THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
Three movies in a row, every movie about Thor has had a different director. While Kenneth Branagh and Alan Taylor had something interesting going in their different approaches towards the character, it never the right mark on being a fun film like Iron Man, Guardians of the Galaxy, or The Avengers. However, third time the charm was the key because Taika Waititi gave us just that.
PLOT
In Thor: Ragnarok, the titular demigod encounters Surtur who claims that he must fulfill his destiny to destroy Asgard, which is the prophecy of Ragnarok. He then reveals that Odin is not in Asgard and because of his absence, the Nine Realms have been out of order. After defeating him, thinking that the prophecy’s prevented, Thor goes home to discover that his brother Loki has been impersonating their father, in order to rule Asgard. Both brothers go searching for him on Earth and with the aid of Doctor Strange, they find him in Norway. Odin is dying and explains that Ragnarok is imminent and his firstborn Hela, the Goddess of Death will be free once he’s gone. Originallly, she was too powerful and ambitious, leading to him locking her away. After he dies, she arrives. She immediately destroys Thor’s hammer Mjolnir and when both brothers flee, she kicks them off into space and enters Asgard via Bifrost. Now that grows stronger the longer she’s on Asgard, she wipes out an entire Asgardian army, including the Warriors Three (Ray Stevenson’s Volstagg, Zachary Levi’s Fandral and Tadanobu Asano’s Hogun). Thor and Loki crashland on Sakaar but go through different fates: While Thor becomes an imprisoned fighter captured by a former Valkyrie, Loki gains trust with the Grandmaster, who runs the gladiator competition, ‘Contest of Champions’. The Grandmaster does make a deal with Thor that if he can beat his champion, he can leave. Back at Asgard, Hela appoints Skurge as her loyal companion and executioner, out of fear. She then uses the Eternal flame to resurrect her undead army, including the Fentris Wolf. She plans to conquer other worlds but is unable to after Heimdall (Idris Elba), who is hiding the planet's civilians, stole the Bifrost sword. At Sakaar, Thor fights Grandmaster’s champion that turns out to be the Hulk, who crash landed two years prior. Thor almost beats him but Grandmaster rigs the fight, ensuring his champion’s victory. He now plans to escape the planet with Hulk and Valkyrie’s help, who both decline. When he escapes the palace, he finds the Quinjet Hulk crashlanded on. However, Hulk destroys the ship when catching up to him. The demigod plays a video from Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), which makes Hulk turn back into Bruce Banner. Loki and the Valkyrie are ordered by the Grandmaster to find the two Avengers, but a dispute leads to Loki showing Valkyrie’s memory of her surviving Hela’s assault, as she is the last survivor left of her kin. This leads to her deciding to help Thor. Loki gives aid by stealing one of the Grandmaster’s ships, which he had access to. The newly grouped ‘Revengers’ leave him behind when he attempted to betray Thor again. However, he tags along with escaped gladiators including the Kronan Korg and humanoid insect Miek. The Revengers go through the planet's biggest wormhole, 'The Devil's Anus', which takes them straight to Asgard. Thor calls out Hela so that Heimdall and the people can avoid her. When fighting his sister, he loses his right eye. Bruce turns into Hulk again and defeats the Fentris Wolf while Loki arrives with the gladiators to fight the undead army. Thor gets a vision from Odin that his power was inside him all along, Mjolnir. He also explains that Asgard was never a place, it's a people, meaning Asgard can live as long as there is a people. After this, he fights with all his power and summons Ragnarok to defeat Hela. As Skurge dies rebelling against Hela, Loki uses the Eternal Flame to resurrect Surtur. As everyone including all of the protagonists board the ship Loki arrived in, Hela and the original home of Asgard die due to Surtur's destruction. Thor is then finally appointed as the King of Asgard, who now plans to head to Earth find a new home for his people.
THOUGHTS
When seeing this film in theaters back in 2017, I had high expectations due to how the first two were far from great in the MCU. I was obviously excited because a trailer always succeeds in making me that way. And thankfully, this one lived up to the hype. This looked like the most challenging movie to date for the standards of Thor movies because you're using inspiration from multiple story arcs from Marvel Comics and putting it all in one film. That sounds like something that would backfire but it plays out very well, surprisingly. Again, this is the kind of film that had to somehow be fun despite having an arc with serious circumstances. The biggest payoff that could've been a backfire is the use of improvised dialogue, which made the movie funnier. After watching Spider-Man: Homecoming and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 in the same year, I knew this one would be no exception on making me laugh. Whether it was scenes like: Thor's snake story, shouting 'Get Help', Loki's play starring Matt Damon, Skurge playing with a shake weight, Thor thinking Loki turned into paper, screaming when meeting the Grandmaster, Stan Lee being a barber or Bruce's fall, I swear that I was laughing almost the entire time, which proves that I was having fun as this movie is supposed to be. The action is great here due to obvious great visuals, which help ensure that you're invested if not laughing in between the jokes. Even though I love this movie alot, there were some flaws I've noticed the more I re watched it. The first would be about Odin. While it’s fair to defend his wisdom to Thor in the third act, it’s during his death scene that bothered me. There has to be a good reason why he never told his sons of Hela and it’s upsetting we don’t get it here. I mean, he explained why he adopted Loki so I don’t see a problem not explaining his secret Hela. Speaking of Hela, when we see wipe out the Warriors Three, I could not stop wondering where is Jaimie Alexander’s character, Lady Sif. I understand the actress was working on nbc’s Blindpsot at the time, but there should’ve been some excuse to write her out, the way they did with Natalie Portman’s Jane Foster. One expositional comment would’ve been enough. Another problem would be about the Grandmaster. It felt weird to see him introduce himself again