This is the first MCU movie that I heard legitimately awful things about before it came out. My entire life I’ve spent watching these movies get glorified by entertainment news, media, and critic sites like Rotten Tomatoes; but with Thor: Love and Thunder, it looks like the actual quality of these movies is finally catching up to them.
Because this is bad.
SYNOPSIS: Thor embarks on a journey unlike anything he's ever faced -- a quest for inner peace. However, his retirement gets interrupted by Gorr the God Butcher, a galactic killer who seeks the extinction of the gods. To combat the threat, Thor enlists the help of King Valkyrie, Korg, and ex-girlfriend Jane Foster, who -- to his surprise -- inexplicably wields his magical hammer. Together, they set out on a harrowing cosmic adventure to uncover the mystery of the God Butcher's vengeance.
I’m writing this review as soon after seeing the movie as possible because it is quite literally getting worse every additional minute that I think about it.
This movie actually started off fairly strong for me, but I think I can accept the fact that I was in denial. From the opening scene, it’s obvious that this movie doesn’t take itself seriously at all, which brings me to one of my biggest issues with the film.
So recently stuff has come out on social media regarding the director, Taika Waititi, and his opinions on his own film. There’s an infamous clip going around on Twitter of him literally clowning his own team for making his movie “look weird”, and he’s said numerous times in multiple interviews that directors need “supervision” from studio executives.
Waititi’s development from an independent filmmaker, into what can essentially be called a corporate puppet, shows completely with the way this movie is made. There is not an ounce of care behind this camera, and it’s abundantly clear that Waititi saw the check for this movie, and did not care what he made because he got PAID for it.
The writing is some of the laziest, most uninspired writing I’ve seen in a Marvel movie in years, and there were lines where I couldn’t believe the entire thing wasn’t just a huge joke. I see people calling this a giant SNL skit, and I can see why. When the filmmakers themselves aren’t taking their job seriously, and don’t care about what they’re making; why should I sit in a theater and be asked to do the same?
This movie is 90% humor and 10% storytelling, and I can honestly say that most of these jokes are HILARIOUSLY unfunny. I could not believe they were striking out as bad as they were at times with the humor, usually, I don’t find these movies to be all that funny, but wow this was bad. The Guardians of the Galaxy were included for like literally 3 minutes, and I loved every second they were on screen, but I couldn’t help but tell that after Endgame, they really had no idea what to do with any of their characters.
Things that were set up at the end of that movie pertaining to Thor, The Guardians, and other characters, pretty much fell at the wayside here. Valkyrie is probably the #1 victim of this, as her character is given shockingly little to do in this movie to the point where she really doesn’t even need to be there, which is a shame because her introduction in Ragnarok was great.
Christian Bale as Gorr is so severely underutilized here that it hurts my feelings. His design is sick, and every time he appeared on screen he had a presence, but he gets sidelined so hard in this movie that I felt he was barely in it. His motivations are clear, but the story itself gets preoccupied with using McGuffins and plot devices to further it along that his story loses all of its weight. This is also the most beat-for-beat action movie for the entirety of the runtime, every turn, and every twist, I knew exactly where it was going; to see that from someone as creative as Waititi, was a true shame.
Chris Hemsworth, somehow, manages to make every scene he’s in at least watchable. He’s got such a charm and charisma that I felt really shined through especially in this movie, but maybe that’s because everyone else is so insufferable. Waititi as Korg is very annoying, and Natalie Portman as Jane wasn’t my least favorite thing? People were hating on her pretty hard, and while I can tell she’s definitely just here for the check, I didn’t think she was god awful.
The use of the music was pretty underwhelming and shoehorned in here. By the marketing for this movie, you would think they were going for an 80s aesthetic for the movie, but really, they just throw a couple of Guns N’ Roses songs in here and there, and nothing else. Waititi will truly never top his use of “Immigrant Song” in Ragnarok, and honestly, I’m okay with that.
The action here is at least entertaining to watch, and they do some cool stuff visually from time to time. The opening action scene is definitely my favorite part of the whole movie, but the rest of the action scenes get a little too ahead of themselves with the jokes and aren’t as concerned with what’s actually going on.
The hot topic for this movie has been the lackluster VFX, and yeah, they’re pretty bad at times; but, I would say they’re less bad and more inconsistent on the whole. At times, I think this movie looks great, but some shots literally look like late 2000s video game graphics, and it’s just not okay. With all of the details coming out about how Marvel treated their VFX teams, it’s honestly shocking that poor treatment of workers is allowed from a multi-billion dollar company. Fix it.
By all means, this should’ve been a great film. With Christian Bale as the main villain and returning characters that we already love, somewhere in this two-hour-long SNL skit, there’s a really good story. But it’s buried under giant screaming goats, bad VFX, and bad jokes. I’m truly disappointed in this movie, and I really can’t recommend this at all. Go watch Jordan Peele’s Nope this weekend for some actual good summer blockbuster fun.
4/10
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