Thor: Ragnarok review
Despite laughing at the trailer, I was going in to see this with a grudge. Yes, I understood with my head that they needed a new direction for Thor after ‘The Dark World’ and whatever was going on with him in ‘Age of Ultron’. It’s also been borne out to me by this film that Marvel phase whatever-it-is is going in a more cosmic, out-there direction. But did they have to cut Jane (and by extension Darcy)? I loved them! I had got invested in Jane/Thor, and as Bruce-Hulk were turning up in this, I was being denuded of Jane and Bruce talking science (there was a scene where wormholes were discussed that gave me a pang) and actually seeing Bruce meet Darcy.
Out of the cut, the film did entertain (not as much as GotG: 2), but I did have issues over the representation of women (there are only three speaking parts who appear more than once, IIRC), and although the tone is different, the familial stuff is not that revolutionary.
They basically said Jane dumped Thor. There was a twinge crossing his face when that was revealed but he was more cut up over his hammer getting destroyed. In-universe, I’m going to go with her dumping Thor because he kept dropping her to go off and be with the Avengers, but we all know that it’s because Marvel wanted to dump Natalie Portman. Silly Marvel.
Tessa Thompson (good, and apart from one scene, convincing with the accent) plays the functional alcoholic Asgardian warrior Valkyrie, doing a terrible job to forget what Hela did to her fellow warriors that time. She must be older than Thor and Loki, then, BTW. She’s introduced as a sidekick but also a potential love interest for Thor. After getting over her capturing him and selling him as a slave, he wants to impress her and they share a moment. (Although I noticed Thompson had sizzling chemistry with Hiddlestone in that one fight scene where Valkyrie thrashed Loki.)
May I now mention the question that was running through my brain throughout the film: where’s Sif? She was mentioned in Loki’s play (we’ll get to that), and then two of the Warriors Three turned up to be killed, then a third, and she was never with them. So, I thought she’d be stoking up the rebellion with Heimdall, right (even if being with the army that got destroyed seems like more her style.) But no. Nary a mention. So, I take it she wasn’t killed, but if she turns up on Agents of SHIELD with no explanation, I’m going to be all !?!? [ETA: I now know the actress was unavailable, but that still leaves questions regarding the character.]
And I mention Sif, because the existence of the Valkyrie changes our understanding of her, even if they’d been disbanded before her time. Also, Valkyrie is a more damaged, less honourable version of her (and not that far from Gamora, and so you’ve replaced a brainy scientist and her sarky side-kick with a Warrior Woman. See also Topaz, who is more of a Warrior Woman turned General who can still fight. And though I love Warrior Women, I want a bit of variety in types - although A1 on the ladies’ racial diversity.)
But! We do have Hela or Stag Beetle Head Goth!Cate Blanchett Baddie, which was one of the reasons I’ve wanted to see this film. Because it’s a female villain, and Blanchett uses that voice with its Galadriel echoes and that swagger very well. Turns out she’s the god of death (well, that was given away in the trailer), but she’s also Odin’s firstborn, got exiled for being a bit destructive, has issues with that, is more powerful in Asgard and probably more powerful than Thor. (Basically she’s Eurus to his Sherlock, Odin was Mycroft…and Loki is like ‘I thought I had issues….’)
For whoa this film is about Daddy issues. So, I inevitably spent the time that was going on wondering about where Frigga fitted in there. It’s never clear if Hela was Frigga’s daughter. I think it could be argued that she wasn’t, because Odin says Hela went too far, she says he changed and became more benevolent, and I’m wondering if that was because of Frigga.
The film doesn’t really deal with how this revelation changes Thor’s view of Odin. He dies (because Anthony Hopkins is old and they found a way to make Thor king that allowed him to still be an Avenger - Hopkins has a ball as Loki pretending to be Odin at the outset, and they do deal with that whole strand which was the big thing I wanted resolved after Thor 2. Odin then plays wise adviser who dies and then comes to give Thor ghostly advice.) What Hela said about the old ways of burying their dead at Asgard seems to undercut all the Valhalla mythologizing, but again, the film never deals with that - it makes it all about Thor and Loki.
For the most important relationship is between Thor and Loki. I know the film was trailed as a Thor and Hulk buddy movie, but that’s really a subplot. It all starts off with Thor returning to Asgard to find ‘Odin’ putting on a revisionist play about how Loki was misunderstood. Apart from cameos - I was going ‘is that Matt Damon?’ IMDb suggests yes, and Sam Neill is Odin, it’s very slashy.
