Thor: Love and Thunder: Will It Leave You Thunderstruck?

Before I really get into it with this review, I want to apologize in advance. I've been kind of dreading having to write this whole thing out. By the time this comes out I will have seen the movie twice already. Don't worry, it's not a bad movie by any means. The thing that's been bothering me though is that, when it comes to Marvel movies lately, all of my reviews have sounded the same. That's kind of because all of the movies have been pretty much the same: Fine. I was really excited going into Love and Thunder because I loved the previous Thor movie, Ragnarok and the director of that film was coming back for this one. My hope was that this installment would kind of break up the blandness that has been Phase 4 (the current slate of Marvel shows and movies that began with WandaVision). It really didn't and I think that's what hurt the most. Marvel is getting to a point now where it is too big. I'm sounding like a broken record, but it's too much. To really put things in perspective, IGN put out a graphic that broke down how long each of the phases have been so far. Phase 1 had six movies which added up to 12.4 hours. Phase 2 also had six movies but added up to 12.7 hours. Phase 3 had 11 movies and added up to 24.9 hours. Phase 4 has had six movies and seven shows which have added up to a total of 49.5 hours. It's not even done yet. There is far too much coming out and it is sucking the excitement out of it. The MCU has become a chore to watch. To really understand everything, you have to watch the TV shows too, which I wouldn't mind if they were great. The quality is dipping too, visually (I'll get to that in a bit). I just had to vent because there were several times during the week when I wanted to write this out, but I felt like I would just be repeating everything I've been saying the past few movies. With all of that out of the way, let's dive into the review!

Thor: Love and Thunder is directed by Taika Watiti and stars Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Christian Bale, Tessa Thompson, and Taika Watiti. Gorr the God Butcher (Bale) has been killing gods all across the nine realms and Thor (Hemsworth), trying to find himself once again, must stop him. Things get complicated when Jane Foster (Portman), Thor's ex, shows up again and wielding Mjolnir, taking up the mantle of the Mighty Thor! Let's get started!

Despite my rant in the beginning, I actually liked this movie. Chris Hemsworth is still great as Thor and I hope he continues to play the role for years to coming. The Mighty Avenger has had one of the most interesting arcs in the MCU and, in part, that's thanks to the past few movies he's been in. When we first met him, Thor was arrogant and bratty, yearning for combat. He's really been developed as a character though. He lost his mother, hammer, dad, brother, planet, and many of his friends. In Infinity War and Endgame, we really saw the toll this was taking on him. We see a little bit of this here, mainly in the beginning. I do wish it was explored a little more though. Another thing I really liked about this movie was that Jane came back. She wasn't in the last Thor film, with the excuse being that they broke up. It was great seeing her back again. The chemistry between Portman and Hemsworth is great, and actually saves the movie. This time around, Portman looks like she's having fun, despite her emotionally heavy sub-plot. I also really liked, y'know, actually seeing her do something. In the previous movies, she didn't too all too much. Here, Jane actually gets to participate in the action scenes. She does a lot of really cool things with the hammer. On the villain side of things, Christian Bale did a great job as Gorr the God Butcher (when he's on screen). He was pretty terrifying at parts, but it made sense why he was on his mission. There's a sequence in the movie where he just stole the show. It was shown a little bit in the trailers. Even though he looks nothing like he did in the comics, the makeup work on him was really good. I also really liked the music choice. In Ragnarok, Taika used "Immigrant Song" quite a bit. Here, he shifts from Led Zeppelin to Guns N'Roses. I'm a really big rock fan, so I dug it. They even did the Marvel opening theme with an electric guitar riff. The ending of this movie was great, too. I can't give too much away, but it really sets up Thor's character in an interesting way. There's a scene towards the end where I thought the movie was going to go one way, but it goes the complete opposite and I really respected the choice. The action sequences are pretty cool, too. There's one in particular that really stuck out to me. It's the same scene I mentioned earlier with Christian Bale. The color is gone and it really gives a stylized feel to the sequence. It was my favorite part of the film actually. I also really enjoyed the ending of the move, which I obviously won't get into because of spoilers.

There are two characters who I wished we had seen more of. One of them is Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson). She's on-screen a lot, but never really does anything. I wanted to see more of her as the king of New Asgard. They touch on it a little bit, but never go into depth with it. I mentioned earlier that Christian Bale is awesome when he's on screen, and this is true. I just wish he had more to do in this film. He was pretty underused, which stinks because I was really looking forward to what he would bring to the franchise. In several interviews, Bale has said there was stuff that was cut that he wished was in the movie. It's pretty evident a lot was taken out, especially in the beginning. The first act really jumps all over the place and there are scenes that really needed more time to breathe. This next part is a spoiler, but it is a pretty big example of an issue I had with this movie. We never see Jane's first time suiting up as Thor for the first time. We see her go to look at the hammer in New Asgard, but we never see her actually pick it up and turn into the hero. The first time we actually see her in the suit is the same time that Thor does. This was shown in the trailer when he reaches out toward Mjolnir, only for it to fly backwards to Jane in the Thor costume. One can argue that we were supposed feel the same way that Thor does: Surprised. However, that argument doesn't really hold up because we knew since this movie was announced that she was going to pick up the hammer. It was in the trailers. There's no need to try and shock the audience. What actually happens is that the movie feels choppy. In an interview, Taika said that one cut of this movie was four hours long. The final run time is 1 hour and 58 minutes. It was also revealed that the studio mandated the film be under two hours, which is ridiculous. It's the same exact criticism I had with Multiverse of Madness, this needed to be just a little bit longer, especially when it's dealing with these plot lines. Another problem I had with this movie was the humor. Most of the jokes work, but there are way too many of them. It overrides the story. With Thor: Ragnarok I felt that Taika was able to balance the humor with the story. That movie is hysterical, but it never gets to be too much. The humor in this movie is kind of like cake: It's good in moderation, but if you're eating it non-stop eventually you're gonna get sick. It's also really noticeable when the jokes don't land. One of the running gags in this movie that Thor has two goats that just scream constantly. It's pretty funny the first time, but after a while it gets ridiculous. It also doesn't help that the joke was from almost ten years ago. This next criticism is a bit all over the place so bear with me. There are times when this movie looks good, really good in fact. Other times, however, the visual effects are noticeably bad. This has become a trend in recent MCU movies and shows. I don't know how one studio can go from the fantastic-looking Thanos to this: