Thor: Love and Thunder – Film Review

Thor (Chris Hemsworth) is thrust on a journey unlike anything he’s ever faced — a quest for inner peace. But his retirement is interrupted by a galactic killer known as Gorr the God Butcher (Christian Bale), who seeks the extinction of the gods. To combat the threat, Thor enlists the help of King Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson), Korg (Taika Waititi), and ex-girlfriend Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), who — to Thor’s surprise — inexplicably wields his magical hammer, Mjolnir, as the Mighty Thor. Together, they embark upon a harrowing cosmic adventure to uncover the mystery of the God Butcher’s vengeance and stop him before it’s too late.

Ah, yes… there’s nothing quite like venturing out to your nearest movie theatre to watch the newest installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), with the exception of Taika Waititi’s Thor: Love and Thunder, which is an ungodly awful, poorly acted, visually gross, and outrageously unfunny mess that comes across as a Saturday Night Live parody sketch in almost every single scene. SNL sketches are funny on SNL. Not in a Marvel movie.

Words cannot even begin to express just how much of a disappointment this film was. Waititi’s previous film with Marvel, Thor: Ragnarok, was a breath of fresh air that gave the titular God of Thunder a major boost in likability, charisma, and badassery. Sure, they turned Thor into a guy that told some jokes, but at the end of the day, that film showed just how amazing the character can be, while also having an emotional core.

Love and Thunder is a two-hour movie that gets totally wasted on huge misfires at humor. I saw this film in an absolutely packed theatre. There were adults, kids, and families surrounding me and yet, believe it or not, there was not a single laugh to be heard in the theatre during the entire movie. Not even little kids were giggling or getting excited. The air in that theatre felt so dull which is such a shame considering how MCU movies usually get crowds extremely hyped.

The biggest problem with the film is the script, written by Waititi and Jennifer Kaytin Robinson. It picks up after the events of Avengers: Endgame in which Thor is sort of teaming up with the Guardians of the Galaxy while living in New Asgard. It’s a fun little setup for the movie, but even the first scene with Thor got me worried. The style felt… off. And I immediately got the impression that the film would sacrifice a good story for jokes the entire time, and sure enough, that turned out to be true.

While watching this film, I couldn’t help but look back fondly of the days in which the Thor movies and, really, the MCU in general, used to be able to be taken seriously. Even the comedic Thor: Ragnarok had plenty of heartfelt moments and well-executed dramatic beats in order to balance everything out. Love and Thunder made me genuinely question whether or not I actually ever liked Thor, because here, he is so vastly different than he is in any previous MCU movie.

Long story short, he’s essentially a bumbling fool that legitimately fanboys over Zeus (Russell Crowe) in one of the worst scenes in any superhero movie ever. Sure, he has some moments where he wreaks havoc on villains, but I couldn’t even get excited during those moments because they just felt all over the place. Not to mention the fact that the action sequences here are filmed incredibly poorly and are some of the most forgettable in the MCU.

Chris Hemsworth is, of course, great as Thor. I may not like what they did with his character this time around, but it’s still hard to not watch his performance here and tell that he was born to play the character. He also looked like he had fun with this film which I may not understand, but I’m glad he enjoyed it. Natalie Portman is better than ever before as Jane Foster / Mighty Thor, as well. She gets an impressive amount of stuff to do here which seriously took me by surprise.

As for Tessa Thompson, I genuinely couldn’t help but feel bad for her because it seemed as though her character quite literally did nothing throughout the entire film. She was easily the standout in Ragnarok, but here, her character Valkyrie gets pushed to the sidelines which struck me as incredibly odd, especially seeing as how she got all the praise in the world for the work she did on Ragnarok.

Christian Bale is great in the role of Gorr the God Butcher, but he sadly doesn’t have nearly as many scenes as you would be lead to believe. He is supposed to be the main villain of this story and yet we only see him a couple of times in the movie, and even when we do see him, he doesn’t do anything too crazy. Bale’s performance is creepy and understated, but it’s definitely a shame to see just how little he was given.

When I watch a Marvel movie in the theatre, I usually leave with a smile on my face, eager to see what else will come out down the road, but not this time around. Thor: Love and Thunder is the worst MCU film to date, due to its incredibly messy and unfunny script that constantly sacrifices telling a good story for some kindergarten-level jokes.