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REVIEW -- Thor: Love and Thunder (2022)

Thor: Love and Thunder is a 2022 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character Thor, produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. It is the direct sequel to Thor: Ragnarok (2017) and the 29th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). The film is directed by Taika Waititi, who co-wrote the script with Jennifer Kaytin Robinson, and stars Chris Hemsworth as Thor alongside Christian Bale, Tessa Thompson, Jaimie Alexander, Waititi, Russell Crowe, and Natalie Portman. In the film, Thor attempts to find inner peace, but must return to action and recruit Valkyrie (Thompson), Korg (Waititi), and Jane Foster (Portman)—who is now the Mighty Thor—to stop Gorr the God Butcher (Bale) from eliminating all gods.

Hemsworth and Waititi had discussed plans for a sequel to Ragnarok by January 2018. Love and Thunder was announced in July 2019, with Hemsworth, Waititi, and Thompson all set to return, as well as Portman who did not appear in Ragnarok. Waititi wanted to differentiate Love and Thunder from Ragnarok, seeking to make a romance film and 1980s-inspired adventure. He adapted elements from Jason Aaron's run on the Mighty Thor comic book, which sees Foster take on the mantle and powers of Thor whilst suffering from cancer. Robinson joined to contribute to the script in February 2020, and further casting was revealed later that year including the appearance of the Guardians of the Galaxy. Production was expected to begin in late 2020 but was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Filming ultimately began in January 2021 in Sydney, Australia, and concluded at the beginning of June.

Thor: Love and Thunder premiered at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood on June 23, 2022, and was released in the United States on July 8, 2022, as part of Phase Four of the MCU. The film received praise for its light-heartedness and cast performances (particularly those of Bale and Portman), but was criticized for its tonal inconsistency and screenplay.

Plot

SPOILERS BELOW

After the death of his daughter Love and his pleas for help are ignored by his god, Rapu, Gorr is called to the god-killing weapon the Necrosword and uses it to kill Rapu, vowing to kill all gods.

Elsewhere, Thor parts ways with the Guardians of the Galaxy after receiving a distress signal from Sif. Upon arrival, a beaten Sif warns Thor of Gorr and that his next target is New Asgard. Dr. Jane Foster, Thor's ex-girlfriend, (diagnosed with cancer) arrives at New Asgard in hopes of seeking medical treatment. There Thor's old hammer Mjolnir reforges and bonds itself to Foster after sensing her worthiness, granting her the power of Thor. Thor arrives in New Asgard just as Gorr starts attacking the town with shadow creatures. He is surprised to find Foster with Mjolnir but nevertheless teams up with her, Valkyrie and Korg to fight Gorr. The group thwarts Gorr, but he escapes, kidnapping several Asgardian children.

The group travels to Omnipotent City to warn the other gods and ask for their help. The Olympian god Zeus is unwilling to help and has Thor captured, forcing the group to fight off Zeus's men. Zeus injures Korg; in anger, Thor impales Zeus with his own thunderbolt, which Valkyrie steals during their escape. They then travel to the Shadow Realm to save the children. However, this turned out to be a ruse for Gorr to take Stormbreaker, which he intends to use on the Bifrost to enter Eternity and ask for the destruction of all gods. Gorr manages to overpower Thor's group and successfully steal Stormbreaker. Gorr uses Stormbreaker to open the portal to Eternity. Valkyrie is badly injured and Foster ends the battle drained by her use of Mjolnir, with one more such use likely to hasten her death from cancer. Thor, therefore, goes alone, imbuing the kidnapped Asgardian children and their weapons with the power of Thor to fight alongside him. Foster joins Thor in fighting Gorr and destroys the Necrosword.

Admitting defeat, Thor manages to convince Gorr that all he wanted from Eternity was not to destroy the gods but to get his daughter Love back. Foster succumbs to her illness and dies in Thor's arms. Eternity allows Gorr's request to revive Love, whom he asks Thor to take care of before he dies from the effects of the Necrosword. The children return to New Asgard, where Valkyrie and Sif begin training them. Meanwhile, Thor, now in possession of Mjolnir again, continues to go on adventures to help people, with Love, now wielding Stormbreaker, by his side.

