Society Reviews

Marvel’s longest-running cinematic soap opera is here and two of the worst aspects of the Thor: The Dark World being Kat Dennings and Natalie Portman are back…Yay…

“Thor: Love & Thunder” begins after the events of Avengers: Endgame. Thor (Chris Hemsworth) has gotten back into shape after getting fat in the events of the last movie. Thor has teamed up with The Guardians of the Galaxy as they travel from planet to planet-saving its inhabitants. After receiving a distress signal from Sif (Jaimie Alexander), Thor is made aware of Gorr (Christian Bale), an ancient being that welds the Necrosword, a weapon with the power to kill Gods like Thor himself.

As Thor is looking for a way to stop Gorr, on Earth, Dr. Jane Foster (Portman) Thor’s ex-girlfriend, is dealing with the effects of Stage 4 Cancer. Unbeknownst to Thor, Jane has taken his old hammer Mjolnir, and has become “The Mighty Thor”. However, every time she uses the hammer to strengthen herself, her body is unable to fight off the cancer meaning that every time she uses it, the worse her health gets. Thor must team up with Jane and King Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson) to stop Gorr who plans on wiping out every God in the universe. 

The final act of the movie has an impressive black and white constant that works with the tone of the conclusion of the movie. Hemsworth shares a moment with his real-life daughter in the final scene of the movie which is touching if you know that is his daughter before watching the scene otherwise the scene borders on cringe if you are a casual viewer. 

The theme of this film nihilist in its worldview but also has strong themes that are Anti-God and anti-hero in its sentiment. While the storyline justifies a villain that has a hatred of Gods, the film goes a step further to tear down the idea of heroes and faith. Russell Crowe in the film has Zeus, a figure that is an inspiration to Thor and he is played as a complete joke.

Crowe’s cartoonish portrayal of Zeus is meant to further drive home the message that your heroes are not good people and that the “Gods” are awful people in their own right. There is a recurring theme in modern movies that leads to films tearing down established heroes in an attempt to rewrite the concept of heroism and this film is no different. 

Thor: Love and Thunder is all over the place. The opening act presents three different stories with three different tones and fails to mess any of them together for a coherent story. The film attempts to be a rom-com between Thor and Jane while Jane is dealing with the very serious reality of her cancer. The seriousness of Jane’s morality is snuffed throughout the film by Taika Waititi’s need to inject comedy where it is not needed (a trope that is unbearable in films such as Jojo Rabbit.

Chris Hemsworth has described Taika Waititi’s style as a director as “an inner child running wild” saying that Love and Thunder is the film a 7-Year-Old Would make”. This is the most accurate description of this movie in the worst way. 

The debate has raged since the creation of Jane Foster’s Thor in the recent adaption of the Marvel Comics about whether Jane can be a “Thor” in spite of the fact that Thor is the name of Odinson, not a mantle. The filmmakers don’t agree as the movie refers to Jane as “The Mighty Thor” and at one point turns a series of characters into “Thor” relegating the character to a series of powers that can be claimed by anyone. 

The film has a mountain of problems. Its reliance on Guns N’ Roses music, CGI that looks questionable for a movie budgeted at 250 million dollars, Thor needing to “find himself” again in his 4th movie in 11 years, but the most criminal aspect of this film is the fact that the titled character of Thor has become the worst aspect of his own movie. 

“Thor: Love and Thunder” is the worst MCU film not named Eternals. If you didn’t like Captain Marvel and Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings, this movie is far worse than both. 

1/5

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