Title – Thor: Love and Thunder (2022)

Director – Taika Waititi (Jojo Rabbit) 

Cast – Chris Hemsworth, Christian Bale, Russell Crowe, Natalie Portman, Tessa Thompson, Chris Pratt 

Plot – Thor (Hemsworth) must enlist the help of friends past and present to stop the rampaging Gorr (Bale) from ridding the universe of gods he deems to be the enemy. 

“The only ones who gods care about is themselves”

Review by Eddie on 08/07/2022

In 2017 Kiwi writer/director Taika Waititi changed the direction of the up until then po-faced Thor in surprising and commercially beneficial ways with the wild and inventive Thor: Ragnarok but proving once more that you can’t always capture lightning (thunder?) in a bottle, Waititi’s return to the solo Thor universe with Love and Thunder provides a carelessly fun few hours while also continuing Marvel’s recent trend of feeling like a brand that is at present slightly aimless. 

With no surprise that Waititi and his main man Chris Hemsworth bring the same manic and off-kilter vibes to Love and Thunder that they delivered with Ragnarok, fans of the pairs first wild collaboration are sure to find much to enjoy this second time around with an abundance of insane characters (literally one that is a Bao Bun), colorful action and quirky humor but there’s something a little off here that holds their newest venture back with tonal imbalances, a so-so story and a feeling of pointlessness all apparent in a relatively quickfire venture that at least never tries to outstay its welcome. 

Following the exploits of everyone’s favourite Asgardian god as he gets back in shape and venture’s around the known and unknown universe with The Guardians of the Galaxy, only to find his life upturned by the arrival of Christian Bale’s Gorr the God Butcher and the return of Natalie Portman’s Jane Foster, Love and Thunder has a lot of ground to cover through its runtime and Waititi never allows anything to linger too long in the memory and while there are some nice highlights with a trip to a city of the gods run by a fairly hilarious Russell Crowe as Zeus one such moment, there’s also a feeling a lot of good material happens off screen with both Jane and Gorr’s arcs in the film feeling they could’ve done with some screen-time and fleshing out. 

Portman’s much-hyped return to the Thor world has some nice moments but her transformation into a weapon wielding god happens with fairly little build-up or time in the spotlight feeling like a missed opportunity while as good as he is (give this man a monologue to chew on any day of the week) there’s a feeling like Bale could’ve had more too do as Gorr, a villain that could rival Thanos given the time to shine, Bale is having a blast going all out in his first foray into the Marvel universe after crossing over from the DC space but much like Foster’s arc in the film there’s a lot of Gorr’s experiences and exploits that happen off-screen here, holding Gorr’s first cinematic outing back from becoming an all-timer. 

At days end Love and Thunder is a film that many are going to love, while some will dislike it even more than Ragnarok’s new directional take on the chiseled god but there’s no denying there’s an aimlessness happening here that even the most dedicated of Marvel fans couldn’t deny with a sense Marvel needs to unveil its overall plans fairly quickly and Waititi to keep pushing himself as a director ensuring his style and mannerisms don’t continue to dwindle. 

Final Say – 

A mindlessly enjoyable film with sporadic moments of brilliance that coasts by on its easy-going charm and charisma, Thor: Love and Thunder marks an intriguing period for its titular character and its brand name company as one begins to wonder more than ever what the point of everything happening really is? 

3 rock babies out of 5