Thor: Love and Thunder
MARVEL - DISNEYRegardless of the director's public persona and personality for the eccentric in recent years, the flavour and combination of Taika Waititi's aesthetic and the Norse God Thor once again roars in a successful moulding of the absurd but endlessly entertaining. Taking the ridiculous and peculiar idiosyncrasies of this character and this world for that matter, Waititi and Hemsworth go further to excel this character's nature as well as further investigate the universe surrounding him in all their eccentricities.
In a similar vein to 2017’s Thor Ragnarok, Waititi holds the eccentric against, for what is the most part, a detailed close eye to the source material comic book. Often using comic panels as close storyboards to craft vivid and creative frames that breath live and flair. Each sequence and, for that matter. frame constantly provide a certain level of visual intrigue and individualism that not only reinforces the stardust eccentrics of the world but ultimately stands this out from the normal and undeniably looking and feeling saturated MCU crowd. Granted, much like director Waititi himself, Thor: Love and Thunder caters to a specific taste and audience. Those who prefer a more gritty and internally expressive caper similar to the DC universe are probably going to run up short to what is essentially an oxymoronic palette cleanser with depth. The term oxymoronic here is in context to what essentially derives from the MCU model of singular stories leading to an all-ensemble film, each fragment can be engrossed or ignored completely but much like Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, regardless of how unique, in particular, and fragrant a certain instalment is, it is only ever episodic in nature and never really feels productive in the seismic story.
With Thor: Love and Thunder, it shockingly feels the opposite of sorts. This is a feature that not only comes full circle regarding the titular character itself but goes further to wrap up internal storylines to create a small saga with sincere weight. Not only does this craft meaning and merit, but it also substantiates a thread through four features and thus with this more substantial internal and immersive storytelling crafts a quite emotive stellar weight regarding character and plot. Granted, this does not elevate or transcend the comic book lore but nevertheless does fight back ever so slightly on the formulaic nature of the marvel franchise, alas with a major issue that will be mentioned towards the end of the review. However, Waititi's feature does feel unique in the fact that it finds quite a brilliant balance with the past and present, namely in the context of understanding – finally, may it be added – that of the character Jane Foster and actually being able to earn the character arc they undertake with the once absent Natalie Portman. Said character arc is not necessarily new as a small but integral part of this character; it is also present in the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise and naysayers will presumably state that for an emotive core it is arguably the easiest and most simplistic tear-jerker to include for emotional blackmail – which would be hard to argue against. Alas, when in the context of the flair and colourful nature of proceedings, the darker and deeper character arc of Jane Foster offers a stark and bitter contrast to Thor's world and one which brings a beautiful level of morality and consequence. It is perfectly played by Portman who reassures this franchise that her presence was and will be undeniably missed. The actress's presence and depth here is a stellar inclusion and undeniably elevates the ordinary into something far more personalised and connective with the talent Portman conveys, specifically in internal torment and the abstract of morality. In fact, this feature, and the overall franchise, haven't really deserved such a poignancy; to make things even more strange and surprising, Waititi and co manage to succeed with these emotive merits in not one but two major characters.
This obviously leads to the character and performance of Gorr from Christian Bale. This is character and performance is an eye opener to the difference in performing levels. Gorr is a character with an arc that, on paper, is ever so simplistic and conventional in the means of villain wants something that will destroy the hero, so the hero has to destroy the villain, and so on and so forth. But, what Bale brings to this role – very much like Portman – is the cloak of restraint and an emotive portrait. Bale produces a tonally different level of emotional anguish and layers to substantiate this character that provokes all manner of emotive responses and internal caveats of the moral compass. The external is also terrifying enough with superbly crafted iconography in terms of costume and make-up design, but it is restrained in allowing Bale to provide a humanistic and disciplined portrait of grief without the need of an abstract cape and mask.
That being said, this is not all just a dark angst underbelly. Waititi brings a formidable balance of fun and entertainment to proceedings. Sometimes without an inkling of restraint that often takes over, but when the writer-director nails it, he does so with splendid and rigours galore. This namely comes in the form of self-referential humour that Chris Hemsworth brings to the table in a fabulous conscious of self-deprecation that with the bonus of eight or nine appearances within the MCU has multiple moments to pull from and toy with. Hemsworth nails Thor like it's the back of his hand, as stated above the comical moments are nailed with absolution and it constantly brings brevity and humourous pause to the otherwise conventional and generic plot. Hemsworth does not shy away from the more gravitas, emotional dabbles and succeeds in a tremendous balance of pause and reflection when the feature reaches its crescendo notes. Often in contemplation surrounding the character arc of the aforementioned Jane Foster and thus Natalie Portman, of whom Hemsworth does a notable job of keeping up to the pedestal of talent. Waititi also brings another narrated notion of comedic humour to proceedings in that of the character Korg, which always brings a layer of humour to the audience. Surprisingly, but not surprisingly, the biggest coup of humour here and the scene stealer is a certain Russell Crowe as Greek God Zeus. Crowe, with the limited bloated cameo he has, owns the dancefloor, so to say, in an eccentric and blatantly obtuse performance that is not only fun but certainly refreshing to see a performance that treats the role in a certain understanding of what it entails which is searching for the ridiculousness but does not undermine the creativity but actually allowing it to flow.
Earlier in this review, it was mentioned that there is a slight issue with this type of film but not, especially an issue that alienates Thor: Love and Thunder, but more so the episodic nature of proceedings. As a singular entity, or even with its proceedings internal features, Waititi's film is successful in making morality and the narrative feeling both raw and real. The issue is that in the long run, this entity is simply episodic in nature and not a fulfilling beginning and end with real gravitas and a surge of repercussion. It is not just an issue with Thor but also with Sam Raimi's Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, even with a uniqueness, or identity, and edge that crafts a fulfilling narrative with emotional substance, it ultimately becomes disregarded in the long run and loses that essence of individuality and self-identity. Nevertheless, for any audience who lapped up Thor Ragnarok or the more space flair of Guardians of the Galaxy, those same people will be in a world of love with Waititi's latest MCU exploit. Nevertheless, those who loathe the director and his humour will still find the poignancy felt in this feature via the screenplay and performances but alas it won't do much in terms of changing the goalposts nor transcending those very same feelings of alienation regarding humour. That beind said, for a more emotionally complex, heartfelt and poignant piece of the yet to be completed MCU jigsaw, Thor: Love and Thunder is a roaring sucess.
