Thor and his Asgardian friends are not my favorite denizens of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. And while I am not a religious guy, the notion of extra-terrestrial gods being part of our great cosmos is, when I sit and think about it, hard for me to accept, and faintly blasphemous. Well let me tell you, this movie takes that feeling and pile-drives it into full-fledged heresy, especially during one particularly odd sequence in Omnipotence City. Plus, there’s Gorr, the God Butcher, the new villain. Thank goodness that most of the movie does not take all this god-nonsense all that seriously; much of the goings-on is comedic or adventuresome. That is due to the director, Taika Waititi, who previously made the highly comedic Thor: Ragnarok several years ago, a film I have come to enjoy quite a bit since my first pallid viewing and two-and-a-half star review.
Taika Waititi’s film is a whole lot darker than Ragnarok, what with Gorr slaying gods left and right, children being spirited off to the Shadow Realm, a Necrosword, cancer, shadow monsters and such. But this story also features the return of Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), former girlfriend of Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and the love of his life. The fact that Jane now controls Thor’s hammer knocks him off-stride yet makes her even more alluring to him. Their rekindling romance is at the heart of the film, a nice counterpoint to the rampage that Gorr embarks upon (with some justification).
Because so little of this has anything to do with our contemporary reality I feel very disconnected from it; its artificiality is extremely high, especially on the tiny planet where Thor and company take on Gorr and his slithery shadow monsters. Much of the time I just didn’t care, a hallmark of fantasy film viewing when they cannot keep my attention. Plus, Gorr (Christian Bale) is given such strong motivation to go on his rampage that I felt like cheering him on at least some of the time. And then there is the Omnipotence City sequence, which definitely captured my attention, but not in a good way. Zeus (Russell Crowe) makes an appearance, and it is not a happy one.
If not for the humor that snakes its insidious way through this serpentine story I would have been very unimpressed. But director Waititi knows how to work his audience and the film is generally enjoyable even when it is stodgy and stupefying. It also reinforces the importance of love over everything else, a notion I heartily endorse. The ending makes a lot of thematic sense even though it is bound to disappoint those awaiting a final thunderous climax. The Guardians of the Galaxy appear early on in the story; they tend to some distress calls while Thor and company respond to Gorr. And why does Thor have two eyes again? What did I miss? ☆ ☆. 24 July 2022.