Thor: Love and Thunder

Phase 4 is without a doubt Marvel’s weakest – Black Widow, Eternals and Dr. Strange are all mediocre comic book movies and it shows in the ratings (the days when every new Marvel movie was in red are over). The new Thor may not be a revolution, but it is definitely the most fun and the best of the aforementioned three. I would have preferred to see someone other than Taika Waititi in the director's chair, his style doesn't suit me that well, I wasn't too keen on Ragnarok either, probably because it was too similar to Star Wars, but I enjoyed Love and Thunder. The plot is simple and it doesn't bring anything particularly interesting to the MCU universe, which is a bit disappointing, but as a fun, colorful, funny and effective blockbuster it works reliably. The chemistry between Hemsworth and Portman is awesome, Christian Bale plays a solid creepy villain for the first time in a long time in a Marvel movie, Gorr the God Butcher. He stole all the scenes to himself and added some darkness to all that colour. The humour is rather juvenile but there were a few laughs (Korg and the goats were the most entertaining – their roars always made me laugh). the music was also good and the emotions work in the end. The action isn't exactly spectacular and it's not my style, but it suits the film. (I have no idea if I will ever get more intimate and contact action like in Captain America: Winter Soldier). I was disappointed with Russell Crowe as Zeus. Story 3/5. Action 4/5, Humor 4/5, Violence 0/5, Fun 4/5 Music 5/5, Visuals 4/5, Atmosphere 3/5, Suspense 3/5, Emotion 3/5, Actors 4/5. 6.5/10. (07/07/2022)

An even bigger Thor: Ragnarok than Ragnarok itself. Overloaded action, 80s explosions, workable pathos, and a standard of taste trampled somewhere in the dirt. Thor has found the utmost limits of self-parody in his quest, and even though the public doesn't need to know him like this anymore, I couldn't be happier. It was a bold choice to alternate between the most infantile lines, the almost melancholic mood, and a theatrically demonic enemy, one that's not worth trying to overcome because it might not even be possible without disrupting the entire concept. (29/12/2022)

Dads and their daughters will love this movie. As will hard-ass homosexuals and superhero lesbians. Taika Waititi takes all contemporary popular trends, then shakes them up and stirs them, making fun of them all. Sometimes good fun and sometimes even better fun. And then they add goats, whose audio is reminiscent of Natalie and Tessa’s Annihilation, a load of big-headed gods who behave like they are in the House of Representatives when TV coverage goes dead. Bale’s Gorr is the powerhouse of this movie; at the beginning he’s moving, in the middle surprising and funny, and in the end every daddy ends up with his head in his hands, wiping away a tear. Both of the first Thors are fine and Love and Thunder brings a good conclusion to the romantic storyline of the first two movies. Hemsworth is now in great form, after working out with the Guardians of the Galaxy, and Portman enjoys her role much more than before. Ragnarok was better and more consistent, but this is even more playful and out of control. If it’s going to be anything like this, I’m really looking forward to the sequel... But expectations difficult to live up to. (06/07/2022)

The alternation of serious themes and humour for small children may have worked with Jojo Rabbit (though I didn’t like it too much there, either), but Waititi’s style is incredibly annoying, like a drunken clown you kick out of a kid’s birthday party, but he keeps on coming in through the window. As a result, the new Thor didn't work for me, neither in terms of humour, nor in terms of the dramatic level that the creators were trying to achieve, which is a recurring motif in Marvel movies of the last few years, for which I can more and more often say as a positive only the cliché that they are colourful and moving. And I would put the word positive in quotes. (08/08/2022)

It's a complete mess with a polymorphous narrative structure, where everything is being slaughtered. Unfortunately, that also applies to the visuals. It's clear that Waititi is primarily a toymaker and it doesn't matter what happens on screen, what's important is how it looks and if it's funny, even with Christian Bale putting himself forward as a potentially interesting villain. It looks average, it's funny only sometimes – like 5 or 6 good lines and gags and then when Russell Crowe enjoys his cameo as a chubby Zeus, and conceptually it's still the same, give or take. The next installment will need a different director, unless the producers plan to dump this god altogether. (23/07/2022)