“Thor: Love and Thunder” Brings Abundant Summer Superhero Fatigue
When you think of superhero fatigue, movies like Thor: Love and Thunder come to mind.
While not too terrible, it’s a movie that feels like it’s just spinning its wheels and moving the overall plot forward. With a lackluster script, flat characters, and a goofy ending, this ends up being a weak note in the Marvel symphony.
The premise this time is that a man named Gorr who has been wronged by his god is now obsessed with killing every god in the universe, including Thor. His new monicker is Gorr the God Butcher, and he uses a Necrosword that gives him the power to challenge the gods. While the premise has a “villain of the week” feel to it, Gorr’s character is elevated by Christian Bale’s performance -- which is the highlight of the whole movie. Bale’s take on Gorr makes for a very creepy and animated villain, and despite his basic backstory, he ends up being one of the most compelling Marvel villains in recent memory.
The shame is that the rest of the cast doesn’t do nearly as good of a job. Chris Hemsworth’s Thor is getting wackier in every movie, and his character looks like an unintentional confirmation of why Gorr hates gods. This allegory clearly draws parallels to the hubris of the wealthy and powerful in the real world, but the payoff makes it fall flat.
Natalie Portman also returns as Jane Foster who has stage 4 cancer and manages to reawaken Thor’s hammer, Mjolnir which turns her into Thor. The whole process feels rushed, and Jane’s cancer is just a timebomb for writing her out of the movies.
Portman does as good a job as she can with the script, but ends up being a one-dimensional character. It also feels like Jane Foster being so prominent in the story came at the cost of Valkyrie, who was a highlight of Thor Ragnarok and now feels completely unimportant.
Taika Waititi’s script comes as desperate for laughs. Every scene has to have some kind of gag or quip in it, and by now, that’s become a common complaint of a lot of Marvel movies. It’s particularly bad in this one, with characters like Korg and Thor himself feeling the need to attempt humor at every turn.
There are some jokes that work, but the ones that don’t are far greater. While I didn’t have high hopes for this film to begin with, I was still disappointed. Marvel’s fourth phase of movies has turned into a mixed bag with filler and no clear direction.
Author Bio:
Ulises Duenas is a contributing writer at Highbrow Magazine.
For Highbrow Magazine