Thor: Love and Thunder (2022) Review

 "All gods will die."
-Gorr the God Butcher



When Gorr the God Butcher (Christian Bale) starts butchering gods across the universe, Thor (Chris Hemsworth) puts together a team to stop him.  Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson), Korg (Taika Waititi), and Thor's ex-girlfriend, Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), now with powers of her own, set off on their quest, but might be playing right into Gorr's hands.



What Works:

Ever since the end of Avengers: Endgame, I've been wanting the MCU to get weird to avoid the movies becoming stale.  As a whole, the MCU has been a bit hit-or-miss on that front with Phase 4, but I'm happy to say that Thor: Love and Thunder is plenty weird.  This is the type of movie I want from this Phase.  With this movie and Multiverse of Madness, I'm really glad Marvel is letting talented directors actually direct and make the movie their own.

One complaint I've seen about this movie is the tone.  It is often very funny, but can occasionally get very dark.  Some people say the movie has tonal whiplash.  I find that movies that can swing from funny to dark in an instant typically work for me.  I know in this movie, some of the dark stuff was funny to me.  Watching Gorr traumatize a group of children actually made me laugh.  I'd be interested to know if some of the dark scenes were supposed to be funny or not.  Either way, it worked for me.

For the first time in the Thor series, I actually cared about the relationship between Thor and Jane.  Their love story is the weakest part of the first two Thor films, but here we actually got some quick flashbacks of their relationship and we get to see how it ended.  Plus Jane has powers now and isn't just someone Thor needs to rescue.  All of this makes their dynamic much more interesting and both actors do a great job.

You know who else does a great job?  Christian Bale.  Gorr is absolutely a top-tier Marvel villain.  His backstory is tragic and you can really understand why he has such a hatred towards the gods.  It makes a lot of sense and I think a lot of people would do the same thing in his position.  Plus Bale's performance manages to be extremely creepy with the slightest hint of being funny.  He's probably the scariest villain in the MCU.

The visuals are always good in MCU films to the point I rarely mention them, but they are outstanding in Love and Thunder.  The highlight is the fight sequence in the Shadow Realm.  It's mostly a black and white sequence with occasional blasts of color.  It's one of the most visually interesting and unique sequences in the MCU.

Finally, I have to commend all of the child actors in this film.  They did a great job and were actually a lot of fun, especially in the 3rd act.  I rarely like seeing kids in movies, but they were awesome.


What Sucks:

My only complaint is that the Guardians of the Galaxy were not in enough of the movie.  Having Thor go off with them at the end of Endgame was a brilliant idea and that could have been a whole movie on its own.  Most of them get just one line and the only one with any impact on the story is Star-Lord (Chris Pratt).  They were definitely underused and it felt like a missed opportunity.


Verdict:

Thor: Love and Thunder is an absolute blast.  This may be a hot take, but this is my favorite of the Thor movies.  Hemsworth, Portman, and Bale all awesome, the movie is deliciously weird, visually stunning, and very funny.  It's a bummer it isn't getting all of the praise it deserves because this movie has absolutely got it going on.

 9/10: Great 

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