But as Hela turns up (and is brought to Asgard because Loki is a coward) and they’re chucked to a crazy planet where slaves fight for the Games Master (Jeff Goldblum, who is brilliant. His look is what I think they were going for with DelToro’s Collector. His oddball Goldblum timing is perfect for this tone, although what I’d love is for him to get into the GotG films and work with James Gunn.) There Thor and Loki continue their issues from childhood days, and it’s funnier than ever, but not new! Still, Marvel is never going to let Loki go (oh, he’s the Moriarty in this set-piece then.)
I was bitterly disappointed that Hiddlestone and Cumberbatch exchanged one line. The interaction between Thor and Doctor Strange in the latter’s movie is picked up on and expanded upon amusingly here.
At times, it’s a real canter through everything.
It is definitely a reboot for Thor, and I suspect I’d have liked it more if they’d started like this. Thor is quippier. I think the audience is supposed to be all shocked that Hemsworth is funny, but I did see the Ghostbusters reboot. So… I liked the bits where Thor was smarter than you’d expect, because there were times he was monologuing, and although every time he bigged himself up as a hero I rolled my eyes, as I was meant to, he is, eventually heroic. He even gets a new look, with echoes of his dad’s.
The film also has fun with Hulk, who has ended up on this planet and become the Champion, with his own fans, until Thor turns up and…doesn’t beat him. I’d been wondering where Hulk’s conversational skills in the trailer had come from; it turns out Hulk had been Hulk for two years (well, according to Thor, on a planet where time acts funny). There was a running gag where Thor tried to calm him down using Nat’s patter, but it was seeing her that brought Bruce back to himself, and amid all the humour, there was a bit of tragedy about him possibly never being able to return to himself if the Hulk took over again. So, when Bruce Hulked out to fight a giant dog thing, it was a bit of a touching sacrifice.
A few other points: the director more than cameos as the hilarious voice of a wannabe revolutionary rock fighter (Korg takes his place in the heroic line-up at the end and should return). The references to Tony are funny. The Kiwi sensibility adds a certain something. It looks great - Thor’s new haircut works, although I thought the Valkyrie uniform was terrible. There is a shirtless Thor moment, so it’s not that much of a reboot, and equally Mark Ruffalo must have felt he had to work out. Karl Urban had fun, although his accent wasn’t entirely convincing and I didn’t care if Scourge had a redemptive moment. And for the god of thunder, Thor mainly uses lightning as his superpower.
It’s entertaining, but for all that it appears to be a slightly new direction for Thor, it’s not really. I hope Black Panther introduces a range of female characters and I hope Captain Marvel doesn’t have daddy issues.
This entry was originally posted at https://shallowness.dreamwidth.org/300740.html.
Out of the cut, the film did entertain (not as much as GotG: 2), but I did have issues over the representation of women (there are only three speaking parts who appear more than once, IIRC), and although the tone is different, the familial stuff is not that revolutionary.
They basically said Jane dumped Thor. There was a twinge crossing his face when that was revealed but he was more cut up over his hammer getting destroyed. In-universe, I’m going to go with her dumping Thor because he kept dropping her to go off and be with the Avengers, but we all know that it’s because Marvel wanted to dump Natalie Portman. Silly Marvel.
Tessa Thompson (good, and apart from one scene, convincing with the accent) plays the functional alcoholic Asgardian warrior Valkyrie, doing a terrible job to forget what Hela did to her fellow warriors that time. She must be older than Thor and Loki, then, BTW. She’s introduced as a sidekick but also a potential love interest for Thor. After getting over her capturing him and selling him as a slave, he wants to impress her and they share a moment. (Although I noticed Thompson had sizzling chemistry with Hiddlestone in that one fight scene where Valkyrie thrashed Loki.)
May I now mention the question that was running through my brain throughout the film: where’s Sif? She was mentioned in Loki’s play (we’ll get to that), and then two of the Warriors Three turned up to be killed, then a third, and she was never with them. So, I thought she’d be stoking up the rebellion with Heimdall, right (even if being with the army that got destroyed seems like more her style.) But no. Nary a mention. So, I take it she wasn’t killed, but if she turns up on Agents of SHIELD with no explanation, I’m going to be all !?!? [ETA: I now know the actress was unavailable, but that still leaves questions regarding the character.]
And I mention Sif, because the existence of the Valkyrie changes our understanding of her, even if they’d been disbanded before her time. Also, Valkyrie is a more damaged, less honourable version of her (and not that far from Gamora, and so you’ve replaced a brainy scientist and her sarky side-kick with a Warrior Woman. See also Topaz, who is more of a Warrior Woman turned General who can still fight. And though I love Warrior Women, I want a bit of variety in types - although A1 on the ladies’ racial diversity.)
