Thor: Ragnarok

Thor Ragnarok is the third Thor movie we have but I’ll be the first to tell you that this installment doesn’t resemble the other two in the least. In fact, it more closely resembles the Guardians of the Galaxy movies than anything else. I was definitely worried that this movie would be way too over-the-top with its comedy and thematic elements, but I still had hope that this could be one of the best movies of the year. That being said, let’s get right into it. I will do my best with the spoilers but no guarantees.

The Bad

The biggest complaint that you are most likely going to see from this movie is that director Taika Waititi made it too funny. Though Thor: Ragnarok is labeled as an action comedy, there are quite a bit of emotional or intense moments throughout the film. Unfortunately, there are a couple of times where the movie kind of crushes those moments with some blatant, and sometimes forced comedy. I would’ve personally liked to have seen some of the emotional moments played out but, to be fair, the movie makes it quite clear that it is a comedy from the first minutes of the introduction.

One thing I noticed early in the movie was the somewhat obnoxious use of CGI. Of course, it is hard to avoid CGI when you are making a movie involving intergalactic alien monsters but it’s just something that kind of stood out to me.

I feel like I should mention the resemblance between this film’s villain, Hela, and Rita Repulsa from Power Rangers. I didn’t necessarily dislike Hela, in fact, I found her to be a much more legitimate and imposing villain than the last two Thor villains. However, I hated Rita Repulsa so much that any resemblance to her character will automatically have a negative connotation.

There are definitely some holes in the writing that I would have loved clarity to as well. For instance, How did Odin imprison Hela if she is this incredibly powerful? Or why does Hela think that Thor and Loki have both died after their first encounter? It doesn’t seem to me like she would have any reason to believe that she killed them both. Thankfully, none of the unanswered questions are plot-threatening and they can be pretty easily overlooked.

The Good

Thor: Ragnarok is full of incredible individual performances. I personally thought Mark Ruffalo was probably the most underwhelming performance of all of the main characters in the movie. Chris Hemsworth was his usual self and I have also enjoyed his acting. He undergoes a huge makeover throughout the movie and basically transforms himself from Thor to Jed from Red Dawn (2012). I thought Tom Hiddleston was great as well but once again, we have come to expect great performances from these two. The two performances that I was especially impressed with were from Jeff Goldblum as the Grandmaster and Idris Elba returning as Heimdall. Neither of them had a ton of screen time but they made great use of what they had. Goldblum was the funniest part of the movie in my opinion. His witty dialogue was hilarious and I would definitely love to see him return in Infinity Wars. I was also a fan of Tessa Thompson’s character. We don’t really get her name, which is surprising considering how much she is on screen, but we come to just call her the Valkyrie.

I mentioned how the movie kind of overdoes it with comedy, however, I do think most of the comedy lands and get laughs from the audience. Let’s face it, the Thor franchise was probably the one in the most need of a makeover and I will guarantee that this film is going to be way more successful than either of the other two movies. At the end, I think that the audience is left with an entirely new perception of Thor. First off, you see in the trailers the Hela crushes Thor’s hammer. The weird thing is, he never gets a new or even really needs it. He learns to channel his power in a way we have never seen before and it’s pretty awesome to say the least. Also, I am left wondering, Will he grow he beautiful hair back? What about his eye? Will that ever be fixed? After this film I now think of Thor as much more of a BA than I had ever really thought of him before.

There are a few great cameos in this movie to be excited for. I save you the spoilers but I think you will be pleasantly surprised by who makes a short appearance in the movie.

The Rating

The Thor makeover was an overall success and I think this is going to draw a lot more audience. Whereas the first two Thor movies really just drew in the biggest Marvel fans, I think this film will be able to entice audiences similar to the ones we have been seeing with Guardians of the Galaxy. I would definitely called this a must-watch and one of my favorite movies of the year. Look for Thor: Ragnarok to make onto my top 10 list at the end of the year.