‘Thor: Love and Thunder’ Is Fun But Familiar
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Perhaps the biggest reason why Thor: Ragnarok was such a success was because it was a necessity. After the first installment of the Thor solo franchise was fine, and the second seemed to leave audiences colder than the Frost Giants on Jotunheim, for this series to continue it needed to do something differently; its star, Chrris Hemsworth, even agreed. So when writer/director Taika Waititi joined Ragnarok and reshaped the franchise into something far more fun than it had ever been. Pushing Thor into a more comedic direction—letting Hemsworth be funny!—felt like taking a chance, but one that needed to happen if there was going to be any lasting success for this Marvel sub-franchise. And it worked.
Ragnarok wasn't only one of the best movies in the MCU, but it paved the way for the irreverent-but-endearing road that the character continued down in both Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. Ragnarok started out taking a chance, and wound up creating a new model.
Which brings us to Thor: Love and Thunder, the Asgardian hero's first post-Endgame adventure. For the most part, the whole Ragnarok gang is back: Hemsworth, Waititi, and Tessa Thompson, along with a returning Natalie Portman as Jane Foster, and newcomer Christian Bale as the villainous Gorr the God Butcher. Love and Thunder is fun, don't get me wrong. Hemsworth has a handle on this character like few others in the superhero world do; I'm someone who deeply enjoyed Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness for it's Raimi-esque horror flourishes, but if we're simply talking about the entertaining nature of the title hero, there's no one touching this version of Thor.
Still, there's something about Love and Thunder that feels less than Ragnarok. It's hard to match the magic of something that took a chance, came together, and felt like an organic success; a true breath of fresh air. If Ragnarok was breaking a mold and forging something new, Love and Thunder is then filling in the new shape that was left in the dust. It feels, often times, like pushing to replicate the things that worked in the past, rather than continuing to push forward.
Love and Thunder isn't entirely treading water. Portman's return to the franchise is a grand one, as she gets a much more entertaining showcase for her Dr. Jane Foster character than her last full-length appearance in Thor: The Dark World. As The Mighty Thor, Portman gets to be a hero equal in just about every way to Hemsworth, previously her on-screen love interest. Based on the comic arc by writer Jason Aaron, this is a fantastic subversion for Marvel, which so often casts great performers only to bog them down with thankless love interest roles.
Some of the smartest parts of the movie come filling in gaps that Waititi himself left open. Ragnarok wrote Thor and Jane off as a couple that fell victim to an off-screen break-up; Love and Thunder explores why this happened in a surprisingly-adult sequence (scored by an ABBA song, for about 1,000 bonus points). Hemsworth and Portman have chemistry, as any co-stars who've been inhabiting the same roles for more than a decade should. And it's a joy to watch them catch up and sort of see where each other are.
It's probably the least shocking thing of all to hear that Christian Bale, as Gorr, is quite good. Waititi films his scenes in a decidedly greyscale manner, which makes his character design jump off the screen; each and every line that Bale delivers lingers in the air, just hammy enough to make you smile but frightening enough to leave you a bit concerned for some other heroes.
The best decision made in the movie is to keep Gorr's appearance as basically a powdered-up, and sometimes warped version of Bale's actual face; he's so expressive, even when not reading a line that bleeds out of his mouth, that it would be a shame to cover him up in prosthetics or CGI. If anyone had any doubts, this is a Christian Bale Performance on par with anything else the Academy Award-winner has done—there's no phoning in happening here.
At the end of the day, there's not a ton wrong with Thor: Love and Thunder. If you're a fan of Ragnarok, you're going to come into the movie and have 2+ hours of a great time. But following a familiar roadmap—even a roadmap proven to be a successful, durable, and often funny route—can sometimes result in ever-so-slightly diminishing returns.
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