Friday Night's Film Review

THOR: LOVE AND THUNDER (2022, Taika Waititi)

Waititi’s New MCU Romp: A Worthy Watch?

Three LSD Space Vikings, along with their friend made of rocks and pet goats, take on a god-slaying, child-stealing heretic terrorist from the shadow realm. Yes, Love and Thunder exhibits a more postmodern, whimsical, ‘stand-alone’ MCU movie, accessible for fans old and new, reliant on sheer absurdity and... a cancer plot?

If you thought Thor: Ragnarok (2018) was ‘too quirky’, I would recommend avoiding this mad space quest at all costs. It’s Taika turned up to eleven, ensuring the latest Thor instalment will be a divisive one amongst fans.

The soundtrack is great, the plot strong, and we’re offered a a few rare glimpses of cinematography and auteurship uncharacteristic of a Marvel blockbuster.

However, one of the reasons for division in critical reception will no doubt be this: the film is too joke heavy.

When literally everything is a joke, something needs to be spectacularly funny or witty to satisfy the audience’s collective sense of humour, and unfortunately very few jokes fly above and beyond to grant us said satisfaction. Fan favourite ‘Korg’ does an excellent job at no longer remaining a fan favourite; his comic relief is over-depended upon and I was desensitised to his jokes very early on, which was a shame. The screeching goats were hilarious however. (The tedious ‘Omnipotence City’ sequence less so. )

The film’s strongest moments aren’t tainted with comic relief or gimmicks, but are actually soaked in sentiment, and sadness. Natalie Portman and Christian Bale’s characters will melt a few hearts I’m sure, and Waititi succeeds in creating a couple of emotion driven scenes against the film’s conceptually-ludicrous background. James Gunn inspired perhaps?

Bale, as he often does, boasts a pretty great performance as ‘Gorr the God-Butcher’, despite the bleak character not matching the film’s otherwise jovial tone. After all, a terrifying, vengeance-mad, child-kidnapping butcherer of gods is wasted in a comedy film.

The villain’s arch is strong, and for me Bale plays a top tier MCU baddie, but the character inarguably belongs in a less flamboyant narrative.

The award for the best costume goes to Christian Bale, partially down to how unrecognisable he is- then again, I’ve forgotten what he looks like these days, him being a literal chameleon and all.

To conclude:

Thor: Love and Thunder is camp space adventure fun, but, like this blog, feels a little ‘content for content’s sake.’

I guess the never ending content churning machine that is Disney really might be, never ending.

Love or hate it, you’ll come away from this film thinking 2 things:

Who let Taika Wahiti have a go on Kevin Feige’s $185 million megaphone, and, why is Matt Damon’s cameo so damn good?!