Review: Thor Ragnarok
Thor is usually not a superhero that gets me excited. I think this is the first Thor centered movie I’ve seen in theatres, and I still haven’t watched Dark World. The trailer was put together quite well however, and I was actually excited to go see the movie. I’m glad I did because I absolutely loved it!
Best Thor look ever!
The plot summary: Thor hears that his home world Asgard will be destroyed in Ragnarok, the prophesied apocalypse and that his father Odin is no longer there. His evil sister Hela comes to claim the throne sending Thor away. He gets imprisoned on a foreign world and is forced to fight in a gladiator battle for his freedom. It becomes a race against time for Thor to return home to defeat Hela and save Asgard.
Thor Ragnarok was filled with great action but it was actually all of the comedy that made it wonderful. It almost didn’t seem like a traditional superhero movie for about half the film and more of a buddy comedy between Thor and the Hulk. Newcomer Tessa Thompson played a drunk Valkyrie to comedic effect and Loki returned and was both fabulous and hilarious per usual. The most surprising comedy came from Korg who was played by the director Taika Waititi. Pretty much every scene with him had me laughing at his delivery of the lines.
I really enjoyed the aesthetics of Thor Ragnarok. The visuals were generally bright and fun and the retro synth style soundtrack was amazing. It was actually scored by Mark Motherbaugh who originally helped found music group Devo in the 1970’s. One planet Thor ends up on, Sakaar, is a good example of the diverse visuals in the film. From a salvage yard to the gladiator stadium there is a great mix of bright sci-fi imagined sets and attention to detail.
Not to mention some amazing lightning effects!
The acting was incredible. Chris Hemsworth really held the movie together but the supporting main cast all felt believable and gave great performances. Pretty much every cast member had a comedic moment in their performances, even the villains – mostly because they were hamming it up. Major shout out to Mark Ruffalo who played both the Hulk and Bruce Banner and managed to make them both funny and filled with emotion.
Unfortunately there was one thing I didn’t like about the movie. The last act was drawn out and boring. After such a light and fun comedic first 2 acts, the last battle in the final act got more serious and took too long. While the special effects of the fight were amazing (where some of those fun lightning effects come from), I found that I really didn’t care anymore about the main conflict of the movie. The plot spends so much time elsewhere you end up forgetting what the point of it was.
Overall I would definitely see this movie again. It was hilarious and fun in a way I didn’t know superhero movies could be. Even though the movie is about 30 minutes too long, the rest of the movie makes up for it.
I give it 4 Hulk smashes out of 5!