After languishing as the dark horse of the main four Avengers of the MCU, Thor seems to have found a firm footing and identity thanks to director Taika Waititi. Namely, that he is the comic relief of the team. This has admittedly been a thing with him since the Kenneth Branagh film, but with Taika’s unique brand of social cringe, it effectively smoothed itself out and made for a high point of the already-impressive Phase Three with Thor: Ragnarok. Naturally, much like Christopher McQuarrie sticking around for the more recent Mission: Impossible films, bringing him back for another trip with the space Viking is a good move. And sure enough, it’s most certainly a Taika Waititi film… although I wouldn’t particularly blame certain audiences for wishing it was more than that.
So, after hearing about how a large amount of the material for this film was taken out of a specific era of the original comic books (namely, the seven-year run by Jason Aaron, who is credited as a creative consultant for this film), I went ahead and read through the whole thing and… um… it completely changed my perspective on the character of Thor Odinson. Like, it is some of the most awesome shit I’ve ever seen come out of Marvel, making this grand epic reaching from the days of a young Thor before he ever picked up the hammer, to the end of the universe where King Thor stands as Earth’s last protector. It’s up there with the Walt Simonson era in terms of essential reading for those interested in getting the character, and a decidedly metal-as-fuck read in its own right.
Naturally, with my unexpected amount of love for the source material, I was initially worried that this film wouldn’t measure up. But that’s part of the problem with these kinds of adaptations: Some things only work in certain mediums, and even with the advances that have been made with cinema technology in recent years, I seriously doubt that anyone would be able to do a proper one-to-one adaptation of that story on the big screen. Like, maybe Denis Villeneuve could do it with a decade or two more experience, but otherwise, I’m putting that to the side for the now. Yes, the man who is in the middle of redefining cinematic space operas is still not enough to do this story full justice; this is how big we’re talking here. So, while I will make a few comparisons between the two in this review, I think the best way to approach this is as a Taika Waititi film first and foremost; he’s the one that made Thor movies worth watching, after all.
Chris Hemsworth as Thor is still as charming as ever, and being put into a decidedly screwball romantic situation for most of the film lets him become one with Waititi’s sense of humour, which remains a solid fit for him. Then there’s a returning Natalie Portman as the Mighty Thor, who also finds a new height within this franchise under Waititi’s direction, as she works very well both on her own terms and as part of the main team with Hemsworth’s Thor, Tessa Thompson’s Valkyrie, and Waititi’s Korg. To say nothing of how well Waititi and co-writer Jennifer Kaytin Robinson do with her character arc, managing to compress a lot of the tragic dimensions behind Jane Foster’s decision to be Thor and still making them resonate. Hell, at least in a couple of areas, I’d argue that this does better with her character than Aaron did.
Then there’s the big bad in Christian Bale’s Gorr the God Butcher… where the bulk of my disagreements come in. Bale himself is quite creepy-in-a-good-way, which fits with the snarling maltheist he’s been given, but he ends up being a bad fit for the more jocular atmosphere of the film overall. He represents a sizeable threat to Thor and all the other gods in this universe, as he should… but I dunno, something about the character design aims for something more black metal than the glam metal ‘let’s use every Guns ‘N’ Roses song we can get our hands on’ tone of the film. It kinda-sorta proving his point that the gods are dicks (personified by Russell Crowe and his nightmarish Grecian accent as Zeus) doesn’t help with that, managing to turn what was already a crucial plot point in the source material into one of the weaker showings of the MCU’s approach to villains thus far.
But again, that’s with me viewing this as an adaptation of Jason Aaron’s grand cosmic epic, which saw Thor not as a powerful hero that was worshipped as a god, but as a god (answering prayers, creating life, keeping the universe intact through sheer willpower, etc.). I mean, I’m pretty sure I’ve driven into the ground just how interested I am in superheroes as analogues for gods.
Here, the story is more emphatically about the romance between Thor and Jane Foster, taking one of the more immediate aspects of that run (Jane Foster becoming the Mighty Thor) and using that as the basis for Thor pining over past loves… as in both her and Mjolnir. In essence, it distils the grand statements on faith and belief in greater powers, presenting a simpler dichotomy: Hope vs. despair. Protecting loved ones vs. pledging revenge on their graves.
In that vein, the film does well once that focus becomes clear, as the chemistry between Hemsworth and Portman more than carries that romantic ideal. The quips are consistently funny, the fight scenes are cool (and thankfully maintain some of that metal energy that helped make the source material so badass), and while it didn’t really have a chance of standing up to its origins or even Thor: Ragnarok, it’s still a fun and colourful look at where the heavens and the stars meet in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It's good, but I wouldn’t say it’s all that special. I mean, for yarns about superheroes being on the same platform as gods, Eternals does a much better job.
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