Odin's, an aspect that might stem more from the character Angela than Hela herself – but the bulk of the material is linked quite strongly to Norse mythology. And in any case, any movie that not only brings Surtur and Fenris to the big screen, but has the Hulk punch them both in the face, is a winner in my book.

REVIEW: Thor: The Dark World

Thor is not the most popular of the Marvel movies. Were it not for the fairly mediocre The Incredible Hulk, it would probably be the least popular. This is wrong. Thor is a triumph of science fantasy, hitting just the right balance of comic book geekery, superheroics, sci-fi technobabble, magic, mythology and handsome men with big arms. Thor: The Dark World is pretty much just as good, and while it inevitably lacks the spark of the first Thor film as a new and exciting variant of the superhero blockbuster, it really is a damned fine popcorn movie.


The Dark World ties in just enough to the overall franchise, acknowledging the events of the Avengers movie and otherwise restricting itself to the Thor mythology. Well, with the exception of the mid-credits scene and an unexpected cameo by Captain America (not unexpected for being there, but for the manner in which it occurs). Following the rebuilding of the Bifrost, Thor has spent the last two years battling to restore peace throughout the Nine Realms. We get to see a great deal more of Thor's universe in this film, particularly Asgard, which takes on a more physical, but no less spectacular look this time round.


In a nice touch, The Dark World relocated events from America to England, with events taking place throughout Greater London. As well as obviously being a nice touch for a Brit like me, it gives the film a different flavour to its predecessors, and finally makes the Marvel movie events seem a little more global. There are a lot of unexpected elements thrown in that set this film apart from the previous instalment. It's bizarre, but very effective, to see Chris O'Dowd in a movie like this, adding a little everyman charm to a world filled with gods and monsters. His Hollywood career might be taking off big time right now, but he's still Roy from The IT Crowd to me. (I like to think this huge movie star career is just one of Roy's schemes that's got out of hand.) Little moments, like Thor taking the Tube in the middle of the battle for the fate of the universe, really make this film. Even amongst all the huge, climactic events, it never loses its light-handed humour.


The plot is pretty straightforward, resting on the kind of enormously unlikely coincidence films like this thrive on. Sure, it makes perfect sense that Jane Foster is searching for spatial anomalies as part of her research following the events of Thor, and sure, she ends up stumbling through one, briefly arriving on another world. It takes a bit more to swallow the fact that she immediately happens upon the central macguffin of this quest, becoming infused with it, and setting off the entire sequence of events that drive the film. It works though, like the best of these movies, by keeping the pace up and never letting the viewer dwell on how silly it all is.


The macguffin in question, the Aether, is another of the primordial power sources that litter the Marvel Universe. Unlike the Tesseract/Cosmic Cube, the Aether is a twirling blob of fluid/gas/energy/something-or-other that can be absorbed, granting enormous power to the user. Having accidentally swallowed it, Jane is imbued with enormous power, but thankfully the movie doesn't go down a super-powered Dr Foster route. Instead, the Aether, Bad Wolf-like, threatens to burn her out. When Heimdall informs Thor that he has lost sight of Jane, something which should be impossible, Thor abandons his duties and rushes to Earth – handily, just after Jane reappears.


Both Chris Hemsworth and Natalie Portman are excellent as the two leads. Hemsworth does slip into Aussie on a couple of occasions, but he still handles well dialogue that could be cringeworthy under a weaker actor. There seems to be a little more chemistry between them this time, making the love story a little more believable than the first time round. Taking Jane to Asgard is a nice touch, reversing the set-up of the first film, although the opportunity to have Jane in the fish-out-of-water role is missed. She handles herself brilliantly though, identifying various cod-mythical Asgardian devices by their scientific principles. It's a nice touch in a film that continually walks the blurry line between fantasy and science fiction.


The villain of the piece is a perfect example of this. Malekith the Accursed, Lord of the Dark Elves, wakes from stasis when the Nine Realms come into alignment. This event not only breaks down the borders between worlds but will also allow whomever wields the Aether to destroy the universe and remake it in his image, or something. Frankly, Malekith is a very generic baddie, and Christopher Eccleston is wasted in the role. However, he oozes gravitas and makes Malekith into a more memorable villain than he has any right to be. He and his elvish cohorts are well designed, but nothing compared to their spacecraft, huge vessels seemingly hewn from rock that scythe through the sky. The film's most climactic scenes involve what can only be described as alien invasions, first of Asgard, then of Earth, with mighty starships full of elves descending on the world.


Malekith's general, Algrim, gets to do most of the fisticuffs. He's a powerful presence, portrayed by Lost's Adawale Akkinnuoye-Agbaje, but soon becomes the less interesting, if suitably scary, being known as Kurse. The rest of the Asgardians all get a moment in the starlight, with Anthony Hopkins appearing far more engaged than we've seen him in years in his role as Odin. Rene Russo finally gets some decent material as his queen, Frigga, and absolutely owns any scene she's in. Jaimie Alexander and Idris Elba are impressive as Sif and Heimdall repsectively, although they both deserve more material. Of the Warriors Three, new Fandral replacement Zachary Levi gets the best material.


Of course, the real star of the Thor movies is Tom Hiddleston, and he doesn't disappoint.
Imprisoned for his crimes, Loki is just as capricious and manipulative as ever. It's a perfect performance by Hiddleston, slipping between cockiness, fear and a glimmer of madness with ease. You never know quite what's going on with him, whose side he's on at any given moment. With Thor taking the battle to Malekith against his father's wishes, he recruits Loki to show him the hidden ways out of Asgard. You're waiting for the inevitable betrayal throughout, and the filmmakers are canny enough to keep you on the wrong foot throughout. Prime trickster material.


Stellan Starsgard gets some of the funniest scenes as the troubled Erik Selvig, although Darcy and her “intern's intern” Ian come close. Jonathan Howard has been somewhat overlooked as the latter, but he gets to snog Kat Dennings, so I don't feel too sorry for him. Brief appearances by Alice Krige, Tallulah Riley and Clive Russell add to the star-studded cast, and yes, Stan Lee gets a cameo, which is like a law, or an old charter, or something.


The film hops between comedy, melodrama, action and high fantasy. There's so much thrown into the mix here, it should really be too much, but it works. There's a shocking death, leading to funeral sequence which feels both moving and genuinely mythic. The final climactic battle between Thor and Malekith is utterly, madly over the top, playing out across numerous worlds, levelling much of Greenwich in the process. (Meanwhile, I was wondering when UNIT were going to turn up. Surely they're affiliated with SHIELD?)


There's plenty that needs to be built on if we get a third film, the love triangle between Thor, Jane and the Lady Sif in particular. However, The Dark World leaves us with a Thor who has proven himself wiser than his father, if still liable to be tricked by his little brother. And the Marvel Universe gets bigger by the moment. Tremendous fun, never boring for a moment, and just a joy to sit through. Stay right to the end.