Thor: Love and Thunder

• Directed by Taika Waititi
• June 23, 2022 (El Capitan Theatre) / July 8, 2022 (US)

Thor seeks to find inner peace and his place in the universe but must return to action to stop Gorr the God Butcher from killing all gods.

What happens when Thor is the first character in the MCU to get a fourth film? You get Thor: Love and Thunder. This is a poorly executed comedic superhero film with an uneven tone and jokes that step all over each other with some of those same jokes feeling like reheated leftovers.

Love and Thunder is a victim of the success that Taika Waititi had with the last film. People became convinced it was all him rather than those who worked with him. He got a free reign here and was able to do anything he wanted and not everyone can do that as a director or an anything. ‘No’ can be a positive thing. ‘No’ can stop people from making the wrong decision.

Taika Waititi took some of his inspiration for this from a storyline in the comics where Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) gets the powers of Thor (Chris Hemsworth) while fighting cancer. In the storyline in the comics and here as well they treat Thor’s name as a title rather than his name. I am not bothered by Jane getting Thor’s powers, but a name is not a title. Give the character her own hero name.

And then there is the question of who the focus of the film is. Is this Jane Foster’s story or is it Thor’s story? This movie can’t seem to decide who it wants to be about. Given whose name is in the title I would think the focus would be on him but as is the norm in Marvel the spotlight often falls on everyone but the title character.

Of important note is that Jane gets her powers by using Mjolnir. But how is that possible as it was destroyed by Hela in the last film? Well it can reassemble itself. Huh? Thor appears completely unaware of that and it seems like a bit of important technical information to have about your weapon. It also makes all events involving the need to create Stormbreaker rather pointless.

Christian Bale is our main threat of Gorr the God Butcher. Gorr is corrupted by a sword that has been around since the dawn of time called the Necrosword that finds a host or a companion (however you want to put it) and corrupts them. Gorr gets corrupted because he finds out his god Rapu (Jonathan Brugh) cares nothing for him even though he and his people worshiped him until the last and he is filled with rage over the death of his daughter.

That bit is introduced in the opening minutes and promised something deeper than a superficial and overpriced comedy. I thought and hoped we might get something comedic that touched on religion and faith and how you feel when you believe your prayers have gone unanswered. Not to be as the story descends into goofiness pretty quickly. And then it gets serious again when they touch up on Jane Foster’s cancer and then it gets goofy again. There are these wild narrative swings between nonsense and weighty subject manner.

If Love and Thunder were a dramedy that might work but it is not-either intentionally or accidentally. It’s just very uneven. And it’s a shame because it could’ve just touched on some really decent things with humor but it never gets beyond the introduction of the idea before moving on.

And what was with those yelling goats? It was a mildly entertaining joke that they decided to run to the ground. And they didn’t even do that in a way that was funny in and of itself. It just went on for so long it became annoying. Then again every joke they told here went on for too long. Jane Foster trying to find a superhero catchphrase. The heroes jumping the gun before awkwardly realizing it. Thor’s need to reconnect with his hammer and Stormbreaker becoming jealous. All the running gags went on for far too long to the point they weren’t funny. And truthfully none of them were hilarious the first time around. They were worth a smile and not much more. But without his own internal filter or an external filter Taika Waititi does not have the ability to stop.

Somehow with a reported budget of around $250 million there still is plenty that looks cheap here. Rapu’s area for example looks like it was shot in a well-manicured backyard. There were a great many tight shots throughout this movie with everyone very close together which is a general indicator of a low budget.

And the CGI. What can I say that has not already been said? It bordered on fake looking at times to downright bad. You know what I’m talking about when I say ‘bad’. Everybody does. A multi-million dollar film and that’s the best they can do for Astrid? A camera cut between where each character is until they’re facing one another is a superior option to what was decided on. It would’ve been dramatic and superhero-ish and avoided that horrible looking visual.

At this point the Thor movies suffer from a lack of Loki. That character has become such an integral part of the series that those behind it do not know what to do without him in general and with Thor in particular. They do not know how to handle the character or the situation without Thor playing off of him in some way. And what’s the need with Thor having to find himself again? Didn’t he already do that? That seems to have been his journey in the last film but here he goes through it all over again. That is what I am talking about!

Thor: Love and Thunder isn’t horrible but it’s not great either. I’m sure your harder core Marvel fans will like it but anyone leaning towards just unintelligent or well-done film probably will see the reality that this is just using cool visuals to cover a weak story. You can skip this.