Matt Reviews - Thor: Ragnarok

WARNING: SPOILERS

This movie had me as soon as the trailers played Led Zeppelin’s “Immigrant Song.”

Asgard faces its greatest threat yet when the death of Odin (Anthony Hopkins) releases his villainous daughter Hela (Cate Blanchett) from her imprisonment. Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and Loki (Tom Hiddleston) are banished to the other end of the universe, where Thor is forced to be a gladiator and fights against a familiar and surprising face: the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo). The two Avengers join forces once more, this time joined by Loki and fellow Asgadian Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson) to make their way back to Asgard and stop Hela’s wave of death.

This movie is such a blast from beginning to end. I’ve never really disliked the other Thor movies (even though I think Thor: The Dark World is probably the weakest entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe), but this movie made me realize that the other movies had problems that were hindering it from becoming the Thor movie I really wanted. Specifically, it takes away Earth as a major set piece, allowing the film to take place entirely in space and become more of its own thing. And it gets rid of the human characters in favor of a more interesting supporting cast.

Thor has become a more wise-cracking hero (most likely due to spending so much time with mortals like Tony Stark) with a new awkward charm about him, which serves to make him more human and likeable. Even though this movie is called Thor: Ragnarok, the Hulk gets a lot of time to shine. The Jolly Green Giant has come a long way since we last saw him, now being able to speak better due to not turning back into Banner for two years. Him and Thor have a lot of good scenes together that show a new softness to the Hulk that we’ve never really seen before in these movies.

Loki returns in full force as well. In previous movies (especially The Dark World), Loki was the best character in the film, and the emphasis placed on his fan appeal winded up making him steal the spotlight from some of the other characters (most egregiously Malekith, the actual main villain of The Dark World). Here, Loki is still a great character, Tom Hiddleston puts another memorable performance, and he gets some more character development, but his presence doesn’t overshadow the other characters in the film. Which is good, since the movie introduces some new cast members that need their fair share of attention.

Eat your heart out, Batman V Superman.

Hela is our main villain. With Marvel being on a recent good track record regarding more memorable villains (see Zemo, Ego, and the Vulture), how does Hela play out? She’s pretty good, but they honestly could have done more. Cate Blanchett’s performance is one of the best things about this character, as well as her untamed badassery when it comes to her fight scenes. As the “Goddess of Death”, they could have given Hela the standard “shoots a wave of death out of her hands” powers (which seemed to be the case in the trailers), but they instead elect to show her massacring Asgardgian soldiers with her bare hands and weird knife-summoning powers. It’s a damn cool fight scene, and she even gets another one later when she fights Thor hand-to-hand.

The problem with Hela is that she’s set up as Odin’s firstborn daughter and the secret sister of Thor and Loki, yet these aspects aren’t touched on all that much. Odin’s plot-convenient death is what causes her appearance, so that means the two never get to share scenes that deal with Odin imprisoning her and all that stuff about the Nine Realms being built on death and destruction. She and Thor are separated for most of the movie until the climax, meaning that they can’t have any interactions as brother and sister. This kind of antagonistic sibling relationship works with Thor and Loki because they share a lot of scenes together in previous movies as well as this one that deal with the fallout of a sibling becoming your worst enemy. Because Thor and Hela barely share any of the movie together, they can’t build on that relationship, and the climax feels less like “Thor fighting an evil family member” and more like “Thor fights another powerful villain.” But Hela is in no way a bad villain, and the movie definitely makes her memorable.

The other new characters are pretty good additions as well. The Grandmaster, played by Jeff Goldblum, is another antagonist in this movie. He’s basically playing himself, just in weird space makeup and flashy clothes. He’s amazingly over-the-top and weird in every scene he’s in, and as a, uh, uh, uh, Jeff Goldblum, uh, fan, I’m very grateful he was in this movie, and I really hope he returns in the MCU at some point. Korg the rock-man was another standout character, voiced by the director of the movie Taika Waititi. He’s charming, funny, and utterly likeable, making any scene he’s in always something memorable. But the best new character has to be Valkyrie. She’s got a troubled past of watching her fellow Valkyries be slaughtered by Hela, which turned her into an alcoholic scrapper working for the Grandmaster. She goes through probably the best character development in the movie, and has some good chemistry with Thor and the Hulk. Plus, she’s a badass lady warrior, and badass lady warriors are always welcome in my superhero movies (especially since this one decided to shelve Lady Sif for some reason).

Doctor Strange also has a cameo in this movie that probably could have been cut, but I’m not mad he was in it. His entire purpose in the movie seems to be just to build the world of the MCU more and establish a connection between heroes and franchises, much like Falcon’s appearance in Ant-Man. His role of being the person to lead Thor and Loki to Odin (and therefore the rest of the plot) could have really been taken by anyone (even Loki himself), and his portion of the film where he abducts Loki and freaks Thor out with his magical abilities does seem like a bit of a detour from the main film, but it didn’t ruin the entire movie for me. I do however wish that they had brought the good doctor back later in the film, maybe to help in the climax to some degree, like what the movie did with Surtur.

God bless this man.

The movie is more lighthearted and jokey than the previous Thor movies, which allows the movie to be one big bombastic romp throughout. As I’ve stated in previous reviews, some of the more recent Marvel films seem to rely a little too much on comedy and silliness at times, but I’ve never seen it as a huge problem. (Compared to the grimdark movies that started out DC’s cinematic universe, I was grateful.) However, there are a few points in this movie where the jokes could have definitely been dialed back to let other scenes have their emotional weight. For example, the destruction of Asgard is set up as a punchline to one of Korg’s quips, and then it immediately expects me to feel sad by cutting to a bunch of Asgardians watching their home die. Could we not let the destruction of an entire world be left as a serious moment?

The set designs are beautiful, and a lot more memorable than anything in the previous Thor movies. Sakaar and the Grandmaster’s arena all have this beautifully bright and colorful sci-fi aesthetic to it that calls to mind the work of classic comic book artist Jack Kirby. It’s a major step up from The Dark World, where when Thor visits another world, it’s primary characteristic is “gray.” Even Asgard looks brighter and newer in this movie, and we get to see more of it than we ever did in previous movies, almost as if it’s trying to counteract the other places we get to visit.

The soundtrack is one of the best in any MCU movie. The previous Thor movies elected for bombastic, high fantasy-esque music. Ragnarok still has some of that, but mixes it in with retro synth pop that still manages to feel big and epic. The film is scored by Mark Mothersbaugh of Devo, and given that the film draws a lot of inspiration from Marvel’s cosmic stories of the ‘70’s and ‘80’s, this feels appropriate. Also, the climax is partially scored by the aforementioned “Immigrant Song.” Meaning that we get heart-pounding classic rock playing over a suped-up Thor and Valkyrie fighting the undead, Hulk battling a giant wolf, and Skurge the Executioner making his last stand wielding two AK-47’s. Bad. Ass.

 If you want a definition for the term “epicly awesome”, look no further than Thor: Ragnarok. It’s got memorable and likeable characters, beautiful set designs and cinematography, a fun, balls-to-the-wall atmosphere, a killer soundtrack, a Jeff Goldblum out of touch with reality, and one of the best climaxes in an MCU movie to date. The fight against Hela escalates so much that the heroes have to BRING THE APOCALYPSE ITSLEF to destroy Asgard and finally defeat Hela. Top that, Infinity War! The problems I did have with this movie were mostly minor, and none of them ruined the film for me. It’s the best Thor movie, but it’s also surprisingly the best Hulk movie.

Mortal Kombat (2017): Starring Chris Hemsworth as Raiden.

Previously, I had thought the first Thor was the best of them. But Thor 3 makes Thor 1 look like Thor 2.

Final verdict: 9/10.

Now I can't wait for Infinity War to show the Avengers reacting to the changes in status quo over the past three years. Tony and Steve are at odds, Hulk's semi-intelligent, Thor's missing an eye and Mjolnir and Asgard's destroyed, and now there's this talking raccoon from space...