But! We do have Hela or Stag Beetle Head Goth!Cate Blanchett Baddie, which was one of the reasons I’ve wanted to see this film. Because it’s a female villain, and Blanchett uses that voice with its Galadriel echoes and that swagger very well. Turns out she’s the god of death (well, that was given away in the trailer), but she’s also Odin’s firstborn, got exiled for being a bit destructive, has issues with that, is more powerful in Asgard and probably more powerful than Thor. (Basically she’s Eurus to his Sherlock, Odin was Mycroft…and Loki is like ‘I thought I had issues….’)
For whoa this film is about Daddy issues. So, I inevitably spent the time that was going on wondering about where Frigga fitted in there. It’s never clear if Hela was Frigga’s daughter. I think it could be argued that she wasn’t, because Odin says Hela went too far, she says he changed and became more benevolent, and I’m wondering if that was because of Frigga.
The film doesn’t really deal with how this revelation changes Thor’s view of Odin. He dies (because Anthony Hopkins is old and they found a way to make Thor king that allowed him to still be an Avenger - Hopkins has a ball as Loki pretending to be Odin at the outset, and they do deal with that whole strand which was the big thing I wanted resolved after Thor 2. Odin then plays wise adviser who dies and then comes to give Thor ghostly advice.) What Hela said about the old ways of burying their dead at Asgard seems to undercut all the Valhalla mythologizing, but again, the film never deals with that - it makes it all about Thor and Loki.
For the most important relationship is between Thor and Loki. I know the film was trailed as a Thor and Hulk buddy movie, but that’s really a subplot. It all starts off with Thor returning to Asgard to find ‘Odin’ putting on a revisionist play about how Loki was misunderstood. Apart from cameos - I was going ‘is that Matt Damon?’ IMDb suggests yes, and Sam Neill is Odin, it’s very slashy.
But as Hela turns up (and is brought to Asgard because Loki is a coward) and they’re chucked to a crazy planet where slaves fight for the Games Master (Jeff Goldblum, who is brilliant. His look is what I think they were going for with DelToro’s Collector. His oddball Goldblum timing is perfect for this tone, although what I’d love is for him to get into the GotG films and work with James Gunn.) There Thor and Loki continue their issues from childhood days, and it’s funnier than ever, but not new! Still, Marvel is never going to let Loki go (oh, he’s the Moriarty in this set-piece then.)
I was bitterly disappointed that Hiddlestone and Cumberbatch exchanged one line. The interaction between Thor and Doctor Strange in the latter’s movie is picked up on and expanded upon amusingly here.
At times, it’s a real canter through everything.
It is definitely a reboot for Thor, and I suspect I’d have liked it more if they’d started like this. Thor is quippier. I think the audience is supposed to be all shocked that Hemsworth is funny, but I did see the Ghostbusters reboot. So… I liked the bits where Thor was smarter than you’d expect, because there were times he was monologuing, and although every time he bigged himself up as a hero I rolled my eyes, as I was meant to, he is, eventually heroic. He even gets a new look, with echoes of his dad’s.
The film also has fun with Hulk, who has ended up on this planet and become the Champion, with his own fans, until Thor turns up and…doesn’t beat him. I’d been wondering where Hulk’s conversational skills in the trailer had come from; it turns out Hulk had been Hulk for two years (well, according to Thor, on a planet where time acts funny). There was a running gag where Thor tried to calm him down using Nat’s patter, but it was seeing her that brought Bruce back to himself, and amid all the humour, there was a bit of tragedy about him possibly never being able to return to himself if the Hulk took over again. So, when Bruce Hulked out to fight a giant dog thing, it was a bit of a touching sacrifice.
A few other points: the director more than cameos as the hilarious voice of a wannabe revolutionary rock fighter (Korg takes his place in the heroic line-up at the end and should return). The references to Tony are funny. The Kiwi sensibility adds a certain something. It looks great - Thor’s new haircut works, although I thought the Valkyrie uniform was terrible. There is a shirtless Thor moment, so it’s not that much of a reboot, and equally Mark Ruffalo must have felt he had to work out. Karl Urban had fun, although his accent wasn’t entirely convincing and I didn’t care if Scourge had a redemptive moment. And for the god of thunder, Thor mainly uses lightning as his superpower.
It’s entertaining, but for all that it appears to be a slightly new direction for Thor, it’s not really. I hope Black Panther introduces a range of female characters and I hope Captain Marvel doesn’t have daddy issues.
This entry was originally posted at https://shallowness.dreamwidth.org/300740.html.