[Review] ‘THOR: LOVE AND THUNDER’ brings a storm of laughter, forgets to hammer in its stakes

Preston Barta // Features Editor

THOR: LOVE AND THUNDER

Rated PG-13, 119 minutes.
Now playing in theaters nationwide.

Thor: Ragnarok is a tough act to follow. Filmmaker Taika Waititi completely shook the Marvel board with his trilogy closer to Thor. He seamlessly balanced his signature tongue-in-cheek playfulness with a grand sense of thrill. 

The fourth entry, Thor: Love and Thunder, also directed by Waititi, is a horse of a different color. Pretty much every color. To paint a vivid picture of what to expect here, Waititi said his new movie is like they took advice from every six-year-old child and strung it together – and, well, he isn’t wrong. Love and Thunder undoubtedly supplies plenty of laughter from its ridiculous antics, but it’s too much of a sidestep to lay down the same stakes as its predecessor. 

The Chris Hemsworth-starring sequel is like going from Guardians of the Galaxy to Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, where the comedy takes the stage, front and center, and the side characters and plotting get the short end of the stick. And we have some pretty fantastic characters here. Jane Foster (Natalie Portman and muscles) returns to put down her science pen and pick up Thor’s hammer. You know, the hammer that shattered into a hundred pieces in Ragnarok? Yeah. She managed to puzzle that beast and swing it again, to Thor’s jealousy and our amusement. How that happened is the mystery and fun of the film. 

Then, we have Tessa Thompson’s King Valkyrie cranking out the best belly-busters as the scene-stealing MVP of the entire show. She doesn’t get as much to do as one would want following Ragnarok, but she owns every moment she’s on screen. Shortly behind Thompson is Waititi’s own character, Korg, the lovable rock giant who always has all the quotable lines. He even narrates our story this round, and it’s an absolute joy. 

Lastly, there’s Marvel newbie Christian Bale as Gorr the God Butcher. Bale, of course, slays it as the ultra-creepy baddie. His powdered body, low-hanging robes and black teeth are the stuff of nightmares. It’s just unfortunate that Waititi doesn’t allow him to flex his powers in the same way that Cate Blanchett’s Hela did in the last go. There are a few battles between him and the heroes (one is stylistically the coolest a Marvel movie has ever looked, with its black-and-white aesthetic and shadow monsters duking it out in a moon-like realm). However, the threat isn’t as immense as it should have been. We want to feel that he truly lives up to “the God Butcher” part of his name, and it’s not completely there.

The meaning behind Love and Thunder is well articulated, however. The last 15 minutes make up for a lot of its shortcomings. You can tell Waititi wanted to make something to inspire his children and all the superhero-loving children around the globe. And I can’t fault the film for that. You just might stand up and clap during at the close (especially during its mid-and-post-credits stingers – oh my). 

So, plenty to love but not as much narrative thunder. 

Grade: B