In a mid-credits scene, a recuperating Zeus sends his son Hercules to kill Thor. In a post-credits scene, Foster arrives at the gates of Valhalla, where Heimdall welcomes her.

Cast

Chris Hemsworth as Thor
Christian Bale as Gorr the God Butcher
Tessa Thompson as Valkyrie
Jaimie Alexander as Sif
Taika Waititi as Korg
Russell Crowe as Zeus
Natalie Portman as Jane Foster / Mighty Thor

Additionally, the Guardians of the Galaxy are featured in the film, with Chris Pratt, Pom Klementieff, Dave Bautista, Karen Gillan, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper, and Sean Gunn reprising their respective MCU roles as Peter Quill / Star-Lord, Mantis, Drax the Destroyer, Nebula, Groot, Rocket, and Kraglin Obfonteri. Matt Damon, Sam Neill, and Luke Hemsworth reprise their roles as Asgardian actors respectively playing Loki, Odin, and Thor, with Melissa McCarthy joining them as an actress playing Hela, and McCarthy's husband Ben Falcone as the stage manager. Stephen Murdoch voices Miek. Returning cast from the Thor franchise are Kat Dennings and Stellan Skarsgard as Foster's colleagues Darcy Lewis and Erik Selvig, respectively, and Idris Elba as Heimdall in the post-credits scene, with Daley Pearson reprising his role from the Team Thor series as Daryl, now working as a tour guide in New Asgard.

Simon Russell Beale appears as the Olympian god Dionysus, while Akosia Sabet appears as the goddess Bast. Jonathan Brugh, who plays Deacon in Waititi's 2014 film What We Do in the Shadows, appears as one of the gods in the film. Kieron L. Dyer plays Axl, Heimdall's son, Hemsworth's daughter, India, portrays Love, Gorr's daughter, Hemsworth's wife Elsa Pataky appears as the wolf woman, and Portman and Waititi's children portray New Asgard children. Singer Jenny Morris appears as a New Asgard citizen. Brett Goldstein appears as Zeus' son Hercules in the mid-credits scene.

Jeff Goldblum and Peter Dinklage were both set to reprise their respective roles as Grandmaster from Thor: Ragnarok and Eitri from Avengers: Infinity War (2018), but their scenes were cut from the theatrical release. Lena Headey was also set to appear in the film, but her scenes were also removed.

The Verdict:

Going into this film and more importantly for this review, I'm going to be honest and say that I haven't thought much of any of the three Thor Marvel Cinematic Universe films to date. Each one has been mediocre to barely passable at best and definitely were affairs that I haven't cared to revisit since their original theatrical releases. Thor: Ragnarok was easily the better of the three, thanks to the change in tone as well as the stellar cast involved. A lot of people have warmed up to Taika Waititi's new direction in terms of making Thor a more comical character instead of the fish out of water concept that characters like him (DC's Wonder Woman was presented in a similar fashion for her live-action debut). The success of that film gave Waititi the greenlight to helm the sequel with more creative freedom, but in a lot of ways, I feel that decision was setting this film up for failure right off the bat.

A common criticism among outside directors/filmmakers coming in to handle these various MCU projects are that they are "being handcuffed" on their own creative freedoms in terms how to approach these projects. I get it though. The MCU has their "formula" and they are going to stick with it, especially for a lot of these superhero origin stories and sequels with their established heroes. We're at the FOURTH Thor film and it's been a proven hit and success for the franchise and people genuinely wanted to see more from the God of Thunder, especially following his fall from grace in Avengers: Endgame.

Characters

Thor Odinson (Chris Hemsworth)

Thor is still a tad childish and a bit of a goof that he was portrayed as in Ragnarok, but has found some free time to shed the excess weight and pounds he packed on for Endgame. Hemsworth is easily in the best shape of his life for his performance in this film and Waititi finds several excuses to put his physique on display. Narrative-wise, Thor is going through a bit of a midlife crisis in terms of he is questioning what should he do with his life following the defeat of Thanos and much of the Avengers have either retired or went in their own separate directions. His role with the Guardians seemed to have gone nowhere either, but that occurred mostly off-screen since it's painfully obvious that the Guardians have grown annoyed with having him and Korg just hanging around.

