Thor: Love and Thunder is the latest addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Its recent opening box office gross of US$132 million is the best so far for the Thor MCU film series and third biggest in 2022. Check out our non-spoiler review here. What follows is our critical analysis of the movie, with spoilers.
S P O I L E R S
Now, some have described Thor: Love and Thunder as a movie made for children. Well, to a certain extent all MCU movies are. But certainly, it is in stark contrast to Doctor Strange in the Multitude of Madness, which was much darker. This movie is light-hearted and sadly, also lightweight. The plot is thin, the characterisation is almost non-existent and the tone is … well, silly.
Taika Waititi, the movie’s director and co-writer does not take the character of Thor seriously. He has said so himself in various interviews. Which was our main problem with Thor: Ragnarok – that version of Thor was so far removed from what was established in previous movies, that it was jarring and disorientating. A soft reboot in effect.
Thor: Love and Thunder does not deviate from the tone and style of its predecessor. It jumps from scene to scene without a care in the world and makes fun of everything, with silly dialogue throughout. What a contrast with the source material it is based on. The God, the God Butcher arc in the Thor: God of Thunder comics was visceral, deep and thought-provoking while this movie is just dumb.
None of this is the fault of the actors, who all do what they can in the context of the screenplay and direction. After all, it’s all just a fun romp through the cosmos, without any serious consequences. But… Jane Foster is dying from cancer, Gorr is committing deicide, the Lady Sif has lost an arm… so why does it feel like there are no stakes whatsoever?
And what about the plot holes? This movie is so badly written with convenient plot contrivances running throughout. Gorr just happens to have the Necrosword lying on the ground next to him when confronted by his god? And what about the worst plot hole of all? The Eternity wish… many online are already calling this out. If this was all Gorr had to do to kill all the gods, why didn’t Thanos do the same instead of collecting the Infinity Stones? The worst thing is that in the comics, Eternity was much more than a genie and would not bother with human affairs. Lazy writing.
In the final analysis, Taika Waititi, as a director and writer – is an inferior version of James Gunn and his Thor movies are simply riffing on Gunn’s superior Guardians of the Galaxy flicks. Will MCU fans now wake up and see that the Emperor has no new clothes at all? Unlikely. As the mid-credit scene introduces the MCU’s Hercules, it is clear that Thor (with Taika at the helm) will most certainly return.
Now showing in the cinemas.
… still there’s more …