It has been a long time since I wrote about a newly released film, and it wasn’t because there weren’t any films worth writing about. Since I last wrote a review on a new film I have seen Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, The Northman, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, The Lost City, We’re All Going to the World’s Fair, Choose or Die, Operation Mincemeat, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Everything Everywhere All at Once, Benediction, Between Two Worlds, Top Gun: Maverick, Men, Jurassic World: Dominion, Bergman Island, All My Friends Hate Me, Good Luck to You, Leo Grande, Lightyear, Elvis and Incantation. That is a hell of a lot of new films, and several of those would have made for fun reviews to write, but alas life has got in the way. That means the last newly released film I reviewed was Morbius, a superhero film that I kind of hated. That means it only makes sense to start up again by writing about a superhero film I kind of hated, Thor: Love and Thunder (2022). After retiring, Thor (Chris Hemsworth) is brought back into the fold when Gorr the God Butcher (Christian Bale) starts to travel the universe with a mission to kill all gods. This adventure has him reunited with his old flame, Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), who has teamed with Mjolnir and become ‘The Mighty Thor’. The two of them, alongside Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson) and Korg (Taika Waititi), must defeat Gorr and rescue the Asgardian children he has kidnapped.
It will be of no surprise to anyone that I am not the biggest fan of the MCU. I don’t hate it and there are plenty of films within it that I enjoy, but as a whole concept I am not invested, and I grow tired of the endless releases. I thought the film that killed any hope of me investing in this was Eternals (2021) and then I saw Thor: Love and Thunder which may now be my least favourite MCU film, and I think the main reason is that I was somewhat looking forward to this one. I like the character of Thor and, although I didn’t like Thor: Ragnarok (2017) as much as everyone else seemed to, I went into the film looking forward to seeing more of him. But I left the film having felt I just wasted time on a film that above all is massively annoying. It isn’t completely without merit. Chris Hemsworth still does a good job in the role of Thor, although the character himself has become a complete mess of not knowing what or who he is. Christian Bale also rises above the mire of crap to put in a great performance and the film is at its best whenever the focus is on him. Also, there are some decently funny moments involving the axe Stormbreaker being jealous, and you see it appear slowly off-screen as if trying to catch Thor out. It gets old, but the first couple of times I found it funny enough. And with that, I have run out of positives.
This film has a pair of giant screaming goats that scream pretty consistently throughout the runtime. Not only is this a throwback to a trend that was popular almost a decade ago (not a good sign), but they are also a perfect analogy of why this film is crap. They are aggravating, old news, and painfully unfunny. It is likely that it is probably just my comedic sensibilities, and I am sure a lot of people find this film very funny, but for me, it was just painfully unfunny, minus a couple of moments that I mentioned earlier. And the comedic tone gets in the way of every other aspect of the film. Ragnarok was funny, but it wasn’t at the expense of narrative or building of emotion or character. This film goes all in on that comedy style, and it is to a huge detriment to the rest of the film. You can get emotionally invested in anything going on because the film always feels like is wink, wink, nudge, nudging you being like ‘we know all this is very silly’ and it is infuriating. This is especially annoying and painful when it comes to the climax of the film where it desperately wants you to be invested in the emotional heart that it has barely built up throughout and I found myself not caring in the slightest. There is no conflict in this film which you feel has any weight to it. Gorr, despite being played very well by Christian Bale, is hardly in the film and so you don’t get given any time to build up a fear of him and it makes the ending massively less impactful. It is a complete tonal mess, and I can’t begin to put my finger on what they were attempting.
Writing about this film now I realise how much I dislike it and it is the film that has made me completely uninterested in where the MCU is going because if it is going to be anything like this it is going to be an absolute mess. Unfunny, unlikeable, and uninteresting visually, it is an un-film. If you are into the MCU I’m sure you’ll find something that you will like about it, but for me, it was just terrible.
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