The core dynamic of the film revolves around Thor reuniting with his former love interest, Jane Foster, who now wields his old weapon, Mjolnir, that was thought to be destroyed for good by Hela in Ragnarok. Thor struggles with the fact that his ex-girlfriend now wields divine powers and along with Mjolnir. Thor ends up making Stormbreaker jealous over the course of the film as he repeatedly tries to call Mjolnir back to him. I thought this gag was funny the first few times, but it got old and stale by the time the film wrapped up. There's a point in the film where Gorr steals Stormbreaker away to complete his master plan but Thor (nor anyone else for that matter) doesn't think to merely summon the axe away from Gorr and back to Earth. I'm sure people will make the excuse or try to explain this logic (or lack of thereof...) as more of Stormbreaker's rebellious nature in terms of its jealous with Mjolnir, but it doesn't excuse it from being any less stupid in execution. If that particular moment wasn't bad enough, it was just outright as stupid for Stormbreaker not allowing him to use the Bifrost to instantly travel to the kidnapped children's location in Gorr's shadow realm. I get that they wanted to play up Stormbreaker's growing jealousy of Mjolnir for comedy but it doesn't excuse a lot of low points of this narrative.

I felt that Thor's insistence of visiting Zeus to gather an army to fight Gorr was little asinine. It felt like an optional side quest in one of those huge open-world video games where it consumes a lot of the player's time, but the only saving grace of it being that you got a cool (possibly broken), over-powered weapon out of it. This is essentially what happens here. That diversion merely serves as an excuse to arm Valkyrie with a divine weapon - Zeus' thunderbolt. That ends up being for moot when Thor himself ends up wielding it during the final battle when Gorr steals Stormbreaker to force open Eternity's gate.

At that point, you can kind of understand Stormbreaker's jealousy when these divine weapons are pretty disposable to the God of Thunder. He jumps from Stormbreaker, Zeus' Thunderbolt, and finally back to Mjolnir (once Jane dies) without a bat of the eye. It just aligns with Gorr's assessment that the gods are all flawed. I thought Thor's greatest moment of character growth in this entire film was acknowledging that despite all of his divine powers and abilities, he was flawed until Jane Foster came into his life and she was the one who made him worthy, not the other way around. I honorably accepted defeat at the hands of Gorr and was ready to die alongside Jane in his final moments.

Gorr's daughter, "Love", who is played by Hemsworth's own real life daughter, much like his twin sons who played the younger Thor in this film in flashbacks. I'm still kicking myself for not getting the irony of her name until film's climax.

Gorr didn't kill him but tasked him (or rather entrusted him) with caring for and raising his daughter, Love. I can't say that I'm over the moon over this idea that Thor will be entrusted to be a surrogate father to this little girl who somehow has the powers greater than a Celestial from what we're left to grasp of her divine abilities that were bestowed onto her from Eternity at the end of this film.

Given their antics at the end of the film, his parenting adventures are off to a bad start as he's already allowing Love to accompany him on his heroic adventures and putting her into harm's way - not to mention that he's allowing her to use Stormbreaker freely too. Then again, I guess there's no other way than to raise a young Celestial (if that's what she is anyway) unless she's in the thick of combat anyway if she properly wants to learn how to use and control her powers.

If anything, Thor left in a place where I honestly don't care much about seeing more of from him - not that I was very heavily invested in him in the first goddamn place when this film started.

