.
It is fair to compare this to Thor: Ragnarok, which is a better, “bigger” movie, with more plot lines interwoven, more characters, and definitely a more epic feel. When the news came out that Disney execs demanded Thor: Love and Thunder be cut down to two hours, one can only speculate if what was cut would have closed the gap between the two movies.
I am going to organize my thoughts by character:
Thor Odinson – Thor is definitely the lead character of the movie. I am a fan of “funny Thor,” I think Chris Hemsworth makes the “dumb but loveable” character appealing. I read a lot of the early Thor comics and to be honest, he was pretty bland and one-note. Comic book Thor was surrounded by characters more charismatic than himself, there was even a highly-entertaining side-feature called “Tales of Asgard” for awhile.
Thor has this ridiculous jape about the Asgardians having to eat their own children during a “dark” time in their past history. I admit, I laughed, although it was incredibly gratuitous and did not fit the tone of the scene in the slightest.
King Valkyrie – Tessa Thompson doesn’t get to do much in the movie, I have a feeling she was a victim of the heavy editing. I would have liked to have seen a little more of her when the story shifts over to Asgard for the first time.
Gorr the God Butcher – I was unimpressed with Gorr’s introduction. Too much humor, very little menace. During the rest of the movie, just fine. I think Christian Bale did a lot with very little to work with in the script. I needed to see more of Gorr killing some gods in act one to establish him as this powerful threat. Instead, I got a lot of “Yeah, that Gorr, he’s a dangerous dude, going to have to do something about him.” Gorr’s resolution is telegraphed, but I was satisfied with his motivations and his plan for meeting Eternity.
Jane Foster – I liked Natalie Portman throughout this movie, probably the strongest aspect of what Taika Waititi brought to the table. Her death scene was perfect, cradled by Thor as he held both a dying warrior and his love interest. Her battle scenes were very solid, and her non-Thor scenes re-introduced her well following her lengthy absence. Portman was another victim of the run time, as her acquistion of Mjolnir was cut down dramatically.
Korg – The comic relief from Thor: Ragnarok returns, and he bookends the movie talking to a group of kids, a little bit like Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome. Korg is not in the final battle sequence, because he’s gone to pieces in the middle of the movie.
Now let’s get to Russell Crowe as Zeus.
This looked so promising in the trailer, but watching it in the theater, it does start to drag quickly. Zeus’ self-indulgent grandiose introduction is supposed to be annoying, but it is too annoying. It grinds the pace of a movie to a halt (I am all for building in breathers because these movies are very fast-paced, but this was just ridiculous), all for the sake of a few sight gags and this lightning bolt weapon that doesn’t pay off in relation to its hype.
Circling back to what I wrote earlier, I never lost interest in the story, was satisfied with how it wrapped up. However, the big production budget did not translate onscreen, in my opinion, especially when compared to what Waititi did with his previous Thor movie. As I write this, worldwide box office sits at about $600M, still a long way to go before it gets above $800M, a total I think Marvel Studios would be much happier with.
