Thor brings plenty of thunder, but I cannot say I loved the movie. It fulfills its intended purpose which is entertainment.
We find it better for readers to work through a quick list of pros and cons as opposed to a long drawn article, so here you go…
Pros:
- Chris Pratt and the rest of the Guardians are excellent, however short-lived their appearance.
- Christian Bale, Natalie Portman and Russell Crowe are all Academy Award winners, thus world-class actors – not surprisingly so, they deliver world-class performances.
- Russell Crowe is unlike we have ever seen him. This is one of his most fun performances.
- Christian Bale carries the film. He is a spectacular villain, and really accelerates as the movie goes on.
- Natalie Portman, AKA Jane Foster, AKA Jane Fonda, AKA Jodie Foster is as good as you would expect her to be.
- The soundtrack is lovely. Feel free to bathe me in Guns N’ Roses at your leisure.
- The goats. We like the goats.
- Valkyrie, played by Tessa Thompson is a beast. She always is.
- Korg, played by Taika Waititi is splendid, per usual.
- Thor’s weapon carousel of love is his brightest light.
Cons:
- Rarely will I lobby for a movie to be longer. In this case, I am. They really needed more length (something I have heard far too many times) or to move some pieces to the next film. Thor: Love and Thunder is telling too many stories at once, and operating as if there is a stopwatch
- Poorly written film.
- The transition of Natalie Portman’s character, Jane Foster is rushed and sloppy. Within 95 seconds she transforms from a feeble, helpless character to stronger than Thor. Not enough time is spent on her developmental. She is literally catapulted into the action.
- The after-credit scene, which is very Marvel-like, is again sloppy and just kind of off. It is well wasted, and should have featured different characters.
- The character development of the new faces is not great.
- The biggest deterrent to the film – the humor. Thor misses on almost every one-liner. At best, Chris Hemsworth shoots 10% from the field. For context, I sat in a packed theater with no empty seats, and maybe one person laughed at his attempted humor. The writing is more at fault than the delivery. He tried.
To summarize: The film is clunky. Most of the movie is either rushed, pieced together poorly from one scene to the next, or the attention to the heart is too much, overwhelming in fact. While I enjoyed the heartfelt moments, the writers and director are determined to make the film about love. The story of Christian Bale’s character, Gorr; and what he has lost is good, and touching, so that is a win. But how this movie ties into the Marvel Universe is not an area of focus. Thor and Jane’s back and forth playful moments are uneventful for most of the movie, and not funny. That is not to say they are intended to be serious. There are serious moments, but every shot at humor flops, badly. Thor: Love and Thunder does get better as the film goes on and there are several bright spots. It is an above average movie, but not by much.