Jane Foster / The Mighty Thor (Natalie Portman)

As a fan of the Mighty Thor comic book storyline of the same name by Jason Aaron and a fan of Natalie Portman as an actress, I was really excited to see this adaptation in live-action the closer we got to this film's release. There were a lot of people expecting that the Mighty Thor's arrival meant for another "passing the flag" moment for the MCU, but I was skeptical of that going in. Portman had distanced herself from the MCU since her last appearance in critically panned Thor: The Dark World, so I didn't think that she would want to come back and be handed the role of Thor to carry on for Hemsworth, who would step down. No, it wouldn't make much sense for her to do that. Anyone who read the Mighty Thor storyline from the comics could tell you what Jane Foster's fate was by the time it ended - as a martyr. That's the same direction that this film took and I'm glad that they had the balls to depict this as closely to the comics as possible (at least for their continuity).

For those who aren't aware, Jane Foster develops stage 4 cancer, much like her comic book counterpart. This is hastily explained in the first few minutes of the film within the span of 10-15 minutes in a rather questionable yet lackadaisical manner, but later clarified in a flashback that Jane's mother died from cancer when she was a child. For anyone who had a loved one die of cancer, I'm sure this is going to be a very triggering film for a lot of people. I was no exception as I found myself tearing up remembering what my late grandmother went through during Jane's scenes of chemotherapy.

I have to wonder if the writers even thought to consider mentioning that the Aether/Reality Stone had an adverse effect on her human biology from the events of Thor: The Dark World. That would have been a stronger argument to explain how she contracted cancer. That would have been a much more believable reason than what was presented here, especially after audiences have seen first-hand what the Infinity Stones did to Tony Stark/Ironman at the end of Avengers: Endgame.

After confiding in Darcy Lewis (Kat Dennings reprises the role following her appearance in last year's WandaVision) and her other colleagues concerning a cure, Jane finds herself out of options - that is until she hears Mjolnir calling out to her. This prompts her to visit New Asgard - that just happens to have the shattered fragments of Mjolnir all gathered in one place - and the hammer reassembles itself to grant her the power of the Mighty Thor.

It's not too soon after that is where Gorr shows up to New Asgard, seemingly targeting the deities that have gathered there that have this establishment on Earth their new home following the events of both Ragnarok and Infinity War. During this battle, Jane makes her costumed debut as the Mighty Thor to Thor's shock and awe. Valkyrie even mentions to Thor that Jane hasn't been at this for very long at all, but pretty much is making this look easy in comparison to Odinson. It's revealed after the battle while Jane is taking a moment in private that her newfound powers are purging out all of the cancer treatment of her body with each use/transformation, thus making her cancer worse the more that she uses these powers.

Another flashback reveals that Mjolnir was tasked by a drunken Thor to always protect her, no matter what happens to him, and this serves to why the hammer grants her the powers of the Mighty Thor. I found that this explanation was pretty lame, but I gave it a pass when Thor reconciled with Jane later in the film when the truth was revealed about the effects of her powers were having on her cancer that was getting progressively worse. Thor made a touching speech about Jane being the one who was always worthy and she was the one who made him worthy when he was stranded on Earth back in the original film after learning to love not just humankind but the act of helping people as a hero.

Thor was dead set on facing Gorr alone, but Jane picked up the hammer once more (knowing full well that this would be a death wish since its usage has been hastening the progression of her cancer) and they fought Gorr together. The Mighty Thor destroys the Necrosword, but Gorr still manages to get to Eternity first.

At this point, I thought they were going to do some 'happily ever after'-clichéd bullshit where Thor wishes to save Jane's life and cure her cancer before Gorr could make his wish to kill all of the gods. Instead, both Jane and Thor convince Gorr that his hatred is misguided as he merely wants love - namely his daughter Love that the gods failed to save at the start of the film. Gorr taunts them that they will all die alone, but both Jane and Thor agree that they would rather die together in each other's arms. Jane succumbs to the combined effects of her injuries from the battle and her cancer growing progressively worse as she dies from her cancer shortly thereafter.

Jane's death here wasn't as impactful as it was when she sacrificed herself in the comics to save not only the gods but the people of Earth too, but I thought this was fine for what it was worth despite her story needed to be ironed out in a few points and would have benefited with a little more screen time in this narrative.