after just having a hologram doing that for him. That felt pointless for me and I’m almost pulled out of the movie at that point for that scene alone. I also found it odd that Loki was in Sakaar and did not know Hulk was the champion. If he’s been here for a while, it feels like Grandmaster would’ve shown him for the sake to brag. Another flaw would be Black Widow’s cameo. Her dialogue sounds way different compared to Age of Ultron. In that film she mentions that the job is finished and said nothing of Ultron but here, she mentions Ultron and that makes no sense because Hulk kicked Ultron off the Quinjet and Wanda/Vision destroyed the last two bodies. Making this the biggest continuity error in this film and overall franchise. The last one would be the after credit scene. I loved the mid credit scene building up Infinity War, where Thor and Loki see a bigger ship, but seeing Grandmaster overthrown was pointless because it doesn't give us something big. Sure this makes sense to give us something to imply what happened to this character afterwards, but I personally don't think we needed to know. If you ignore the flaws, you're still gonna be having a blast by the end. And of course in a superhero film like this, there is always a good ensemble. Chris Hemsworth gives a home run here, as he gives what is likely his best portrayal of the titular superhero compared to his past outings. In my opinion, this is the best one because we've seen how much the character's grown and he expresses it finely. He shows the pressure Thor is going through while also making us laugh in between. It almost feels pointless for him to lose his eye here due to getting another one during Infinity War, but there is good reason here. He loses it here because he gets wisdom afterwards, which is a reference to what happens to the character in Norse mythology. Seeing him kick ass with ‘Immigrant Song’ playing in the background in the opening and near the climax, is the most badass moment of the whole movie. The greatest lesson he teaches us that what defines you comes from within, not out. It felt great to see Loki again because Tom Hiddleston's return felt like he never left. Every scene he has here, he continues to bring energy where you feel that he was meant to play the God of Mischief. Seeing him go through this anti hero phase was clever because it is technically his fault that Odin died. Once he realizes that, he chooses to finally help his brother to right his wrong. Even though he does good again, he can't help himself being mischievous when he glares at the Tesseract. I remember seeing the 2017 leaked San Diego Comic Con footage for Infinity War prior to the film. The leaked teaser showed Loki with the cube, so the only sense of the scene here is to imply when he got it again. So when the official Infinity War trailer showed the scene again, I wasn't so surprised. Waititi knows how to tell a great story as a director and there's no exception here. What people forget is that he can be a funny actor as well. Here, he plays Korg and this probably the funniest role he ever played before playing his parody of Adolf Hitler in Jojo Rabbit. Korg is much more serious of a warrior compared to here. But this change works because Waititi makes him charming due to each delivery. Whether he shouts 'Piss off ghost' or talking about his failed revolution, he truly was the highlight of the movie for me. I also got to give credit for him doing stand in motion capture work for Korg and Surtur. It was definitely great to see Hulk return in this film because he fitted right in with the story and the given environment. As a fan of the big green, seeing him in the gladiator outfit was the best reference ever, as that acknowledged the 'Planet Hulk' comic, where Korg and Miek appeared. Mark Ruffalo continues to do a great job with the dual performance of a man fighting the monster within. It definitely earned its emotional moment for Hulk turning back into Banner after seeing the Black Widow video, because it implies that he still missed her deep down. Considering that there was more screentime for Hulk instead of Banner, it felt creative to see Hulk more talkative, showing his own growth. I thought Sir Anthony Hopkins was still great here in his given time for Odin. It was clever to see him pretending to be a disguised Loki, then later playing someone who is sadly ready to die. Seeing that in a limited amount of time, shows the range the actor always has within. I did not recognize Clancy Brown at all for Surtur's voice, proving what a great voice actor he is. He succeeds in making the villain just as menacing as he appears. Benedict Cumberbatch’s cameo as Doctor Strange was worth the price of admission due to cleverly flowing with the story, rather than something that wouldn’t drive the plot. Tessa Thompson surprised me alot here as Valkyrie. Her alcoholism is at first looked at as a joke, but there is a deep level for that. She is the last of her kin and she saw firsthand Hela wipe out every other Valkyrie. That flashback was pretty badass to witness yet it said a lot within a minute. Seeing her lose her sisters in arms broke her and lucky for her, Thor helped her regain her confidence and nobility as the brave warrior she was born to be. Karl Urban was okay for Skurge. Instead of being a full blown villain, he is shown as someone who wanted to shine and he gets that when he confronts Hela, dying in the process. And it was still pretty badass to see him shoot up the undead army with two machine guns he took from Earth, being a clever reference to what he did in Journey into Mystery #103. Jeff Goldblum was something else here when it came to the Grandmaster. The character is normally depicted as manipulative but here, he’s just somewhat energetic for a ruler, which is what makes his presence funny to see. They still keep him villainous when we see him he kill someone with his ‘melt stick’. Last but not least, Cate Blanchett is pure evil with Hela, with felt missing in this franchise, due to the heavy usage of writing villains with sympathetic backstories. This is the kind of role where you got to have fun with and Blanchett truly shows it. The more impatient and volatile she became in her screen time only made her more frightening to behold. To wrap up, Thor: Ragnarok is the best of Thor movies for having a better balance of exploring an integral storyline while also being fun to see. If you made it this far into the MCU and still love Thor, don’t hesitate seeing this one.
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