Thor: Love and Thunder – A Marvel mediocrity
By Laura Monaghan
On behalf of the Curieux editorial team, I’d like to thank Lucy Robson and Dendy Cinemas for hosting a wonderful screening of the latest Marvel release, Thor: Love and Thunder, and for inviting Curieux to review the film.
**SPOILERS**
There’s a certain kind of magic embedded into Marvel films. One that entices people from all ages and cultures. Perhaps it’s their flawed protagonists with humanistic values that make people feel like they too, could be a hero. Or maybe, it’s down to damned good actors and immaculate filmmaking.
Regardless, you enter the cinema expecting something electric, something that has you riding on the edge of your seat right until the final credits roll (every Marvel fan knows exactly what I’m talking about). That’s exactly the kind of mindset I held when shovelling popcorn during the ads, waiting for Thor: Love and Thunder to start. But by the end? Let’s just say that with the biggest budget ever given to a Thor film, $250 million USD, as well as boasting a fair amount of much-loved actors, Thor: Love and Thunder should’ve been way more than an average 6.5/10.
The film follows Thor on his quest for inner peace after losing pretty much everyone he holds dear. Though not everyone, as old flame Jane Foster finds herself drawn back into Thor’s life in more ways than one. It’s with good timing too, as Gorr, the God Butcher seeks to rid the world of all its gods.
In terms of the storyline, there was far too much going on which resulted in a plot that felt rushed and shallow. The audience was initially introduced to the film’s antagonist, Gorr, and his motivation behind wanting to kill all gods. However, then the film goes into recapping Thor’s recent tragedies and then his redemption with unnecessary detail, including a scene with the Guardians of the Galaxy characters which does nothing to add to the plot. If it were anything other than a Marvel film, sure, maybe then a lengthy recap would have been necessary. But it is a Marvel film, and most people know enough about their previous films for the recap to have been no longer than about 10-15 seconds. What’s more, is that because of the crowded plot, a lot of the scenes that should have plucked the audience’s heartstrings ended up feeling superficial or downright unrealistic. Take one of the final scenes where Gorr’s daughter (after being brought back to life shortly before his death) decides to join Thor, fighting bad guys and eating his panflaps. What recently orphaned child wants to live with the man that fought against her father? Even if he is ridiculously handsome and charismatic.
Alongside the rushed plot, Thor: Love and Thunder boasted some great additional actors alongside Chris Hemsworth such as Christian Bale, Luke Hemsworth, Matt Damon, and Melissa McCarthy. However, the acting by some of these actors were very hit or miss. Christian Bale, acting as Gorr, was unreal. He seemed to sink into the character and really played the role of antagonist effortlessly. However, Natalie Portman, in her role as Jane Foster, really seemed to do her character an injustice in this film. Portman came of quite discombobulated and cringy in her character, which may have had something to do with the high amount of unusual comedic elements introduced by director, Taika Waititi.
This leads me to one of the greatest downfalls of this film, the humour. 80% of the jokes used in Thor: Love and Thunder were cheap and stale. Take the inclusion of shrieking goats which really only amused the audience the first and maybe second time. Or Portman’s continual cringe-worthy attempts at discovering a superhero catch phrase and the weird love triangle between Thor’s old hammer and new axe. One of the only redeeming comedic elements were Korg’s occasional commentary which were voiced by Waititi himself.
Overall, aside from some fantastic CGI visual effects (which we honestly should expect from any Marvel film nowadays) such as the shadows that Gorr controlled through the Necro Sword, Thor: Love and Thunder surely wasn’t a film worthy of the Marvel title and fanfare.