Of weekends and mighty heroes
Weekends have too many expectations placed on them.
They are supposed to help you feel better after a crappy week at work, they are supposed to heal your heart after a lousy break up (if you happened to had one during the week), they are supposed to cure your gut after you ate that bad shrimp cocktail that you knew you shouldn’t have…you get the gist, right?
And then, when the weekend is unlucky enough to come on the heels of the Halloween weekend, well, there’s really not much help for it, is there?
Cue in our heroes, the mighty Thor and the incredible Hulk, here to save this weekend.
I will be honest with you guys, I was never a fan of Thor (or Hulk for that matter, but hey, at least I had heard of him before).
Here you have this guy, build like a wall, giving birth to countless memes with his flowing locks, wearing ancient armor as his costume, wields a hammer of all things, and I will not even touch the topic of the stupid looking helmet. That leaves his cape and Iron Man does a good job describing it in the first Avengers movie.
Who is he playing? Why yes, a god, of course — the God of Thunder, to be precise.
Chris Hemsworth was good-looking with a great body, a natural choice for playing an all-powerful god, I suppose, but that just made Thor all the more boring — he just seemed too perfect. And since when had perfect been interesting?
Sure enough, punching and smashing were all Thor seemed good for, just like his newest adventure buddy, Hulk. Don’t get me wrong, I love the Avengers and other Marvel movies, but I wasn’t really looking forward to a Marvel movie with two leads who are likely to do nothing but destroy some more buildings (thankfully, not on Earth this time…with all the superhero movies, there is just so much one little planet can endure).
And then, Marvel dropped the first trailer…and I knew the weekend after Halloween was going to be great.
I have never done a review without spoilers before. To be honest, I have never published a review before. This is my first foray into the world of entertainment writing, and I hope everyone will keep this in mind that I write as a fan, and not as a critic.
Our story takes off with Thor in a bind in the lairs of the fiery Suture, from where he manages to make a spectacular escape…and well, the movie retains its brilliance till the very end. From cameos by other Marvel heroes to the much-hyped about Thor vs. Hulk fight, from Loki’s mischief to Hela’s destruction of Asgard, Thor: Ragnarok is any Marvel movie lovers dream come true…especially, if said person is a fan of Thor.
For the first time, Thor is not perfect, and in more ways than one by the end of the movie. His world is on the verge of destruction, his people may all perish, and like the Skywalkers, it’s all because of his family issues. But he is our hero, and in the end, he has to make a choice. And Thor does, not with his physical power — and he is more powerful than he has ever been before — but with what he knows deep down to be the right thing to do…and ascends his “throne” as the rightful King of Asgard.
Loki, as Thor puts it, will always be the God of Mischief, and it is fair to say that till this date, he remains the most compelling villain of the MCU. He is still the wild card as we keep getting closer to Infinity Wars.
For Hela, I wish I could say she was someone to watch out for, but unfortunately that is not the case. If it were not for Cate Blanchett, I think she would have easily fallen into the category of MCU’s long list of forgettable villains.
Hulk is finally the incredible guy we were always told he was. I wish we had seen more of this side of Hulk in the previous movies. As a long enduring character, it was never fair that this MCU’s Hulk was never popular enough to get his own solo movie (we will ignore the Edward Norton one, because I do believe Mark Ruffalo is the Hulk we always deserved). Since Taika Waititi is interested in making the solo Black Widow movie, maybe we can cram Hulk in there? Waititi certainly knows how to do the character justice.
Valkyrie is a new addition, but apparently a legend in Asgardian lore. She was everything we expect a modern superheroine to be. We got glimpses of her backstory, and it would have been wonderful if there were more, but that is okay — this was Thor’s story, and it was great the movie remained focused on him.
There are many, many praises I can sing for this movie, like all the older and newer characters such as Heimdall, the Grandmaster, and Skurge, the badass music, all the callbacks and Easter eggs, Stan Lee and Matt Damon cameos, but you know what? I would rather watch it again than write about it. And if you have the time and money to spare, then you should also. Thor: Ragnarok is 130 minutes of pure fun!
So, weekend, this time around, you had to suffer a little less pressure from me.