Thor 4: Love and Thunder - 2022

[Gabe]

So this is a film that exists. It doesn't do anything to further, well, anything (not that any of this phase has really done much in that regard). LIKE GotG2, it tries too hard to be funny all the time and it gets draining. Hemsworth has seemingly crossed over from a fun, but driven character to this joke-machine whom gets a bit more unlikeable with each appearance.

 

Spoilers

Spoiler

In no particular order, why did Jane get into Valhala, when it is established with Sif that she needed to die in battle (which she didn't)? 

 

What was the point of, well, anything? Bale wanted to kill the gods, but we don't see any of that, and then he doesn't even follow through anyway. 

 

The whole Zeus stuff was embarrassing.

 

Jane's death did nothing for me and I don't really understand her volunteering Thor to look after the kid. Also, despite the 'Thor will return', where can they go with his character now? He's still meant to be in GotG3, right? 

Like Dr Strange, I was looking forward to this but it left me feeling pretty cold, and none of the phase 4 films have made me excited at all about where it all could be going (if indeed athye even know). Very disappointing. 

[Popo]

Russel Crowe’s Greek accent reminded me of one of Steve Pemberton’s characters from the League of Gentlemen. 

[jon_cybernet]

7 hours ago, Haribokart said:

I like the MCU but haven't caught up, last thing I watched was Falcon and the Winter Soldier (which I never finished) but out of the blue have had two friends from completely different social groups text warning me to not watch this under any circumstances - nobody has ever messaged me anything like that about any movie before. I'm sure I'll watch this one day on Disney+ so no spoilers please but.. is it really that bad? THOR 2 BAD? I loved Ragnarok!

I suspect they’re warning you because the plot revolves heavily around 

 

Spoiler

Cancer

Rather than because the film is bad. It certainly fucked me up given that I wasn’t expecting that plot element and 

 

Spoiler

I went to see the film to cheer myself up after losing my mum to cancer on Monday. 

 

[Hanzo the Razor]

This sounds like all kinds of Superman IV.

[Thor]

My nephew is "sick" today, so I've refunded the tickets I bought. I've now suggested just waiting for it to appear on Disney+.

[Harsin]

2 hours ago, The Bag said:

 

That explains a lot, it has that feel of so many modern comedies (thinking stuff like Ghostbusters 2016 - where the director also boasted about just letting Hemsworth riff - or Anchorman 2)  where they just let the actors improv for ages. While I'm sure it was hilarious for everyone on set, generally what you end up with is jokes that go on and on and on and on until any vestige of humour is drained. A scene that annoyed me even while I was watching it was:

 

Spoiler

Where they answer Sif's distress call. In Endgame the Russo's did a good job of making stuff like Fortnite playing fat Thor funny, but also balanced that with the pathos of him obviously being deeply affected by all the people he's lost. Likewise Raganarok has a lot of comedy, but stuff like Thor's mate being killed trying to defend people in the square is played straight. Here you have a scene that's supposed to be our first glimpse of how much of a threat the bad guy is. Instead the whole scene is played with a tone like Lancelot talking to the 'dying' Concord in Monty Python and the Holy Grail with them making gags about her losing a limb.

 

Likewise after Gorr has kidnapped all the children, it’s hard to care about those stakes because the film is still in full-on relentless joke mode bringing back the acting troupe members again (after the reprisal of that gag - which was funny in Ragnarok - doing the sequel thing of let’s tell the exact same joke but longer and with more cameos), more of the running axe as jealous girlfriend joke, quip after quip after quip after quip.
 

There's a scene where Thor is trying to comfort the scared children via astral projection. Not long after a scene where Bale terrorises them where he's really effectively creepy. Valkyrie spends the entirety of it trying to annoy Thor by tickling his nose with her braids for lols. It might have been hilarious on the set on the day, but it doesn't make a lick of sense for her character given the situation they're in at the time. The comedy in Ragnarok felt much truer to the characters and their situations.

 

I'm not asking for some sort of grimdark Snyderfest. But Taika Waititi has been so good at balancing comedy and drama in his other films that this feels like a massive step backwards for him. If they wanted to make an out-an-out even lighter comedy after what he went through in Infinity War/Endgame I have no problem with that. But I question why they decided to mash together the comics' God Butcher and Jane Foster has cancer storylines when neither really suit that and you end up with what feels like a lesser Will Ferrell film with an incongruous child dying of dehydration scene.

 

[CarloOos]

I knew it was over for Taika as soon as I saw him pop up in Free Man. He’s gone from a low-key quirky indie darling to a self-consciously zany mainstream celebrity constantly playing tiresomely exaggerated versions of himself. Everything he’s been involved lately with has gone downhill, including WWDITS sadly. 

[Festoon]

16 minutes ago, CarloOos said:

I knew it was over for Taika as soon as I saw him pop up in Free Man. He’s gone from a low-key quirky indie darling to a self-consciously zany mainstream celebrity constantly playing tiresomely exaggerated versions of himself. Everything he’s been involved lately with has gone downhill, including WWITS sadly. 

 

His films have been a tonal mess for a while now.

[Popo]

How absolutely callous of me, @Haribokart please refer to @jon_cybernet’s comments and accept my apologies for not being more present of mind. 

[Benny]

From listening to Mark Kermode's review it sounded like the worst thing to ever come out of the entire Marvel factory. Mayo liked it, which doesn't usually mean anything. He has to be diplomatic to keep getting the stars in for interviews I guess.

