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Thor and Jane, gods and science, love and thunder. This fourth installment in the Thor franchise is very much a story of two sides that not always make sense, with the "god-like" Thor being burdened by human situations as he waltzes from battle to battle, while Jane (Natalie Portman) looks for "divine" solutions to more human issues. When the self-proclaimed God-butcher, Gorr (Christian Bale) threatens New Asgard, Thor and Jane have to find a way to make sense of each other to save the world.
Director and co-writer Taika Waititi brings the same level of absurd humor he brought to Ragnarok and then some. Unfortunately, not all of it makes sense. There seems to be a tonal dissonance between the often non-sensical flow of his direction and script, and the sometimes serious undertones of Gorr and his quest to eliminate all gods. I thought Bale did a pretty good job, but the seriousness of his character and his threat level sometimes felt suffocated by the barrage of absurd jokes and visual gags that Waititi throws at us.
Some of the humor does land and some of the moments work. I kinda liked Russell Crowe as the hedonist Zeus, and there are some jokes and moments that did make me laugh. But when you try to pair jokes about naked men and endlessly screaming goats, with the more serious themes of "killing our gods" or a character dying of cancer, the match is not always as harmonious as Thor and Jane's love is supposed to be.
I'm a big fan of Ragnarok, but I think there was a need for Waititi to tone down things a bit here. Instead, he seems to be loose while throwing everything but the kitchen sink. When it lands, it's fun; but when it doesn't, it just ends up feeling odd and in disfavor of the more serious tones of the script. I don't think it's a bad film at all, but the clash is evident. Different worlds, but somehow, it didn't always make sense.
Grade:
THOR: LOVE & THUNDER
(2022, Waititi)
(2022, Waititi)
"Let me tell you the legend of Thor and Jane. He was a God of Thunder and she, a woman of science. And although they were from different worlds, somehow, it just made sense. And together they embarked on a journey of love."
Thor and Jane, gods and science, love and thunder. This fourth installment in the Thor franchise is very much a story of two sides that not always make sense, with the "god-like" Thor being burdened by human situations as he waltzes from battle to battle, while Jane (Natalie Portman) looks for "divine" solutions to more human issues. When the self-proclaimed God-butcher, Gorr (Christian Bale) threatens New Asgard, Thor and Jane have to find a way to make sense of each other to save the world.
Director and co-writer Taika Waititi brings the same level of absurd humor he brought to Ragnarok and then some. Unfortunately, not all of it makes sense. There seems to be a tonal dissonance between the often non-sensical flow of his direction and script, and the sometimes serious undertones of Gorr and his quest to eliminate all gods. I thought Bale did a pretty good job, but the seriousness of his character and his threat level sometimes felt suffocated by the barrage of absurd jokes and visual gags that Waititi throws at us.
Some of the humor does land and some of the moments work. I kinda liked Russell Crowe as the hedonist Zeus, and there are some jokes and moments that did make me laugh. But when you try to pair jokes about naked men and endlessly screaming goats, with the more serious themes of "killing our gods" or a character dying of cancer, the match is not always as harmonious as Thor and Jane's love is supposed to be.
I'm a big fan of Ragnarok, but I think there was a need for Waititi to tone down things a bit here. Instead, he seems to be loose while throwing everything but the kitchen sink. When it lands, it's fun; but when it doesn't, it just ends up feeling odd and in disfavor of the more serious tones of the script. I don't think it's a bad film at all, but the clash is evident. Different worlds, but somehow, it didn't always make sense.
Grade: