Given that Thor Ragnarok is the 17th instalment in the infinitely expanding MCU its understandable that they want to do whatever they can to keep that fresh, new car smell about the place. Thor’s appearances in the MCU have included two previous solo outings and both the Avengers films (not including the unofficial third one, Avengers: Civil War). In Age of Ultron we were given a poorly crafted tease in to Ragnarok with a vision brought on by skinny dipping in a hot spring, teasing also the impending Infinity War via the Infinity Stones. In his first outing, Thor is a brutish, entitled Godling who has more power than respect spending his days dreaming of ruling Asgard. Over the film he grows, earning a maturity through a combo of self-sacrifice and Natalie Portman. The second film was less well received, with arguably the plainest villain (Malaketh) in the MCU to date, the most cookie cutter plot, unnecessary side characters and an overall drab feeling. The ending seemed to promise something intriguing in the form of Loki somehow not dead (also unmaking the impact of the films best scene) and upon the throne of Asgard disguised as Odin.
If you wanted to see the intrigue of Loki on the throne, manipulating things, the mystery of what happened to Odin, then set aside those thoughts as the film has almost no interest in dealing with it. The plot of the trilogy closer is that Hela, the Goddess of Death seeks to unleash the end of Asgard as we know it and claim dominion over the Nine Realms and beyond. In doing so, Thor is left on a scrapheap of a world, held hostage and in need of escape to save his world. One would think that a sequel is supposed to build upon the world that was built before but instead it chooses to almost entirely abandon the world it established. More than that, it actively seems to want to destroy everything previously
established by rewriting the entire lore of Thor that we’ve been shown. The history of Asgard, the family of Odin, even giving a kind of redesign to Thor by cutting his hair and destroying his iconic Hammer. It’s clear from the opening scene that this Thor is not the Thor that we have gotten to know – opening with Thor in captivity, expositing to a skeleton before briefly channelling Tony Stark/Starlord when face to face with an enemy by quipping relentless, breaking any and all illusions of tension or seriousness.
From the outset, the film announces itself as a comedy first and foremost, in the vein of Guardians of the Galaxy. Previously, the comedy brought to the MCU from Thor was in his culture clash with those around him or his bombastic nature as an actual God. Now, every moment, with one early exception, is upended by the compulsion to include a quip in the same fashion as Guardians 2. The earnest with which the film does this has the same smell of desperation to perceived as “fun” that Volume 2 also had. Much like Guardians 2 it also doesn’t seem to be able decide upon a tone to stick to, switching viciously between the no nonsense, wholesale slaughter by Hela and the happy go lucky comedy with Thor and Friends. The new focus on humour also creates arguably the biggest distraction in the way of the character and performance shift for our lead hero. Hemsworth has all but ditched the Shakespearean delivery
in place of a more colloquial, faster delivery that just doesn’t sound like Thor at times.
As is the trend these days, Thor gathers a troupe of reliable outcasts to help in his quest – this time composed of the returning Tom Hiddleston as brother Loki, the unconvincing Tessa Thompson as Valkyrie and a Mark Ruffalo as the Hulk. Ruffalo spends a good deal of time as the Hulk here, given time to establish the character of the Big Guy as unique from that of Bruce Banner. At times, Hulk managers to capture the child like behaviour of his 90’s cartoon counterpart, being boorish but loveable. His conflict with Thor provides some of the truly fun moments in the film as the two continually attempt to establish themselves as the “Strongest Avenger”. Sadly, it is Tessa Thompson’s lifeless performance that undermines the troupe, constantly seeming un-invested in her goings on. Her introduction as the drunken warrior is embarrassingly weak and she never feels like a real character. Other new additions fare much better as Karl Urban’s performance as Skurge makes what could have been an abrasive distraction largely enjoyable. The same is true for Jeff Goldblum as the Grandmaster of the Scrap world. Again, what could have been a character so outlandish as to not belong is played expertly by Goldblum with his patented delivery.
The world that most of this film takes place on, Sakaar, seems to have deliberately been constructed to resemble the Guardians aesthetic, likely due to Thor being the join between the Avengers and the Guardians in the upcoming Infinity War. It is perhaps inevitable that the desire to make transitions between the Marvel worlds as seamless as possible would erode the accompanying individuality of each. Here that erosion comes across as the studio applying the look of what is currently popular in a bid to sell the film better.
If you were a fan of the character of Thor based on his first two solo outings and his Avengers appearances, then likely you will not think highly of the changes to his character and portrayal. If the intrigue set up by Dark World was what you wanted to see, the you likely will be a touch disappointed. If you wanted your Thor to be redesigned, lose his hammer, have his lore rewritten for little to no reason and replace his unique world settings with Guardians left overs the you will likely really enjoy this film. Okay, that might be a bit harsh. There are some things to enjoy here but most all of it centres around small exchanges with Hulk and/or Loki with Thor too busy practicing his 5 minute stand up set to ever make the film feel like anything more than fluff, arranging pieces for Infinity War with no regard for the movements the pieces made before.
