Thor: Ragnarok **** / *****
Directed by: Taika Waititi.
Written by: Eric Pearson and Craig Kyle & Christopher Yost based on the comics by Stan Lee & Larry Lieber and Jack Kirby.
Starring: Chris Hemsworth (Thor), Tom Hiddleston (Loki), Cate Blanchett (Hela), Idris Elba (Heimdall), Jeff Goldblum (Grandmaster), Tessa Thompson (Valkyrie), Karl Urban (Skurge), Mark Ruffalo (Bruce Banner / Hulk), Anthony Hopkins (Odin), Benedict Cumberbatch (Doctor Strange), Taika Waititi (Korg), Rachel House (Topaz), Clancy Brown (Surtur), Tadanobu Asano (Hogun).
I have to think that somewhere inside the massive company of Marvel, who produces these massive blockbuster movies, that someone was starting to feel the same way I have been in the last few years. We are now a decade into this shared Marvel Cinematic Universe – with a total of 16 films – and for the most part, I have always admitted that the film have been remarkably consistent in terms of overall quality, and yet still feel too much the same – as if they weren’t making movies at all, but rather a big screen TV show in which directors were being asked to deliver based on a template – an admittedly fun and enjoyable template – but a template just the same. Perhaps though, because of the massive success of the franchise, they are loosening the reigns a little more than they would have even just a couple of years ago, when they fired Edgar Wright from Ant-Man, and when Joss Whedon left after Avengers: Age of Ultron. I say this in hope because with Thor: Ragnarok, I certainly do feel the influence of its director Taika Waititi, in a way I haven’t with a Marvel film in quite some time, and the trailer for Black Panther, has me hopeful that they have let Ryan Coogler make the film his way as well. To be fair, the Marvel films have always tried to peruse different genres – paranoid, 1970s thriller with Captain America: The Winter Solider, space opera with Guardians of the Galaxy, John Hughes teen comedy with Spider-Man: Homecoming to name a few examples – but they all still feel too beholden to a template, too much like the company, and not the filmmakers, are the real auteurs if you will. Thor: Ragnarok doesn’t completely blow this up – yes, it still very much delivers what you expect from a Marvel film – but it also delivers what you expect from the filmmaker who made What We Do in the Shadows and Hunt for the Wilderpeople. This may be small process – but I’ll take, mostly because this film is an absolute blast to sit through.
The story of the film involves Thor (Chris Hemsworth), who finds himself on a distant planet, the prisoner of its ruler, the Grandmaster (Jeff Goldblum) and trying to get off, because the sister he didn’t know he had, Hela – the Goddess of Death (Cate Blanchett), has returned, and wants to enslave all of Asgard, so she can then enslave, well, everyone everywhere. The movie flashes back and forth in terms of the action from Asgard, where Hela is putting her plan in motion, to the other planet where Thor is captured by Valkyrie (a great Tessa Thompson), and forced into gladiatorial combat against the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), who barely remembers Bruce Banner anymore.
From its opening scene – Thor being held captive by a different villain, for a different purpose – you can tell that this time, the Marvel film will focus more heavily on comedy than ever before. I’m not quite sure what took them so long to realize that Chris Hemsworth is hilarious (there were quite a few funny fish-out-of-water bits in the first Thor movie), but I’m glad they finally did, because Hemsworth is a delight here (they even make a joke about Natalie Portman not wanting to come back as Jane). The film leans into the comedic aspect of Thor, gives Tom Hiddleston’ s Loki some comedy to work with, and basically lets Jeff Goldblum be his most Jeff Goldblum-est here. Taika Waititi himself shows up doing the voice of Korg – and he delivers precisely the type of comedy you expect from him.
The film isn’t all comedy to be sure – the film is able to make the stakes of what is happening feel real, in part because Blanchett is smart enough to go boldly over the top, and yet not like everyone else, she doesn’t go for the campy laughs that many would in her role – she takes it seriously. There is an art to doing this sort of over-the-top villain – and not everyone can do it. Blanchett can, meaning we still haven’t found something she cannot do.
Yes, the film is still a little too long, and many of the same complaints you could level at most Marvel films could also be leveled here – it tries to cram too much in, the action all looks the same, etc. But the tone is right, and for once, I didn’t feel the length getting to me. The film simply worked at its chosen level – it doesn’t reinvent the Marvel film, but it tinkers with it enough to surprise and delight.
