Thor: Love and Thunder (Disney, PG-13)
There are a lot of reasons to be excited about the MCU right now. The Disney+ shows are in full swing, new movies are on the horizon, and Kevin Feige recently stated that the future of the MCU, including details for Phase 5 and a reveal of the next “Big Bad” would be revealed soon. I think it is safe to assume we will hear more near the end of this month as Comic Con approaches. Even with all of that, there are some who are growing fatigued by the extended format of the MCU now. While I myself am thrilled to consume all of the superhero content they can throw at me, I can easily see how the constant drip can get tiresome. It’s also no longer relegated to simply a content overload, it has rapidly become a concept overload. WandaVision introduced us to altered reality, Loki introduced us to the Time Variance Authority and alternate timelines, Spider-Man: No Way Home and Doctor Strange: Multiverse of Madness introduced us to alternate universes. For a saga of films that has existed for nearly 15 years, in the last year and a half alone our perception of what the MCU could entail has been expanded tenfold. With this comes risk. How could you scale something so quickly without risk? But more than just risk, as a viewer, you are being asked to keep track of more. It should come as no small comfort then, to know that Thor: Love and Thunder is one of the most digestible, fun, and easy to approach since Black Panther.
Thor, as a character, has one of the most incredible character arcs in the MCU. Starting with the prideful, pugilistic, boy we meet in his first film, all the way to the humble, aloof, man we meet in the first moments of this most recent film. As a character he has experienced the most loss of all of our original Avengers. While Cap and Tony are no longer with us, Thor has lost almost everything and keeps trudging forward. His mother was killed by a dark elf assassin, his father died on a cliff side, he has lost his brother three times, his home, Asgard, was destroyed by Surtr and Hela, he lost his friends to Hela as well, and who could forget Heimdall’s last moments? Point being, Thor has lost nearly everyone that we met in his first film. He’s lost two of his Avengers comrades as well. If you had told me after viewing Thor that I would grow to like him more than most of the other Marvel characters I would have scoffed, surely. But now, after watching Thor: Love and Thunder I would campaign that, of the muscly Marvel bruisers, Thor is the most complex and interesting hero of them all.
If you will remember, the last time we saw the Asgardian Thunder God he was in the company of the Guardians of the Galaxy, departing New Asgard (Tonsberg) in the aftermath of Endgame. We pick up Odinson’s story shortly after that point. Our hero is lost and meandering, having come to grips with the fact that he has lost so much he cared for Thor wants to find a more fulfilling purpose. How does one do that though? Without much delay we come across Thor’s old flame, the intrepid Jane Foster. We haven’t seen her, in full form, since Thor: Dark World, a movie I will always defend as actually very good, haters be damned. In the interest of protecting as many plot details as possible, I am going to avoid detailing why Jane’s story is important to this film outside of pointing out that she somehow gains control of Mjolnir, Thor’s legendary hammer, and coming to understand how she came into possession of the hammer is both very funny and deeply saddening. Natalie Portman was always a welcome addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, therefore I can not understate how good it feels to have her back. She brings a lot to every project she lends her talent to. Thor: Love and Thunder is certainly made better by her presence. I also love when award winning actors and actresses make their way into the MCU. There’s this ongoing joke in “film Hollywood” that the Marvel movies are nothing more than roller coaster theme park rides. Elite filmmakers, or at least those who feel to have some kind of authoritative artistic gavel to wield, who like to downplay that millions of people love these movies. Few things make me more frustrated than artistic gatekeeping. It’s meaningless, and its practice works only to make art meaningless. Soapbox aside, when performers like Natalie Portman, Oscar Isaac, Ethen Hawke, and Christian Bale start to make their way into comic book movies, there are reasons to get excited. These are people who all hold the cache to be able to turn down projects. When they choose to participate we should all pay attention.
More on the subject, Christian Bale’s Gorr the God Butcher is a phenomenal Marvel villain. Gorr is one of those characters that, like my favorite band Coheed and Cambria, doesn’t have a huge following, but those familiar are deeply loyal fans. A survivor of a horrifically brutal planet that’s conditions wiped out its population, Gorr was a once devout follower of his people’s god, but when that god did nothing to spare his people and family, decides that the gods aren’t worth it. It’s a straightforward enough motivation, but the respect that Love and Thunder does his story is endearing and better than I could have hoped for. Marvel fans know and love director Taika Waititi, Christian Bale fans love Christian Bale, still, his performance as Gorr the God Butcher is chilling, resonant, and deeply moving. I remember watching the first episode of Moon Knight and thinking about how lucky we were to be getting Oscar and Ethan in a Marvel project. The same thought punctuated every scene with Bale in this movie. Each little performance prompted a, “man…I can’t believe Christian Bale is in a Marvel movie!” For a franchise that is 25+ movies and 6 shows in, he is by far in the top 5 for villains.
Where the MCU is diving into interdimensionality and time travel, Thor: Love and Thunder is content to tell you a contained story. It is still a story that makes big revelations. Omnipotence City and the parliament of pantheons is a wild thing to behold. Russell Crowe gives us a tremendously twisted look at Zeus, the most capricious and narcissistic god of the Greek pantheon. One that has you investigate Gorr’s mission to destroy all the gods in a different perspective. Truly, If Gorr was a villain in the first two Thor movies, he would have been fighting against what Thor was. Now, after we have traveled beside Thor for more than a decade, it’s hard to not feel Thor agrees with Gorr in a way. All of this adds to a truly involving and convincing conflict between beings who have been wronged by the gods in different but essentially similar ways. Gorr’s interrogation of this similarity is scathing and immediately startling. It’s genuinely hard to point at where he is wrong.
Thor: Love and Thunder is a glorious romp through the galaxy as our heroes race against the clock to stop Gorr’s machinations. Valkyrie and Jane Foster is a dynamic to die for, Korg is always great, and Thor’s demons eat away delectably at his strong facade. In this phase immediately following the end of the Infinity Saga, the MCU has been content to ask its heroes if they are happy. Who would think that such an innocent question could be so painful when you take the time to think of it? It’s a deeply personal question answered over the course of a surprisingly deep and personal movie. One that will make you question your preconceived notions about the gods and their validity as protectors of their faithful. Bring your whole heart to this one, just don’t expect to walk away with it in one piece. Also, stick around for both post credits scenes. The first is an incredible hint at what’s next for Thor and had me screaming in my seat, the second is an incredibly touching look at where Thor could go in the future, and it ties the perfect bow on the film. Finally, the moment you realize why this movie is called Love and Thunder, is a beautiful and touching moment.
~Caleb