Thor: Love and Thunder

The hysteria around this film it’s pointless, I didn't find it any worse than Waititi's previous entry. It's almost heretically disrespectful to the comic book genre, it doesn't take itself seriously at all, and as someone bored to death with most Marvel movies who sees the whole of Phase 4 as a degradation of everything the entire Marvel universe stands for, this film actually made me happy. No one speaks seriously, no one delivers pathetic speeches, and if anything, you can feel Waititi's irony in it; Gun´n´Roses gives it the right note of rebellion, and the annoying goats that a lot of people complain about take up only minimal space. Bale's Gorr is great, he has a believable dramatic arc, and Russell Crowe and his lard-soaked character finally got a meaningful use, I enjoyed his Zeus a lot. Normally I'd give 3*, but I'm rooting for crazy nerds like Taika, cinema needs people like him. (25.09.2022)

Too much of the same in Waititi's delivery. What was fresh last time has now become annoying. It's like a five year old directing, just cramming all the ideas in, not realising that if he gives a joke three seconds after a fateful scene, he'll be killing the whole thing. That said, we have a potentially very interesting bad guy, and even Thor's relationship with Jane Foster has some interesting depth. I remembered that video from The Onion featuring Chris Morgan, the writer of Fast and Furious, and he was a five-year-old boy. This is exactly the same thing. Waititi is having fun, his stars are having fun, and I'm bored because the movie, despite a ton of action, a lot of humor, and some strong emotional scenes, is neither engaging, nor funny, nor ultimately interesting. When Marvel first rolled out, I had a terrible time watching each film try to at least partially grasp the genre. Captain America: The Winter Soldier was at its core an old-school spy thriller, Iron Man a techno thriller and Thor honest-to-goodness fantasy. Now all that gone. Now it's just a movie by Taika Waititi, a director who can't give a film any dramatic shape. And he can't even manage not to be ironic and not cut his own scenes. Instead, he crams flying goats and has them scream hilariously about twenty times. Most of the time it was all slightly embarrassing. (07.07.2022)

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)

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)

Forget about Raimi’s Doctor Strange. Yes, this Thor may be mostly colourful and goofy at first glance, but Taika Waititi is such a stud that he doesn't have to give up his style to tell a serious story that will be very important to Thor again, and that will fail to touch perhaps only audiences with a heart more stony than Korg's. It'd be a shame to give anything away or imply anything, because the trailers are far from revealing everything. But it's a joy to see Marvel back in full force, which means a brilliantly shot great story (compared to the aforementioned Strange, it's not only funnier, but even more horrific and has the perfect villain), whose end credits make it clear you're not going to get bored of it. (08.07.2022)

Eher albernes Durcheinander. Die Mischung aus ernsten Themen und kindlichem Humor bei Waititi hat vielleicht bei Jojo Rabbit funktioniert, obwohl es für mich kein besonders gelungener Film war. Hier ist Waititi mit seinem Stil einfach nur nervig wie ein Clown, der mit Schwammkugeln beworfen wurde und immer wieder durch das Fenster zurückkommt. Am Ende war der neue Thor für mich weder durch Humor noch durch die dramatische Ebene funktionell, um die sich die Macher bemühten. Dies ist im Übrigen ein sich wiederholendes Motiv bei Marvel-Filmen in den letzten Jahren, bei denen ich immer öfter nur das Klischee erwähnen kann, dass sie bunt und bewegt sind. Und selbst das würde ich in Anführungszeichen setzen. (08.08.2022)

Der erste (dritte) Thor von Waititi unterschied sich von seinen Vorgängern durch seinen unverwechselbaren Regieansatz, und bei Love and Thunder ist das nicht anders. Der Liebhaber von Vampiren oder einem alternativen Hitler hat sich im vierten Thor wieder einmal von seiner kreativen Kette gelöst und uns eine zweistündige Dosis schrägen Humors, süßer Romantik und heldenhafter Abenteuer serviert. Der Film enthält viele Anspielungen auf frühere MCU-Filme, die Popkultur und die Mythologie, alles verpackt in einer Waititi-Parodie. An manchen Stellen war der allgegenwärtige Humor vielleicht zu viel und verfehlte sein Ziel, aber im Endeffekt habe ich mich im Kino sehr gut amüsiert - und es gab einige berührende Emotionen, was vor allem an der Linie mit Jane lag, aber auch an Gorr, der ein wirklich vielschichtiger Bösewicht war. Man konnte spüren, dass alle Beteiligten die Dreharbeiten sehr genossen haben. Die Guardians of the Galaxy waren in dem Film eher ein Nebenschauplatz, aber wenigstens konnte sich der Zuschauer auf die Haupthandlungen von Thor-Jane und Thor-Gorr konzentrieren. Love and Thunder enthält, wie bereits erwähnt, viele wunderbare Ideen waititischen Ursprungs - sei es über schreiende Ziegen (hier musste ich sofort an dieses Video denken), die Fortpflanzung von "kleinen Korgs", die Dramatisierung von Tag der Entscheidung (Melissa "Hela" McCarthy hat es geschafft), oder eine göttliche Versammlung mit einem geilen Zeus. Ich mochte auch die Kunst des Duells im "Schattenreich" und die visuellen Darstellungen von Gorrs Monstern. Die erste Abspannszene war ein Vorgeschmack auf eine mögliche Fortsetzung, daher bin ich gespannt, ob es einen weiteren Thor-Film geben wird. (07.07.2022)