[Stig]

5 hours ago, Benny said:

From listening to Mark Kermode's review it sounded like the worst thing to ever come out of the entire Marvel factory. Mayo liked it, which doesn't usually mean anything. He has to be diplomatic to keep getting the stars in for interviews I guess.

 

Mark's wrong on this one and tbh he's always sniffy about superhero films, even the ones the majority love so always take his critism on them with a pinch of salt 

 

Saying it wasn't funny (it was) when only a week before he was wetting himself over Minions probably doesn't give him much of a leg to stand on in that argument either.

 

I'm not even high on the film but Kermode was over board and playing up. He even moaned about Guardians being in the film..."what universe is this in" 

[Radish]

Nah he’s right, it’s painfully unfunny. There are barely any scenes in it where two people actually have a conversation with each other, it’s just joke after joke. 
 

Hardin’s post above is spot on. 

[JohnC]

Was that

Spoiler

Galactus outside the window in the God's place when the Goat Boat was escaping?

 

And was that the head of a statue of Arishem from Eternals that nearly squished the kids?

 

[Harsin]

Spoiler

It was just a couple of Celestials peering through the window.

 

[Benny]

I honesty think Marvel Studios are just wall-to-wall cocaine parties at this point.

[Harsin]

I wish. If they were putting out truly unhinged 70s/80s style yeah we were all so off our tits half of us can’t remember making it like Zardoz or Lifeforce, I’d be all for it. All the ‘wackiness’ in this feels quite cynical and focus grouped to the Nth degree with an eye to what lol monkeycheese moment will have the greatest potential to make a gif and go viral.

[Benny]

Those 70s and 80s cocaine parties were with people who were actually clever or creative though.

[Alex W.]

Let’s not get too carried away, Thor 2 refracted through Taika Waititi is still better than actual Thor 2, never mind some of the real sloppy turds that we’ve had from Disney since they bought everything.

[Scruff]

2 hours ago, JohnC said:

Was that

  Hide contents

Galactus outside the window in the God's place when the Goat Boat was escaping?

 

And was that the head of a statue of Arishem from Eternals that nearly squished the kids?

 

 

I got 

Spoiler

Yeha, it was Arishem a Watcher and the Living Tribunal (the slowly rotating three faced judge of the multiverse) but there were a couple more I couldn't quite make out.

 

[Ivanho]

Enjoyed this, silly in places but it bubbled along nicely and I never felt bored.  Kemode has always been a bit off with Marvel’s output so him not liking it isn’t a surprise (and him being confused as to why the GOTG gang were in it is point scoring, the target audience will know exactly why they are there).
 

No, it doesn’t quite hit the highs of Ragnarok but that is a high bar anyway.  Probably helps that I’m still a big GN’R fan so I was all in on the soundtrack.  It looked fabulous at times and a lot going on in the background to try and spot on a repeat viewing.

 

4 Mojolnir’s out of 5

 

[Thor]

8 hours ago, Thor said:

My nephew is "sick" today, so I've refunded the tickets I bought. I've now suggested just waiting for it to appear on Disney+.

Turns out my nephew has covid! Now I feel like a dick. 

[Fierce Poodle]

6 hours ago, Stigweard said:

 

Mark's wrong on this one and tbh he's always sniffy about superhero films, even the ones the majority love so always take his critism on them with a pinch of salt 

 

Saying it wasn't funny (it was) when only a week before he was wetting himself over Minions probably doesn't give him much of a leg to stand on in that argument either.

 

I'm not even high on the film but Kermode was over board and playing up. He even moaned about Guardians being in the film..."what universe is this in" 

Sorry that is complete nonsense. Kermode has admitted he’s not a comic book fan and not massively invested in the MCU but has generally been very positive about the films, recently being particularly enthusiastic about No Way Home and in the past raving about Black Panther. I was actually quite taken aback to hear him be so negative about this film.

 

And the Minions are hilarious so go fuck yourself 

[Broker]

I’m really surprised by the negative response. One thing I really liked was it being a tight 90 minutes or so. Bale is a far more compelling villain than 90% of Marvel’s output, it wasn’t constantly slowed down by pointless cameos and references to future marvel stuff that will never actually happen or won’t look the same if it does. Great soundtrack. I thought it balanced the tones pretty well. It’s not as good as Ragnarok but that’s one of my top 3 MCU movies, it’s certainly better than Spider-Man: Fanservice and Dr Strange Vs Sam Raimi’s Painful lack of talent. 
 

9 hours ago, Benny said:

From listening to Mark Kermode's review it sounded like the worst thing to ever come out of the entire Marvel factory. Mayo liked it, which doesn't usually mean anything. He has to be diplomatic to keep getting the stars in for interviews I guess.

 

Mark Kermode is a pretentious wang with terrible taste in films though. 

[Benny]

I don't think that's true at all. He consistently championed animation on their previous show, particularly Ghibli films and suchlike, and films like The Red Turtle. So that alone deserves some credit. It depends on your definition of a terrible film.

 

[Fierce Poodle]

5 minutes ago, Benny said:

It depends on your definition of a terrible film.

 

That’s easy - films he doesn’t like.

[makkuwata]

He rates the Twilight films. But I love him the mad bastard.

[Ry]

Friend of mine hated it. Detested it. Said it's the worst Thor film and one of the worst Marvel films. 

 

 

[Alask]

I think that’s fair, felt more like a bad Bill and Ted film than a Thor film.

[Fierce Poodle]

Mark “always sniffy about superhero films” Kermode reviews Black Panther.

 

 

[Benny]

I actually thought he gushed way too much about that movie even.