If this is truly Natalie Portman and Jane Foster's proper send off from the MCU, then I'm absolutely fine with it. I just hope that they don't do what the comics did and rob her of that noble sacrifice by reviving her back down the road. She was allowed into Valhalla in the second post-credits scene, so there's no greater reward than that for her heroism here.

Gorr the God Butcher (Christian Bale)

Christian Bale's performance as Gorr the God Butcher puts him definitely in the conversation of easily top 5-10 MCU villains to date. We're still in a bit of muddled waters in terms of confusion on questioning whether or not Gorr's actions were his own while in possession of the Necrosword.

I've seen arguments on both sides of the fence about whether the sword was controlling him or he was consciously himself the entire time. I like to chuck that up to something (along with MANY things) in this film that could have used more screen time to address and clarify instead of shoehorning in as much comedy as possible that is to this film's detriment in a lot of moments.

(Laughs) It's pretty sad when Gorr looks more like the Grand Inquisitor than the one we ended up with in Obi-Wan Kenobi. By the end, he was looking like a bad-ass mash-up of the Grand Inquisitor and Mortal Kombat's Quan-Chi.

I think this film missed a huge opportunity to enlighten viewers about existence of symbiotes in the MCU. Spider-Man: No Way Home's post-credits teaser showed that a portion of the Venom symbiote remained in the main MCU universe/continuity. I know this is a bit of a stretch but hear me out, on this one... I thought it would have been cool if that sliver of the symbiote had somehow reunited with the Necrosword during Gorr's brief period on Earth? That could have contributed with the explanation of how Gorr was linked to the god-killing weapon.

If we're being perfectly honest about the Necrosword as a whole, introducing it period in this context was a missed opportunity. Since this film's release to the general public since opening night, we've heard Waitiki say in countless interviews and statements that a lot of this film was left on the cutting room floor, including scenes with the Grandmaster (Jeff Goldblum reprising the role from Thor: Ragnarok) and Eitri (Peter Dinklage reprising the role from Avengers: Infinity War). Both of which I think would have explained Gorr's motives and goals much more coherently - namely explaining how Gorr knew about Eternity in the first place when not even Thanos was leery of this knowledge and the fact that Gorr knew that Stormbreaker could summon the Bifrost bridge between realms. Eitri had knowledge and was responsible of creating so many devastating weapons in the Marvel Cinematic Universe thus far (Stormbreaker, Mjolnir, and even the Infinity Gauntlet), so it wouldn't be much of a stretch to have him be the one who informs Thor about what the Necrosword is capable of, even if he didn't create it himself.

As previously mentioned, there was never any clear distinction of whether or not the Necrosword was completely controlling Gorr and/or merely manipulating/influencing his actions. Those deleted scenes with Eitri and the Grandmaster could have cleared that up a bit.

To be quite honest, I personally found Gorr to be a very compelling and relatable (read: believable) villain. Gorr was a man who worshipped his "God" faithfully and was committed to following him until his last dying breath, despite every one (including his own child) had perished without divine intervention nor answered their prayers. He then came face-to-face with his self-proclaimed "Savior" (Rapu) and found out what that deity truly thought of him and his peers. Rapu's negligence was seen as the ultimate slap to the face, especially after Gorr saw his own daughter die in his arms with his pleas and prayers being heard on deaf ears. Now to get the verbal confrontation that his God that he gave everything to in the name of his faith in this religion and worship would do nothing and continue doing nothing is more than enough to drive one to violence after dealing with the trauma of losing a loved one. It's a hollowing narrative and it was so easy to see how the Necrosword could bond to him so easily.

Mental trauma rears its ugly head again in Phase 4, much like in Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness a few months ago with the Scarlet Witch/Wanda Maximoff being manipulated and exploited by her grief and negative emotions following the deaths of Vision (Avengers: Infinity War) and her "children" that she created in WandaVision by the Darkhold. Gorr the God Butcher is another victim of trauma in this Phase.

King Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson)

Tessa Thompson's Valkyrie returns in this film, continuing from her last MCU appearance as the newly appointed leader of New Asgard. She's a naturally good fit for the role and Waititi's style seems to mesh well with her natural charisma and line delivery, but I rarely feel like she's more than a 5th wheel in this adventure at times. She doesn't do much in the action scenes (despite being an Asgardian and a Valkyrie herself who are allegedly among the greatest warriors in the universe...).

I'm probably going to get heat for saying this, but her and Korg's inclusions in this film (outside of being able to effortlessly nail the comedic timings needed for this film, much like in Ragnarok) felt like merely filling checkboxes to satisfy the LGBTQ+ quota for the cast.

I did like the VERY few scenes that her and Jane Foster shared together. It felt like the audience clearly missed something that occurred off-screen in terms of their budding friendship that just seems to come out of left field in this film. It wouldn't have hurt this film at all if they took a few minutes to show exactly how they became friends in such a short time.

It would not have hurt this film at all to spend a little more time with extra "buddy cop" moments between King Valkyrie and the Mighty Thor. They somehow had room on the cutting room floor to bring back Jaimie Alexander for a Sif cameo (in a comics accurate costume no less...) just to tip Thor off about Gorr's plans and not be seen again for the rest of the film until the final moments where she's seen training the New Asgardian children. Like where the HELL has she been since Thor: The Dark World after everything that's been going on?

Scenes like this made me wonder how did Valkyrie and Jane Foster got to be so chummy out of a sudden...

It sucks too as Valkyrie pretty much ends this film where she left off at the end of Thor: Ragnarok. She still longs to reunite with her fellow fallen Valkyries (despite avenging them in Ragnarok) and doesn't really seem to have any proper closure from that trauma. She's been saddled with the position of the ruler of New Asgard - something that she's been excelling at - but she leaves this adventure wounded (thanks to being stabbed by the Necrosword) and back to sitting on the throne, resuming the duties of a ruler without any character growth whatsoever.

The Guardians of the Galaxy

Star-Lord (Chris Pratt)
Drax the Destroyer (Dave Bautista)
Nebula (Karen Gillian)
Mantis (Pom Klementieff)
Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel)
Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper)

I hate to say this but I felt that they were ultimately wasted in this film in terms of the send-off at the end of Avengers: Endgame (on terms of the impression that they left that we were going to get to see this big adventure with them and Thor) and portrayal they had in a lot of the advertising for this film. Instead, we get them for what felt like 5-10 minute gag that saw them quickly depart shortly thereafter. If you saw their brief appearance in the trailer(s) leading up to this film, then you have already seen 90% of their screen time in this film.

I have to wonder what was even the point of even going out of the way of calling them on set for this cameo. I thought not using them in the final battle in any capacity was another swing and a miss too, especially when Thor was desperately trying to assemble an army to take on Gorr, but ended up settling for imbuing the kidnapped Asgardian children the powers of Thor (temporarily anyway).

Korgg

Korg, much like the rest of his cohorts that were introduced in Thor: Ragnarok, return in this film mostly to fill the comedy quota. Korg has taken on the role of being a "bard" of sorts for Thor's adventures and exploits as he serves as the film's unofficial narrator. He recaps and summarizes what Thor has been up to since we have seen him last while offering Cliff Notes on Thor's previous relationship with Jane Foster that occurred entirely off-camera - much to many fans' dismay.

I can't remember if it was Avengers: Age of Ultron or Thor: Ragnarok when they first mentioned that he and Jane had separated/broken up but it felt pretty hollow that it happened off-screen. It was reminiscent of how lazily the MCU handled Pepper Potts and Tony Starks' relationship when Gwyneth Paltrow was trying to distance herself from the MCU until reprising the role for her last few appearances.

The only noteworthy thing that this film does for Korg is to establish his sexual identity as part of the LGBTQ+ community after explaining to Valkyrie how his alien race reproduces. Outside of that, we learn that he's technically "unkillable" as the only thing on his body that is sentient is his face. As long as that part of his body survives, he is able to "grow" another body as long as he has enough time to do so.

