Thor: Love and Thunder

Hatred and resentment created Gorr the God Butcher, a vicious creature cutting a bloody swath across the galaxy, intent on murdering every deity in the many Heavens. Drawn out of his retirement, Thor Odinson, along with his friends, Valkyrie and Korg, and his ex-girlfriend Jane Foster—who is now also known as the Mighty Thor and is wielding his old hammer Mjolnir—must journey across the cosmos and stop Gorr’s genocidal campaign, before his rage destroys all of existence.

I’m a big fan of Taika Waititi.

Sure, he’s very self-amused, and maybe a bit too “on” too often, but his stuff is fun, funny, made with a distinctive voice, and full of heart. The Marvel comics version of Thor, with his grand and silly Jack Kirby-colored world of Gods and magic and super-technology, really suits Waititi’s aesthetic too. I think it’s a great pairing. In fact, the previous Thor film, Thor: Ragnarok, is one of my favorites of the MCU.

But Thor: Love and Thunder was… unfocused.

Part of this is due to a classic comic book problem where a creator’s new story is saddled with the fallout of someone else’s story that involved the character, and there is no other choice but to deal with it, even if it doesn’t quite mesh with what they are intending to do. As the film opens, Thor is still traveling with the Guardians of the Galaxy after the events of Endgame, and while it’s a fun sequence, it’s very obviously more of an obligation than a necessary plotline, and dealing with it felt like we were following a character down a hallway connecting two plots. In creative writing, they say “arrive late, and leave early.” Well, this was the film arriving way too early. Like I said… fun, but unnecessary.

In a way, this film’s issues reminded me of Iron Man 2 and Watchmen.

Like in Iron Man 2, there was a lot of greater franchise stuff going on, stuff that’s necessary for the MCU’s future and cohesion, but its inclusion bogged down the film’s story. And like Watchmen, while I liked all the pieces, when taken as a whole, it just didn’t work.

So, while there’s that problem, and it’s one that is kind of beyond Waititi’s control, it’s also pretty apparent the film never really figured out what it wanted to be. It was a fun kids’ movie, one that touches on deeper themes of love, sacrifice, loss, resentment, and redemption, as well as a horror-tinged indictment of religion and faith, all while being a loud and colorful sci-fi/fantasy romp set to a Guns N’ Roses soundtrack, but in the end, it wasn’t enough of any of these particular pieces, and ended up feeling more like a smashed together jumble of them all.

Additionally, there’s an obvious complaint, one similarly voiced about Thor: Ragnarok, that the comic book stories this film is adapting were just flat-out better told in the comics. That’s not unture. Also, it’s fair to say that the horror elements of the God Butcher storyline eluded Waititi.

But… you also can’t make those complaints without first acknowledging that the world of the MCU is a fundamentally different place than the world of Marvel comics, and because of that, a comics-to-MCU adaptation requires more changes than the mandatory ones you usually see when adapting a story between mediums. There’s just no getting around that. Still, once you do acknowledge that, and you’ve read the source material… you have to admit that it’s a valid complaint.

Now, I’m sure there’s some butthurt nerds out there, still mad at the loss of their ability to gatekeep their special little private universe now that Marvel has had their incredible mainstream movie success, who will act like this film is the worst thing ever made, but it’s simply not.

One, never listen to dumb nerds… except me.

Two, Thor: Love and Thunder is messy, but it’s fine, and often really funny. It’s a lesser entry in the MCU rankings, sure, but still a good time on a lazy afternoon. I enjoyed it, but that's me. I’m obviously in the bag for the MCU, so take that as you will. As always, if these films aren’t your thing, don’t bother.

Personally, I’m still floored by the fact that there are four Thor films, and there might be a fifth one too? A decade or two ago, who would’ve believed that? This still shocks me. Anyway, I’m looking forward to a Roy Kent Hercules maybe appearing in a future film, as well as seeing more of Korg, Dwayne, and their new rock baby.