Marvel’s Most Fun Movie: A Review of “Thor: Ragnarok”
from NewsAzure.com
Taika Waititi’s Thor: Ragnarok came to theaters two weeks ago, and not only is it already one of the ten highest grossing films of the year, but it’s also been hailed as one of the best Marvel movies to date. I can understand why many have called this a great movie, yet I still left the theater feeling like something was missing.
Thor: Ragnarok is a good movie, so long as you have the right expectations. It’s a 130-minute-long rollercoaster ride that rarely feels overstuffed. Chris Hemsworth’s Thor is finally allowed to come into his own in a film that never takes itself too seriously. That departure from realism works when the story and characters are built on an adaptation of Norse mythological lore, magic, and terminology. Loki (Tom Hiddleston) plays well off of Thor, vacillating between camaraderie and treachery both on a whim and when the plot demands it. Tessa Thompson is a great addition to the Marvel movie canon as Valkyrie, a hard-drinking, swaggering Asgardian refugee who can fight just as well as the boys. The visual effects are stunning at all times, whether the camera pans across Asgard’s golden splendor and skyscrapers, spaceships spin and curve to avoid laser fire from those in hot pursuit, or Thor and Loki hurtle across time and space in the psychedelic, rainbow frenzy that is the Bifröst Bridge.
The film boasts electric fight scenes throughout. Hela (Cate Blanchett), the main antagonist, slashes and dashes, slaughtering a legion of stubborn soldiers masterfully. Thor and Hulk’s first encounter is literally groundbreaking, and as the on-screen audience whoops and hollers watching the gladiatorial match, so do all of us watching the screen.
It’s a two-hour hybrid of an augmented-reality video game and a Led Zeppelin music video. It’s here to amuse us, and it knows that. After so many superhero movies tried to capture The Dark Knight’s grittiness and philosophical profundity, Thor: Ragnarok emphasizes that it belongs in the “action-adventure” category. This is surely the best buddy-superhero movie I’ve seen (though I do reserve the right to change this claim once Deadpool 2, with fan-favorite character Cable, comes out next June). Above all else, this movie is funny. There is more humor in the first five minutes than there are in all of Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice (which is really more of an indictment of DoJ). With physical gags alongside easter eggs, the movie continually exudes a glowing positive energy that is just as effective for the casual viewer as it is for the Marvel fanboy.
Yet, this is also the first time a movie-watching experience has been completely tension-free for me. Everyone cracks jokes: Thor, Loki, Jeff Goldblum’s Grandmaster (because of course he does); and even Hela. That isn’t to say the villain can’t have a sense of humor. But the incessant rhythm of the jokes repeatedly robs scenes of narrative force. A deity that lusts for extinction-level violence loses their sting when they make puns like, “An executioner kills people, but also executes their vision! But really they just kill people.”
Furthermore, we lose character depth in this celebration of spectacle. Thompson’s Valkyrie has an arc: by transitioning from a reluctant hero to a fighter, she reclaims her legendary glory. It’s unsatisfying though, since the only catalyst for her change is plot convenience. We get a trite flashback explanation of why she wants to stay in exile (Hela previously killed all of Valkyrie’s Asgardian warrior comrades, and the trauma has left her emotionally detached). We miss a fleshed-out reason for her motivations to leave her position of comfort and success and team up with Thor and Hulk to face their foe. We’re not made to pause for a second to figure out what is really driving her action, because the film has already hurtled into the next scene.
There is a refrain in the movie that Odin repeats to Thor: Asgard is not a place; it’s a people. I know it’s supposed to have emotional resonance. But in a movie that consistently values laughs over resonance, it comes across as a shallow statement paying lip service to a moral lesson that is not sincerely explored in the film. Thor does not spend the movie trying to understand what constitutes a nation so he can grow to become the king he’s fated to be. He spends it hurdling various obstacles so he can get back home to defeat yet another doomsday threat. Even if there are layers to peel away here, the film is content with bedazzling us at the surface level.
One scene during the climax brings this point home. Thor, Loki, Hulk, Valkyrie, and Heimdall (Idris Elba) are battling an undead army and protecting the tens of thousands of Asgardian citizens attempting to escape the mythical city. Hela, both the goddess of death and Thor’s older sister, advances towards them. Her eyes overflow with menace. The film has established that her presence in Asgard amplifies her powers to colossal levels, and so her wordless approach embodies the inevitable creep of death itself. Our titular hero and his supporting cast effortlessly slice through waves of homogenous, CGI monsters, each slash and stab drawing no blood. There’s a pause in the fight choreography. Thor and Loki look up and acknowledge the incoming threat. They wonder aloud how to deal with Hela. Then Loki quips, “I’m not doing ‘get help.’”
“Get help” refers to a moment about forty minutes earlier in the film. To get passed several armed guards on a different planet, Loki pretends to limp and Thor calls out to the guards to find medical help. The bemused aliens are still as mannequins, so Thor seizes the opportunity to throw Loki into them. They fall like bowling pins and Loki gets up, embarrassed but unscathed.
That line Loki drops as they face Hela is one of the many jokes found in this film. This one, however, made me roll my eyes. It doesn’t even make sense, since the entire purpose of the “get help” maneuver is based on their adversary not knowing who the two are, and the element of surprise. It’s a line that’s there purely for the sake of referentiality, and it’s written in with the grace of a Hulk smash. The insertion of a joke here undercuts any tension that was built up from the chaos of the fight or the danger Hela exudes. The infusion of levity reminds the audience that at the end of the day the stakes are only so high, that Thor will survive to see 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War, that there’s nothing to really worry about.
That moment, and the whole climactic scene, are both emblematic of something larger than the movie itself. It represents the apotheosis of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s model for churning out these blockbusters with assembly-line efficiency. Marvel movies toe a fine line between family-friendy and raunchy, prioritize flashy set pieces over more thorough character development, and maximize our love for the hero at the expense of the villain’s potency. Doubling down on that model was a smart directorial decision, since it reflected the ethos of a protagonist that’s hotheaded, dynamic, boisterous, and jocular. Yet the third Thor film shows us what the future of Marvel movies and the superhero subgenre might become. We may see more films that transcend the medium of art and become spectacle in and of themselves. These star-studded, nine-figure budget events keep the mainstream moviegoer continually in their orbit, anxiously awaiting the next installment. And, so long as there’s an awareness of what we sacrifice as we gain, I don’t think this future is necessarily a bad thing.
These shortcomings are not fatal flaws, because Thor: Ragnarok doesn’t try to be something it’s not. Nor should the audience go in thinking they’re going to be intellectually challenged or emotionally moved. This movie is here to entertain, and the people who were with me in the theater were there to be entertained. Here, the fun isn’t offensive or mindless; it’s not just buildings crumbling and Michael Bay explosions. The actions, the jokes, the destruction and the characters are all infused with fun that’s charming.
Is this Thor-mula what all of Marvel is destined to become? I don’t think so. Though the movie itself is plot-driven, the tone, style, and feel are all reflections of the central characters. Depending on the characters, each new Marvel installment with have its own flavor. Still, the Marvel formula is clearly at play here, and it’s firing on all cylinders. You will be blown away, if you know where to set the bar.
