Details: Released in 2017. Directed by Taika Waititi. Stars Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Cate Blanchett. Over two hours long.
Among Marvel’s movie properties, I think Thor is the franchise that they’ve had the hardest time figuring out how to approach. The last two films weren’t great, at least not as good or character redefining as Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Thor: Ragnarok takes the franchise in a different direction and does it mostly successfully. This new direction feels like they took Guardians of the Galaxy and mashed it with that comedic short clip where Thor moves in with Darryl the office worker. I’ll provide the clip below.
Thor: Ragnarok takes place after the events of Avengers: Age of Ultron. Thor has been searching the universe for information on the Infinity Stones and found mostly nothing. It is around this time where Hela, goddess of death invades Asgard and Thor is hurled to the distant world of Sakar. Thor must now assemble a new team of warriors to help him return to and save Asgard from this powerful new enemy.
This film is largely a comedy, deviating from the tone set by the last two Thor films. Arguably, the film is better for it. There were many times when the comedy went to far and it felt like they were fishing for jokes, but the comedy still mostly worked and I’m glad they added so much of it into the film. You can definitely feel how the financial success of Guardians of the Galaxy has impacted this movie.
There is also lots of action. If you are an action fan, you don’t have to worry about that. Plenty of fighting in this movie with many jokes peppered throughout the fight scenes.
The actors were fine. Comedy can be hard to portray, but Hemsworth is clearly in his element when portraying an arrogant, aloof, funny Thor. Hiddleston is great as Loki as her usually is. Jeff Goldblum… is Jeff Goldblum. He just plays himself, which he is what he’s always done. It’s still entertaining.
The music is also worth a mention. Like Guardians of the Galaxy, there’s lots of old rock music.
Visuals were great. The artistic direction was really interesting as we got to explore this new world of Sakar. Special effects were about as good as you’d expect from a Marvel movie.
Overall, it’s a fun, enjoyable movie with lots of laughs. It’s not particularly complex. There isn’t a depth of emotion. It’s a two-dimensional, straightforward science-fiction comedy about a character audiences are really familiar with. Additionally, there are two after credits scenes; one is during the credits while one occurs after the credits are over.
Score: 7/10
Muse Bank 