Zeus (Russell Crowe) and the hierarchy of Gods & Deities

In terms of biggest clusterfucks and a complete waste of a character introduction, I have to say that award goes to Zeus and the hierarchy of gods and deities in this film. I remember hearing in interviews that the team behind Moon Knight were told to remove any and all possible references to Gorr the God Butcher in their Disney+ series and I am utterly confused about that decision even more when there was a place for other Egyptian gods in Zeus' "hiding place" as Bast (Wakandan Panther-God; portrayed here by Akosia Sabet) and the Olympian god Dionysus (portrayed by Simon Russell Beale) were among the other gods seen in that scene. It wouldn't have killed them to have Khonshu sitting among those gods for a minor cameo.

It just came off as a massive waste to introduce the MCU's hierarchy of gods in this manner when it was going to be presented as a massive joke. The bigger slap to the face was seeing that two Celestials were in attendance as well. After everything that was setup and established about the Celestials in The Eternals, you would think that they would take a few minutes and elaborate on that despite how that film garnered a mixed reaction.

Hercules (portrayed by Brett Goldstein in a post-credit teaser)

I'm not even going to sugar coat this... I thought this cameo/inclusion was a complete waste of mid-credits teaser. I know that I shouldn't be surprised given the subject manner and the fact that his father was in this film to boot, but I can't fathom any notion nor idea why anyone would be excited to see this character in the MCU.

I guess they could do their "frienemies" angle in a possible sequel that sees Hercules fighting Thor as his enemy first to "avenge" his father Zeus, only for them to become dude bros or rather frat boy-like friends after the fact against a common threat. I honestly don't see how that is going to work with Thor's new responsibilities as a parent now, but that's besides the point as obviously the writers haven't thought this through yet either.

Story

As previously mentioned, both Gorr the God Butcher and the Mighty Thor's origins in this film would have benefited from more screen time. I don't understand why this is one of the shortest MCU films in recent memory when it could have used another hour to iron out a lot of the finer details in this narrative.

My biggest issue with this film's story was essentially turning Eternity into a huge "Make a Wish" MacGuffin that the heroes are desperately trying to stop Gorr from getting access to when this was an entity that has not been referenced nor brought at any time until now when it would have solved a lot of prior problems if the characters in this universe had knowledge of Eternity's existence. It blows my mind that the Marvel Cinematic Universe, namely Kevin Feige himself, would introduce a character that powerful in terms of scale in their hierarchy of gods, deities, and omniscient beings in their continuity from comic book lore and just carelessly squander it on a simple role like that here. That decision confuses the hell out of me, especially in the wake of Eternals, no matter what you thought of that film. The MCU went out of their way to explain the higher tier of omniscient beings in their universe at play, but here it's handled carelessly and lazily - mostly as a joke.

That's a major problem to me, especially when you want to honor a lot of the serious life themes in this film, such as cancer and the religious metaphors to one having and losing faith in a higher power(s), but instead presents them as sidebar components to in a childish comedy. The decision-making for this film's plot makes me question where Taika Waititi's priorities were at in terms of directing this film with his own "vision". As far as I'm concerned, this film gives off a muddy vision...

There are a lot of head scratching moments in this film that really don't make sense that aren't explained at all:

How are there so many Asgardians still alive when we saw Thanos and the rest of the Black Order slaughter them at the start of Avengers: Infinity War? There weren't many that escaped the destruction of Asgard following Surtur and Hela's catalysmic battle in the finale of Thor: Ragnarok to begin with. Not to mention that we only saw Heimdall teleport the Hulk away and not anyone else to escape Thanos' wrath. Then the Guardians only picked up Thor out of the wreckage of their destroyed ship, so yeah.

Speaking of Heimdall, who knew he had a wife and son at this point? And they survived somehow!? Since when? And why wasn't this brought up before now?

If Eternity can grant the wish of anyone who seeks her out, then why did Thanos go through all of the trouble of gathering the Infinity Stones? That whole 'Make a Wish' dynamic seems a lot more plausible and less work than acquiring all six Infinity Stones. Additionally, how did Gorr acquire this knowledge of Eternity's existence? Was it derived from the Necrosword itself or was it blurted out by one of the many lesser gods that Gorr was slaughtering left and right off-screen? That's a major detail that would have been highly beneficial to see where it came from.

