“Thor: Love and Thunder” (2022) is easily digestible as entertainment, but even as I watched it, I knew I was taking in empty calories. Director/co-writer Taika Waititi pleased audiences in 2017 with “Thor: Ragnarok” – a course correction from the relatively serious first two films — but does he go to far with this fourth “Thor” entry (and sixth film of The Multiverse Saga and 29th MCU film overall)?
Many MCU fans seem to think so. But for what it is, “Thor: Love and Thunder” is well-made. It’s a mix of sober friendships and romances and silly humor, purposely calibrated – similar to how Michael Giacchino and Nami Melumad might pore over their music notes or how the soundtrack supervisor needle-drops 1980s arena rockers at precisely the right time.
This post-boom superhero film knows its audience knows superhero movies. It knows that even its youngest viewers know superhero movies. Waititi caters to them – or, I suppose “the kid in all of us,” since this isn’t purely a kids’ film — with his framing storytime voiceover. He targets kids more specifically in a sequence where Thor (Chris Hemsworth) gives the power of Asgard to a bunch of children in order to fight the villain, Gorr (the chameleon-like Christian Bale).
“Thor: Love and Thunder” (2022)
Director: Taika Waititi
Writers: Taika Waititi (screenplay, story), Jennifer Kaytin Robinson (screenplay)
Stars: Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Christian Bale
A glimpse of old allies
When you think of old-school hero’s journeys like the original “Star Wars” trilogy or the original “Superman,” you think of high stakes, lessons learned … a general sense that things are serious – at least in the movie’s reality. Although grounded at times, “Love and Thunder’s” general vibe is “entertainment.” As a narrative or character journey, it has little resonance.
Making it hard to forget that “Love and Thunder” is a commercial product is the evidence of behind-the-scenes mistakes and course-correcting within the film itself. Thor Odinson is the star, but Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) – also “a Thor” now, due to rather shockingly underexplained magic – gets a hero’s journey. This is a swing-for-the-fences adjustment after Jane was too much in damsel mode in part two and completely absent from part three, to the point where Portman temporarily walked away.
Jane’s colleagues Darcy (Kat Dennings) and Selvig (Stellan Skarsgard) have cameos, but we do miss the Earthling trio’s full dynamic. Also reminding us of previous films, an opening sequence shows Thor with the wonderfully quippy Guardians of the Galaxy, with Waititi speaking of their adventures (“advinchuss” with his accent) since their “Avengers: Endgame” team-up.
The reason there hasn’t been a “Guardians” film since 2017 – before Cleveland dreamed of naming its baseball team that — is because James Gunn’s old, mildly offensive tweets were uncovered, Disney fired him, fans revolted, DC hired Gunn, and Disney rehired Gunn but now has to wait for him to do his DC projects.
A new ‘advinchuh’
We might prefer a “Thor”/ “Guardians” advinchuh, or a Thor-Jane-Darcy-Selvig yarn, but “Love and Thunder” works with its available roster. We find out that the only living part of rock-monster Korg (voiced by Waititi) is his face, so when he’s turned to a pile of rubble, he’s still alive. We learn kids can become an army if Thor decides as such, and even stuffed animals can kill shadow beasts.
And we learn a specific, convenient piece of lore: If Gorr can acquire a specific sword and Thor’s ax, he can … do something the good guys don’t want him to do. At the end, when we find out what that is, it’s apparent that every fight in the film was unnecessary. Gorr wasn’t doing anything the good guys particularly needed to stop him from doing.
The screenplay by Waititi and Jennifer Kaytin Robinson (“Do Revenge”) emphasizes Gorr’s hatred of the gods, and I wonder if that’s a distraction ploy. Gorr is driven by the fact that one god screwed him over, leading to the death of his child. But c’mon man, you should know that not all gods are bad.
Like an arena rock show
It’s hard to complain about “Love and Thunder’s” humor, because almost all of it lands like it’s supposed to – such as Thor’s ax being jealous of Thor’s longing to reunite with Mjolnir (the famous hammer that Jane is now using). This isn’t the easiest brand of humor to pull off, but Hemsworth continues with the rhythm he found in “Ragnarok.”
By the end, it’s like we’ve been to an expertly produced Eighties arena hair metal concert, complete with a neon light show. In one of the battles, Thor does his thing and the aliens he’s liberating ooh and ah as if “Sweet Child of Mine” is literally blasting on the battlefield.
Everyone is an audience member to Thor’s exploits, including the supporting characters — except when they join the fold. To be fair, Thor – despite an occasional self-centered pronouncement — has grown into a generous dude; he’s happy to have Jane and Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson) and Korg share the spotlight in battle.
“Thor: Love and Thunder” is a sound and light show of a high (and expensive) order, disguising the fact that we’ve seen this story before and distracting us from the likelihood that MCU does not have a particularly fresh story waiting in its hopper. Like it or not, Waititi knows what he’s doing, and the disguise holds for the length of the film.