OK, so, if anyone cares, I am a wee bit behind on reviews. I had my two nephews visiting last week, and while we did see Thor: Love and Thunder, I was spending a lot of time keeping the two of them entertained for the week. That meant mostly letting the older boy watch a lot of movies I’d already seen when we were at my apartment, and I spent that time keeping my generally nervous cat calm with strangers in the house. Now that the boys’re gone, I can get a little catch-up in with what I did manage to see while they were here, starting with the latest addition to the MCU.
I mean, why wouldn’t I start with that one?
Thor (Chris Hemsworth), the Norse god of thunder, has been traveling with the Guardians of the Galaxy, but he’s not really feeling it. He opts to return to New Asgard on Earth. Run by King Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson), Asgard is not what it used to be by a long shot, and Thor arrives just in time to help fend off an attack by Gorr the God-Butcher (Christian Bale). Gorr is armed with the necrosword, a powerful weapon that can kill a god. However, Thor is in for a shock when he sees his broken hammer Mjolinir has been pieced together and is in use by a new Thor, the Mighty Thor. That turns out to be Thor’s old human girlfriend Jane Foster (Natalie Portman, returning to the series after sitting out the fantastic Thor: Ragnarok) Somehow, she managed to get the pieces of Mjolinir to not only come together again but to also give her the same sort of power Thor has.
Thor is going to need that help. Gorr has been cutting a swath through alien gods and left a lot dead all over the place, and while the Thors do manage to fend his shadow monsters off, Gorr has other ways to bring the gods to him. Thor believes he needs to find other gods to form an army to stop Gorr, but that may not be so simple either. He may need to get by with himself, Jane, Valkyrie, rock-man alien Korg (writer/director Taika Waititi), and a couple of screaming goats. However, this whole adventure may be all Thor needs to reflect on love, what it means, and what he’s willing to do for it. Jane is supposed to be the love of his life. What happened to them, and can they patch things up and try again? Or should they?
Let’s make one thing clear: this one is not on the same level of Thor: Ragnarok. That’s not that surprising in the grand scheme of things. It would be difficult for Waititi to get something that good a second time. That one was something of a revelation as Marvel finally seemed to figure out how to make a Thor movie that stood out as unique on its own. That sort of storytelling continues with Love and Thunrder but without the presence of Tom Hiddleston’s Loki or Jeff Goldblum’s Grandmaster. However, there is still a lot going for this one, and that comes in part from Bale’s take on a truly tragic villain, Russell Crowe’s hilariously pompous take on the Greek god Zeus, and returning characters like Korg (here acting as something of a narrator) and Hemsworth’s Thor making things a lot of fun.
But then there’s Portman’s Jane. Portman’s first two go-arounds as the character were basic hero-girlfriend roles without much depth, but this time around, the movie really digs into Jane in ways that weren’t done before. Why did Thor and Jane break up in the first place? What would someone like Jane do with god-like power? What do she and Thor mean to each other, and how awkward will they be when circumstances thrust them back together again? Portman is a talented actor, but she hasn’t always been served right by her time in blockbuster movies. This time around she got something to do and made the most of it. That’s something that Marvel seems to be doing a bit better these days, digging into characters that might otherwise have gotten the short shrift. Yes, the final result for Love and Thunder is a bit uneven, but many of the parts make up a nice enough whole that it was still a good time at the movies. Besides, everyone in this movie looks like they are having fun. That counts for a lot.
Grade: B-
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