"Kids, get the popcorn out. Let me tell you a story of the space Viking", heroes and villains, love and loss and by far the most ridiculous work out routine known to man or in this case Gods. I am of course talking about the legend that is Thor and his new adventure, Love and Thunder.
Taika Waititi’s newest entry into the MCU is filled with fun, fantasy and unfortunately, a few flaws. In terms of the story, I loved it. I think it flowed well and it ended nicely with a few stories rounded off, although I felt in the first half it was trying to figure out what kind of genre they were gonna go with.
Moving onto the characters I must admit I was a tad disappointed with the majority of them, for example, I didn’t enjoy Waititi's character Korg as much as I did in Ragnarok and I say this because he’s clearly a comedy character but I feel like most of the comedy fell flat, not just in Korg’s case but the whole cast.
Although this is a Thor film, I do believe the Guardians of the Galaxy didn’t get enough screen time, especially as they were quite a prominent part within the trailers. I won’t say anymore regarding them as I don’t want to delve into spoiler territory but just don't go in expecting them to be in the majority of the film.
Let's move along to Gorr. Now, Gorr The God Butcher is an exceptional villain, Christian Bale played the part incredibly well and I felt he took a bit of inspiration from a few variants of DC Comics The Joker, but the biggest flaw with him is that he kills…once! He’s THE infamous God Butcher, known to carry and destroy gods with the Necro Sword with great ease and we literally see him kill once, I was gobsmacked! Although according to Christ6ian Bale, he did film scenes with both actors Peter Dinklage and Jeff Goldblum which were assumed to have been scenes depicting more of Gorr's killing spree, but you guessed it, these scenes were cut.
Other than that, Bale easily portrayed an array of emotions from within the character in order to bring him from the page to the screen. Gorr is one of my favourite villains in the MCU to date!
Moving onto Dr Jane Foster…Aka The Mighty Thor. I personally preferred her over Thor himself as I feel she had a great story arc and it was nice to see it rounded off, she had motive and emotion behind her, although I would’ve liked to have seen how she became Thor and not just appearing in full costume managing to fight as good as if not better than Hemsworth, saying that there is a scene that explains it but still would’ve been nice to see. However there is said to be a scene showing just this that was later cut in the final edit of the film.
Russel Crowe portrayed the infamous God Zeus, the God of Lightning! The role worked well, but again there was a little too much slapstick style humour used within his scenes, leaving the character less intimidating and respected than he should be. Crowe's accent also flurried in and out when speaking, there was even a moment where I swear I was listening to Borat. The writing for this role sadly let the character down a little.
Another addition to the film that struck well with me was the amount of graphic novel references that were depicted in scenes almost identically. This will definitely be something that fans will be wanting to see more of.
Like I said earlier and I do want to reiterate, the comedy was alright and there really were some amusing moments…BUT…it was incredibly forced, with some serious situations finishing on a punchline. Not everything has to be funny, if it is you cannot begin to form an emotional connection to the story or it's characters. It was incredibly flamboyant and silly for the most part. I would also like to add there were many scenes shown in the trailers that were actually cut from the final edit of the film Yes this happens with film, quite often in fact, but crucial scenes were cut this time.
All in all despite the flaws, I really did enjoy Love and Thunder, it’s a great, light hearted, family film (which some people do not like) which has heart and humour. It brings an end to some stories and sparks new ones. There's also plenty of Easter eggs and references to many other MCU film, so if you love spotting them, then you won't be disappointed. Also if you have yet to see it, stay firmly in your seats as there is a mid credit scene as well as a post credit scene. Both of which are pretty decent. I do regrettably though have to give Thor Love and Thunder a 3.5 out of 5 star score.