Thor: Ragnarok

Year: 2017
Director: Taika Waititi
Cast: Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Cate Blanchett, Jeff Goldblum, Tessa Thompson, Mark Ruffalo, Anthony Hopkins, Idris Elba, Karl Urban, Benedict Cumberbatch


Plot: Hela, the Goddess of Death, Odin's first born and Thor's sister, has returned to take over Asgard. Thor and Loki try to stop her, but they fail and end up on a distant planet called Sakaar, where the former becomes a prisoner of the Grandmaster and forced to fight in his arena against his champion, the incredible Hulk.


Review: After a dozen or so movies that have raked in big bucks, Marvel Studios must feel pretty confident. They probably also got tired of churning out film after film that some critics have deemed too indistinguishable from one another. So what does director Taika Waititi and his trio of writers do? They turn Thor into a comedy.

But wait. Isn't the MCU supposed to be light-hearted enough, compared to the dark tones of the DCEU and the convoluted mess of FOX's mutants? Apparently Waititi and company don't think so, and as a result, Thor: Ragnarok has become a "one joke per minute" film. I don't think there was a time in the movie where a joke wasn't thrown for more than 2 minutes. It begins just as soon as we see Thor hanging from chains in front of his captor Surtur, as he spews the kind of comedic lines we'd expect from someone like Tony Stark. 

But it doesn't end there, as we are treated to more and more comedy. Loki throws an outrageous play about his faked death (featuring cameos that didn't elevate the scene whatsoever). Doctor Strange makes an appearance and shows how much he's learned about jumping from one place to the next. Karl Urban's Skurge jokes about naming his guns (facepalm moment). And it goes on and on. And this is before we even get to Thor and Loki ending up on Sakaar where more jokes await. Some of which, comes from a talking Hulk, while the rest mostly from a very unfunny Jeff Goldblum as the Grandmaster.

Now, making jokes is not really a bad thing. But it most certainly is when it's either not funny or poorly timed. Do these filmmakers not realize that we can't take the movie seriously (because we have to at some point, the universe is at stake, isn't it?) if they keep making fun of everything? Since when does Thor have a humongous need to be funny? It's not too bad when Loki's with him, then the banter between them balances it out somehow. But all the same, it would have gone down easier if it was worth laughing at.

I also have an issue with Waititi and company treating a handful of supporting characters poorly, by killing them off without a second thought. I won't spoil it, but the way it was handled left a bad taste in my mouth. Tessa Thompson's Valkyrie was also badly written, and Thompson's arrogant performance doesn't endear her character well either. Valkyrie is supposed to be an indifferent character who slowly ends up giving a damn again here, but the whole process wasn't convincing.

Only Idris Elba's Heimdall and Anthony Hopkins' Odin appear to be unaffected by the bad script, thankfully so. Mark Ruffalo's Banner is at least hilarious when he tries to be, but the rest of the cast are let down by a script that does not allow them to be the same heroes we loved before Ragnarok. As for Cate Blanchett, she does what she can with her part, but isn't given more time to shine, thanks to the script's need to pander to a bathrobe wearing Goldblum, who has no real value to the overall story.

So what's left that's good? The Thor vs Hulk scrap was well done, one of the highlights of the film. Most of the action sequences were good, save for the last one where too much is happening on screen and thus too difficult to properly enjoy. Some of the exchanges between Thor and Loki were good, especially when they were being serious. Their final moments with their father was also well executed.

I'll be honest though. The MCU can't really make a horrible film (like the Fantastic Four remake for instance), but they came very close here. Thor: Ragnarok isn't bad, just terribly underwhelming. At this point, they should be firing on all cylinders and deliver a better film than the last before Infinity War gets here. I really expected more.

P.S.: Stay for the first credit scene. You don't need to see the second one, trust me. (6/10)