"Thor: Love and Thunder" 2022 movie review

Thor: Love and Thunder

"Thor: Love and Thunder" is essentially a victory lap for everything that filmmaker Taika Waititi accomplished with his previous Marvel movie, "Thor: Ragnarok," which was frequently humorous, stirring, and utterly energizing. This enjoyable sequel is still a force for good, with enough visual ambition and heart in front of and behind the camera to stand on its own, even though it uses too many clichéd flourishes and jokes.

On a route to recovery, we come upon Chris Hemsworth's thunderous Norse deity Thor, our space viking hero. Thor has lost the gut he had in "Avengers: Endgame," going "from dad bod to god bod," to use Waititi's voiceover recap delivered by his still endearing rock-bodied softy character Korg. The Asgardian people have relocated to a port city called New Asgard after their home realm was destroyed in "Thor: Ragnarok." Tessa Thompson's King Valkyrie, their charismatic leader, has assisted them in adjusting to life on Earth, including serving as a tourist attraction.In a Guns N' Roses-accompanied opening scene, Thor unleashes stylized, high-flying slaughter a la several scenes in "Thor: Ragnarok," brandishing his axe Stormbreaker, with help from the Guardians of the Galaxy, who make a brief appearance. However, he has no one with whom to celebrate the victory, and during the many centuries that Thor has lived, he has accepted the fact that he will never find true love.

Then Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), Thor's former human love interest from the earlier movie during his more serious days, is reintroduced as a more compelling hero. Now that Mjolnir's components have been repaired, she can use it to transform into the Mighty Thor with a helmet and cape, but doing so comes at a cost. Every time she utilizes the power, it diminishes her human potential, which is tragic given the knowledge that she has Stage 4 cancer. Jane is deliberately brought back into the action in "Thor: Love and Thunder," adding to the complexity of their relationship. Portman's portrayal of Jane in both her human and heroic states demonstrates why it's wonderful to see Jane again.

This time, Gorr the God Butcher serves as the antagonist, a tortured figure consumed by retaliation who casts shadows over the film's colossal moments of light. Gorr becomes a non-believer following the death of his daughter. He then summons an army of shape-shifting black beasts to kill all gods, beginning with the one who disregarded his cries for assistance. Christian Bale is impressive in the part, switching between high and low tones while savoring the opportunity to flash his razor-sharp teeth. It's the closest thing we'll get to seeing him play Pennywise the Clown, with a hint of Voldemort, while still maintaining the same humility Bale delivers to his most vulnerable, humbled characters. Even when "Thor: Love and Thunder" downplays his god-murdering for the sake of a more romantic message and to have him share scenes with terrified youngsters, he can still be a lot of fun to watch.

Thor: Love and Thunder, which Waititi and Jennifer Kaytin Robinson co-wrote, doesn't quite reach its full potential. When Gorr the God Butcher strikes New Asgard at night in a chaotic impromptu fight scene that has Waititi's typically steady vision for Thor action losing control, part of the film's messiness begins to take hold. The apparently terrifying moment suddenly occurs, and it's hard to understand what's happening in the dark as shadow creatures fight the Asgardians and steal their children. A visual humor featuring a burning structure that collapses in the background, timed for when Thor and Jane have another romantic rendezvous as a hammer-wielding, ass-kicking Mighty Thor, simply doesn't work in this disjointed scenario.

The god of lightning Zeus and the other Gods lounge in a golden forum and discuss the upcoming orgy, unafraid of what Gorr is planning to do to them, as Jane, Thor, King Valkyrie, and Korg travel there to stop Gorr and save the stolen children. It provides for one of the most eye-catching set pieces, like a golden and white version of the Galactic Senate from "Star Wars" with a mishmash of silly animals (one has hairy paws and a face, that's it; another is a Korg related). However, it's also a time when the film is preparing for upcoming "Thor" stories at the expense of this one, as seen by a shrugging cameo in the post-credits scene. It's also one of many passages where it's obvious that Tessa Thompson's King Valkyrie has been weirdly sidelined despite her proven prominence and swagger in "Thor: Ragnarok," despite her centrality to the events of New Asgard.

There are numerous Guns N' Roses nods and needle drops in "Thor: Love and Thunder," and you're expected to head-bang each time. This is similar to when a joke or call-back story beat is just playing the hits. All of the pop culture references and superhero-themed puns about coming up with catchphrases fall particularly flat when they come out as safe rather than original. At its core, "Thor: Love and Thunder" is a blockbuster comedy sequel, and even when it only sometimes manages to make you laugh, the poorer material serves to remind you of that.

The bolder, dramatic passages in "Thor: Love and Thunder," which are essentially mini-movies on how love comes with the price of loss yet lacking the general freshness that characterized the previous film, are better. Before the Marvel Studios credit card comes out in full force with electric guitars, Gorr is introduced in a horrifying piece of bubble gum Ingmar Bergman, cradling his dead child and denouncing his god before killing him. Later, Waititi portrays the romance between Jane and Thor—first cozy, then isolated—as a spin-off of his own weird independent film "Eagle vs. Shark." It's really humorous at times, but always brutally honest, especially as the two try to save their relationship in the waning days of time. Even while everything is later handled in a manner that is too cutesy or overly crowd-pleasing to hit as hard as they're plainly meant to, it is these poignant moments that also reveal the actual motivators for "Thor: Love and Thunder."

The most important lesson to be learned from "Thor: Love and Thunder" is how boldly Waititi used color, both visually and thematically. This is in addition to the fact that Waititi really ought to get the "Star Wars" trilogy he has been tease. It's not just the vibrant colors, which feature golden blood-spouting Zeus soldiers in one instance, or a stunning black-and-white fight scene between Gorr and Thor on a little colorless planet that cleverly employs brief bursts of blue light. That confident tone demonstrates how a film can incorporate both god-killing and family-friendly crowd-pleasing scenes with a sentimental message about love. While there are some issues with this sequel, Waititi continues to demonstrate how original these movies can still be when their writers continue to incorporate some of their darkest and funniest themes.

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