IR Film Review: THOR - LOVE AND THUNDER [Marvel/Disney]

Taika Waititi's approach to story is refreshing but it depends on the level of control and checks and balances. “Thor: Ragnarok” was much more comprehensive and tight per se in its approach of bedlam. “Thor: Love & Thunder” seems more freeform but in many ways is extremely messy in its execution. One can see how certain actors can react to it in terms of playing notes of characters. Chris Hemsworth gets to continue to play his comedy chops and move in irony to what people think Thor should be. Natalie Portman returns to Jane Foster but both have her cake and eat it too in terms of the parallels of her character. However, while her character as Mighty Thor is supposed to be awkward in a way, there never quite is the sparks that perhaps were there before and it feels unbalanced or at least not as effective. One would think Waititi would bring it out of her but again most of the movie is all over the place. The better comraderie is between Valyrkie and Korg (Waititi) commenting on the others' love story. From the get go with Guardians' extended cameo at the beginning though it seems more like Waititi wants to make a cartoon music video with the obvious highly expensive licensed Guns N' Roses music video. “November Rain” (part of which is used in the climactic fight) as far as its music video from the 90s had more magic and emotion in it than “Love & Thunder”. And everyone is trying here but there are a lot of flybys.

Christian Bale as Gorr fares the best since he is trying to capture an empathetic villain in a way (like Michael B. Jordan with Killmonger in “Black Panther”) The issue is that while Waititi likes playing the irony of metaphor on screen, it mostly misses or is so tongue-in-cheek that it can feel borderline condescending. The funniest part of the film is the goats but the reasoning ironically is that their screaming actually becomes the best comic relief in the film. This is a letdown on multiple fronts. Portman again likely gets the arc she wanted and it feels dynamic but again it is not as affecting as it should be (not because of her lack of trying but because all the other story threads don't have stakes really in the same way). The narrative also takes the aspect of Thor in a different direction and the mid and post credits scene seems to muddle the pot and take away the impact of certain narrative points in the film that should have been left as is. “Thor: Love & Thunder” is Marvel letting a successful director write his way through something. It seems Waititi needed more notes from the powers that be to make sure everything fit better than it did in this outing. He makes the puzzle connect but it seems a letdown. C

By Tim Wassberg