Thor: Love and Thunder

You go to Thor: Love and Thunder for a good time, and it provides.  It's formulaic, and not all that important in the grand scheme of its own Cinematic Universe, but it gives you what you want.  There's a comfort in that.  Besides, you should know what you're getting by now.  And if you're not a fan, why are you even still watching these movies by this point?

The movie does give us an interesting and tragic villain in the form of the alien Gorr, played by an unrecognizable and effective Christian Bale.  After watching his people and own daughter die, he renounces the gods that he previously worshiped, and goes on a rampage against them with the aid of a cursed weapon called the Necrosword.  Taking on the title "the God Butcher", he vows to destroy all of the gods, which leads him to kidnap the children of New Asgard.  Bale brings a certain sympathy and pathos to his role, and honestly, I kind of wish the movie had used him a bit more, as his character brings about some of the best visuals in the film when he leads Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and his friends into the Shadow Realm.  

But, this is Thor's movie, and director and co-writer Taika Waititi (returning from Thor: Ragnarok) does not let us forget it.  We find the god where we left him, traveling with the Guardians of the Galaxy, along with his alien rock friend, Korg (voiced by Waititi).  The Guardians have grown tired of Thor's presence on their ship and on the battlefield, so they are eager to ditch him when they pick up a distress signal regarding the gods being in danger, and let him investigate on his own.  Not only does Thor learn about Gorr's plot to destroy all the gods, but he is also reunited with his former lover, Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), who has gone through a lot herself since the last time he saw her.  Stricken with terminal cancer, she has since turned to magical means to hopefully heal herself, and is now wielding Thor's previous hammer weapon, which has granted her his armor and abilities.  

It's great to see Hemsworth and Portman together as these characters, and the movie does have a lot of fun with them.  In the end, fun is all that this movie is aiming for, as the plot matters little here, and there's not much that allows for character building.  You want special effects, some good laughs, and likable characters, and you get it here.  Does this make Thor: Love and Thunder seem a bit inconsequential?  Probably.  It's light weight overall, and there are no real big revelations that seem like they will lead to bigger things in later installments in the Universe.  But as a simple, stand-alone comedic action film, it works.  I believe that this is what Waititi was going for, and he's right for thinking that Marvel needs films like this as much as it needs the eventful blockbusters that it turns out.

This is one of those movies I probably won't think back on much, but I'm still glad I saw, because I enjoyed it as it was playing out.  It's a new installment with characters we have grown to love, and it understands what makes these people great, so why wouldn't it work?  At the very least, it's one of the few big franchise movies we're getting this summer that's not a nostalgic throwback.  Even if I wish the movie did go even deeper into the relationship between Thor and Jane, or think that the villain Gorr needed a bit more screen time, I'm recommending this as escapism.  It's something you watch in an air conditioned theater on a hot day, and just forget the world for just under two hours.  The fact that it doesn't seem very bloated and flows well is also a plus, compared to some other blockbusters.

At the very least, Thor does not overwhelm itself with CG (though there's plenty of it here), and has a light and loose tone to it that some other Marvel films don't have.  Even the final battle seems a bit smaller in scale than the usual chaos we get in these movies, which is a nice change of pace.  Waititi's approach of emphasizing verbal and physical comedy might not sit well with some, but it works for me.

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