Those aren't the only inconsistencies either as there are MANY more questions that aren't answered by the time the credits roll.

Music

Whereas Stranger Things gave a boom in popularity (or rather resurgence) to Kate Bush after her "Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God)" was heavily featured in Season 4 this summer, Thor: Love and Thunder will have a similar effect on Guns N' Roses for featuring several of their songs in this film, including "Sweet Child O' Mine," "Welcome to the Jungle," "Paradise City," and "November Rain" (ABBA and Enya are also on the soundtrack).

Don't get me wrong - that's not necessarily a bad thing either in both cases.

Closing Thoughts

I came out of viewing Thor: Love and Thunder the same way I came out of previous three films - mildly entertained, but not overly enthusiastic about seeing more of this character. This is a film that feels strongly geared towards children - and boy, did the cast get a lot of their own real-life children involved here in terms of casting. At the same time, it is a film that is coasting off the success that made Thor: Ragnarok a success in the eyes of a lot of people. It goes all in on the comedy; at many times to this film's detriment, especially in scenes where this film would have benefited from a much more serious tone rather than setting up the next one-liner or gag in the following scene.

This film's final battle earned the biggest eye roll that I could give any of these MCU films in the theater and I'm usually pretty forgiving when it comes to this stuff than most people, but that moment where Thor granted all of those kidnapped/captured children (armed with random junk they picked up off the floor in Eternity's temple) the power of Thor was just fucking stupid. You're telling me that Thor couldn't call the Guardians back and give them the power of Thor for a few minutes? Then again, that would've completely stolen the thunder from Jane's noble sacrifice, but still, there had to be something better than the option that we got here.

The extremely powerful character, known as Singularity, as she appears in the A-Force comics.

A lot of fans online have their own theories circulating about who or what Love really is. From my understanding, she's a new character created for the MCU as Gorr's children were all dead in the comics, so this is another instance of Kevin Feige taking creative liberties with the source material.

That being said, there's an interesting take that is going around that pitches the idea of Love being the MCU equivalent of the A-Force character known as Singularity who was introduced during Secret Wars/Battleworld event. I honestly could buy into this being the case with that character as she's a character that could benefit highly (a phrase that I know that I have used a lot in this review...) with a total revamp/rewritten origin to her powers and backstory.

Let's not forget that I'm more inclined to believe that Secret Wars/Battleworld is where the MCU is heading next after introducing the Multiverse (properly this time...) in Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness and the concept of incursions. They wouldn't be tossing around those concepts and terms carelessly if it wasn't going to amount to something later on.

Speaking of where the MCU is going next, I have seen a lot of people bring this up and I'm inclined to agree but Marvel Studios needs to establish a big bad for this Phase sooner more than later as it's getting harder and harder to keep caring about some of these films that's coming out, especially when you're not left with anything to look forward to in the post-credit teasers. This film did the same thing that both The Eternals and Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness did before it, revealing a new character (that only savvy comic book fans will know recognize) that they cast out of the blue for a future project/sequel that we have no fathomable idea when it is going to come out or ever come to fruition. I miss the days where the post-credit scenes would tease what's coming next in the MCU in terms of releases - not promoting sequels that we probably won't see until 3-5 years later, if ever.

Watch It or Don't Bother?

If you enjoyed the comedy and silliness of Thor: Ragnarok, then go out of your way to check this out as this film is more of the same - for better or worse. For everyone else, I suggest waiting until this hits Disney+ in a few more months. Fans of the Mighty Thor comic book storyline by Jason Aaron, I think your experience may vary too depending on how much you are willing to forgive in terms of this very condensed (read: rushed) live-action adaptation of that narrative. As much as I enjoyed what we were given with the live-action debut of the Mighty Thor, I can't say that I was over the moon about this film as a whole. There's far too many missed opportunities and potential for greatness left on the table at the expense of this film's overreliance on comedy.

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