Review of 'Thor: Love and Thunder'
“Thor: Love and Thunder” follows directly on from the events of Thor: Ragnarok and, of course, the other Marvel films (you remember all of them in some detail, right?) with Thor (Chris Hemsworth) battling a bad guy, Gorr (a bald-headed Christian Bale) who seeks the extinction of all Gods following a rather bad experience he had as a father when his God refused to be much help to him so he his God using the “Necrosword”. Gorr needs Thor's new hammer Stormbreaker to open the gate at “Eternity” a far-distant place in the universe that promises to grant the wish of anyone who makes it there. Meanwhile, Thor's former lover Dr. Jane Foster () is suffering from stage 4 cancer, seeking out the power of the Asgard ancients in New Asgard in the hopes it will cure her. In doing so Thor's old hammer Mjølnir fuses itself back together and turns into a Mighty Thor. Gorr stages an attack on New Asgard kidnapping the children and ransoming them to Thor for his hammer. Thor, aided by Jane and Asgardian warrior Sif (Jaimie Alexander) to enlist the support of the Gods of Omnipotence City including Zeus but when they express a general apathy to Thor's appeal, Thor kills Zeus and escapes with his lightening bolt. They flee to rescue the children…
Love and Thunder has the general sense of fun that made “Ragnarok” so enjoyable but L&T dials this up perhaps a bit higher than it really needed to go with the quips and action flying by so fast they are difficult to appreciate or, often, understand. Similarly there are some amazing looking set pieces that are just so vast they blur into a generic background which is a shame as they look to be quite incredible and likely many people spent a lot of time on it. Instead we focus on the silly antics of Thor, the child who never grew up nor seems to want to only occasionally showing signs of emotional depth much the frustration of Jane who simply wants to come to some sort of closure in her life. The kidnapping of the children is so cliched it barely bears repeating: Seriously?
I have to say a note about the music which features the likes of Guns and Roses, Enya, and, er, Abba (!). The soundtrack really does power the mania on the screen and quite suits it. Of course, if you have seen the trailer and the logo for the film you will know this is very much the look the director was going for - A rock and roll roller-coaster.
So, generally, quite a superficial, and ultimately disappointing film but it does look and sound great if that is all you want in a film. Grab the popcorn.
As always, stand by for two post-credit sequences, one early on in the credits and the other, more interesting, at the very end where Zeus plots his revenge…
Rating: “It is OK but I have some issues”
Review Date: 2022-07-24
Directed by: Taika Waititi
Studio: Marvel Studios
Year: 2022
Length: 118 minutes
Genre: Action/Adventure
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10648342/
Other reviewed films by Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi:
- What We Do in the Shadows (2014)
Other reviewed films by Taika Waititi:
- Thor: Ragnarok (2017)
- Jojo Rabbit (2019)