Thor: Ragnarok
The god of thunder is back! *Cue Led Zepplin's Immigrant song*.
Okay, it's an MCU movie. You know the framework. It's how these films are dressed up that distinguish them, and this stands out with its humor. Yes, this franchise is generally funny (esp once Joss Whedon got involved), but the way that Taika Waititi brings in the effortless laughs is in a super league of its own. Unlike its sister movies, this one relied a lot on improv, and as we learned in Ghostbusters, Chris Hemsworth can bring the funny.
Something else that hasn't been talked about too much that I wanna highlight is the way that Waititi involved the indigenous Australian people and culture where the movie was shot. The single thing that I love most from what I've read is that he approached these people for their permission, and together they held ceremonies to kick off the filming with their blessing. He also hired many of them to work on the film, and much of the production design and costumes were inspired by their culture. I'm not doing this subject much justice in my description, but I encourage you to do some light Googling to learn more. It's really admirable, and I feel like this was a huge factor in this movie's success.
With the later Marvel films, one thing that's kept me at rapt attention is the new characters introduced. Ragnarok introduced a slew of new characters, but I think I've found my new favorite. I need to be Tessa Thompson's Valkyrie when I grow up. I can't even explain how much I loved her and all the girl power she stands for. If you take nothign else from this write up, your takeaway should be go see this movie for her. Besides her, there was Waititi as Korg being endearing, Cate Blanchett as Hela being bad ass, and Jeff Goldblum as the Grandmaster being Jeff Goldblum.
The movie did fall into a lot of the same MCU pitfalls. They still haven't quite figured out their villain problem. So while Cate Blanchett gave it everything and was incredible to watch, her character still seemed underwhelming. And yeah, the plot itself wasn't anything too special (although at least it wasn't a Macguffin plot). But none of those shortcomings mattered because the movie was thoroughly entertaining, and it excelled where it mattered
Thor: Ragnarok - \m/ \m/ \m/ \m/
Okay, it's an MCU movie. You know the framework. It's how these films are dressed up that distinguish them, and this stands out with its humor. Yes, this franchise is generally funny (esp once Joss Whedon got involved), but the way that Taika Waititi brings in the effortless laughs is in a super league of its own. Unlike its sister movies, this one relied a lot on improv, and as we learned in Ghostbusters, Chris Hemsworth can bring the funny.
Something else that hasn't been talked about too much that I wanna highlight is the way that Waititi involved the indigenous Australian people and culture where the movie was shot. The single thing that I love most from what I've read is that he approached these people for their permission, and together they held ceremonies to kick off the filming with their blessing. He also hired many of them to work on the film, and much of the production design and costumes were inspired by their culture. I'm not doing this subject much justice in my description, but I encourage you to do some light Googling to learn more. It's really admirable, and I feel like this was a huge factor in this movie's success.
With the later Marvel films, one thing that's kept me at rapt attention is the new characters introduced. Ragnarok introduced a slew of new characters, but I think I've found my new favorite. I need to be Tessa Thompson's Valkyrie when I grow up. I can't even explain how much I loved her and all the girl power she stands for. If you take nothign else from this write up, your takeaway should be go see this movie for her. Besides her, there was Waititi as Korg being endearing, Cate Blanchett as Hela being bad ass, and Jeff Goldblum as the Grandmaster being Jeff Goldblum.
The movie did fall into a lot of the same MCU pitfalls. They still haven't quite figured out their villain problem. So while Cate Blanchett gave it everything and was incredible to watch, her character still seemed underwhelming. And yeah, the plot itself wasn't anything too special (although at least it wasn't a Macguffin plot). But none of those shortcomings mattered because the movie was thoroughly entertaining, and it excelled where it mattered
Thor: Ragnarok - \m/ \m/ \m/ \m/