RageLite review - Thor: Ragnarok

After Catwoman, I need a bit of a palate cleanser, so let’s return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Thor: Ragnarok.

Of the Avengers characters who’ve had multiple solo movies, Thor’s have undoubtedly been the weakest. Whilst Loki remained one of Marvel’s strongest villains, the films themselves often felt bland and boring. This was particularly the case with the Dark World, which ended up being quite a divisive movie.

It’s all change for Ragnarok though. Natalie Portman, who allegedly hated filming the Dark World, is gone, and once again, we have a new director, this time Taika Waititi. The overall style and tone from the first two movies is to get a massive overhaul, but I’ll leave that for the review portion. Waititi’s past experience is in comedy, with his directing credits including “What we do in the Shadows” and “Hunt for the Wilderpeople,” neither of which I’ve seen but they’re both critical and commercial successes.

And the trend would continue here, Thor Ragnarok would go onto make $890m on its $180m budget and scoring a 92% Rotten Tomatoes rating with an average 7.52/10 and an 89% audience rating with a 4.2/5 average. All these figures exceed the previous Thor movies, but is it worth the reception, here’s my take

Thor Rangarok takes place 2 years after the events of Age of Ultron. Thor is still seeking answers about his dreams and questions the fire demon Surtur. There are 4 (5 if you count Loki) villains in this movie, but this is the only one voiced by Clancy Brown. He’s more the generic monster, spouting his evil destiny but Thor defeats him rather easily.

Thanks to a tip from Surtur, he uncovers Loki’s deception from the end of the last movie. If you ever thought Loki had any schemes grander than becoming King of Asgard, you’d be wrong, which is a bit disappointing but this movie has a lot of ground to cover and erasing the last two movies from your memory is its first stop.

After a brief detour with Doctor Strange, they find the real Odin but he’s like “I’m going to die now, have fun dealing with your lost sister who’s also the goddess of death” and Hela (Cate Blanchett) makes an interesting first impression, destroying Thor’s hammer without a scratch. She fights her way to Asgard, pushing Thor and Loki out of the Bifrost in the process. On arrival she proceeds to kill everyone except Skurge (Karl Urban). Of the 4 or 5 villains, Skurge is the weakest of them. He has no conviction, he has no particular motives, and just serves as Hela’s underling until he doesn’t. Then gets killed

Thor wakes up on the planet Sakkar, and ends up captured by a Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson) and put into a tournament run by the Grand Master, played most gloriously by Jeff Goldblum, who is a scene stealer every time he’s on screen. If you’re familiar with the comics you may recognise the planet name from the famous Planet Hulk story and it turns out the Hulk is also on Sakkar, I wasn’t aware the Quinjets were capable of interstellar travel but what do I know? Loki is also on Sakkar, and he’s earned favour with the Grand Master.

Can Thor escape? Can he defeat the Goddess of Death? And what of the prophecy of Ragnarok? Well, I don't want to reveal everything here, it's supposed to be a Lite review. 

This film is stylistically very different from both the previous Thor movies. There is a far greater focus on humour, not entirely unexpected given the director’s comedic background but whilst there’s no doubt the comedy works 80% of the time, there are occasions when the comedy kinda gets in the way of character growth and for me the epicentre of this problem is with the character of Korg.

Korg is a fun character, but there’s a lot beneath the surface that isn’t explored. I don’t understand why he’s so care free given that he was exiled after a failed revolution and since watched everyone around him die to the champion. Even him restarting his revolution is handled poorly since so much of it is off-screen and the next time we see him, he’s escaping with Loki.

On a much better note, I like how they handle the dynamic between Thor and Loki. Thor has reached the end of his tether, but knows his anger is meaningless and decides its time for the two to part ways. He’s also a fair bit smarter, able to counter-play Loki when he tries to double-cross him.

Loki clearly knows he’s the weaker of the two and quickly yields to Thor when his scheme is uncovered, I like that he’s not sure how to react to the fact that Thor is no longer actively trying to change him. I hesitate to call his actions a redemption arc, but it’s certainly a better one than Skurge had. He at least seems to have some respect for Thor he hadn’t previously. Also, his reaction to finding out the Grand Master’s Champion was the Hulk is priceless.

Cate Blanchett is clearly enjoying herself playing Hela. Her character is not particularly deep or complex, although they do give her a decent backstory. The performance elevates the villain well beyond that of Malekith from the Dark World and continues the run of decent main villains Marvel that started with Guardians of the Galaxy 2 (I know this is only the second film since then but…)

The dynamic between Bruce Banner and the Hulk has shifted considerably since the Avengers. Banner doesn’t remember any of the 2 years he spent as the Hulk in Sakkar’s gladiator arenas. This is an interesting twist and allows for Thor to interact with both of them with Banner not knowing what was said previously to the Hulk. It also provides a small conflict as Banner is concerned about becoming the Hulk again and losing himself to it.

There is a definite shift in what’s important this time around. Hela kills the Warriors 3 in a matter of seconds, and if the actor who played Lady Sif was available, I hear she would’ve died too. The loss of Jane Foster is a single throwaway line and the action is largely away from Earth. The film takes risks with Thor, removing his Hammer, his title and later one of his eyes. Although Thor getting a case of the sparkles every time he comes near defeat might be considered a bit dramatically convenient.

Heimdall is the last of the old supporting cast to get a role, although it’s still a smaller part than previous films. He serves as the guide for the people of Asgard, as they pedal a message that will later be explored in How to Train Your Dragon 3. Asgard isn’t the place, it’s the people. Shame half those people will be wiped out by Thanos soon.

Thor Ragnarok has entertaining action, a dynamic soundtrack and a unique visual style, things that were lacking in previous films. Its story bunches together a bunch of neat concepts and miraculously manages to do justice to almost all of them. The comedy is mostly tight but sometimes interrupts potentially interesting or emotional moments and I do see why some might find that grating.

Rating 80/10