Thor Ragnarok
Directed By: Taika Waititi
Grade: A-
Thor Ragnarok was one of my most anticipated films of the year. It was kind of a strange one for me though. I liked the movie but I didn’t really appreciate how good it was until that ending. I’ve seen a couple of people say this movie did for Thor what Winter Soldier did for Captain America and that’s really true.
Spoilers below. Though I try to keep it vague…
After the Goddess of Death is unleashed from her imprisonment she immediately throws Thor and Loki to the wind and takes over Asgard. As seen in the previews Thor winds up on a backwater “dump” planet forced to fight Hulk whose been the big green guy for quiet a while now.
The movie is as promised funny. There’s a lot of great back and forth between Thor and his troublesome brother and Hulk/Banner.
The stuff with Loki is especially good because we’ve seen this brother relationship for so long and know all the history that gets mined her. I really enjoyed Hiddleston again. (Considering the brotherly ending and one thing that was at least implied Loki just moved up my list of likely deaths in Infinity War.)
The movie is also bright and colorful in a way that reminded me of Guardians and works perfectly with Thor.
Everyone did a great job with their roles. Cate Blanchett definitely stood out. The villain usually does. She had a lot of exposition in some cases but she has such a great voice and they gave Hela such a great look I could have listened to her more. (Actual nitpick- I wish we had seen more of her.)
I didn’t like Tessa Thompson at all in Westworld but she’s fine as the Valkyrie. Her character was kind of predictable though.
To be honest I wasn’t big on a lot of the Hulk stuff. Especially a lot of the jokey stuff when he was the big green guy. But then again I’m not familiar with Planet Hulk or particular enthralled with the character and I know a lot of people loved it. Even when he switched back to Banner it almost seemed weirdly too jokey considering what Bruce had been through. I also felt like the Doctor Strange cameo, while important in the film, fell a little flat.
I did enjoy Karl Urban as Scurge. Since I wasn’t familiar with his character either I appreciated the ending and he’s a great actor so he could totally pull it off without many lines. Idris Elba was great as Heimdall. I kind of felt like he could have been in it more to- but then that probably wouldn’t have turned out well for him.
Speaking of the ending considering how funny this movie was I was surprised with how much character growth we really got for Thor. Which added to my appreciation of the overall film a great deal. The battle with Hela cost him and we see real consequences for him and everyone at the end.
So yeah in the end Thor Ragnarok is beautifully directed and acted, truly funny but also a great character piece. I just hope when we see Thor again in Infinity War they continued long these lines.
Superficially… I much prefer the short hair!
Recommend: Yes.