Synopsis

Thor teams up with Valkyrie, Korg, and his ex-girlfriend Jane Foster to defeat Gorr the God Butcher.

Where'd I watch this?

Local movie theater but honestly it wasn't worth the money.

Here's the Youtube trailer.

And I know, I know, it's a fun-looking trailer but besides those trailer scenes it's all down-hill from there.

What'd I think?

I was praying that this movie would be good, that it would live up to the hype of its predecessor, 2017's THOR: RAGNAROK ...

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... But it really, really didn't.

I really, really wanted this movie to be good. 2017's THOR RAGNAROK is one of my favorite Marvel Comics films (My top 5 are AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR, BLACK PANTHER, CAPTAIN AMERICAN: CIVIL WAR, THOR:RAGNAROK, and AVENGERS: ENDGAME).

I mean, it's a Thor movie with probably the most attractive member of the Avengers. Just have him go another heartfelt journey, that teaches us more about his upbringing on Asgard, Asgardian history, Asgardian culture, other Asgardian characters, some good character-foil jokes with the Guardians of the Galaxy ... how hard can it be?

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But no ... they somehow managed to screw that up.

I'm very confused as to how they went from THIS: Source

To THIS: Source

You could tell in 2017's THOR RAGNORAK that everyone single person was having a hell of a time, everything looked super cool, the action and the scrip were non-stop fun, and each character hit some very interesting beats.

But in 2022's THOR: LOVE & THUNDER, everyone just looks hungover, stiff, swollen, and super ridiculous.

There's an interesting bit about the New Asgard on Earth being nothing more than a cheap amusement-park knockoff of its former self but that interesting development isn't tackled any further. It's just some weird Asgardian toon-town for .. idk Norse mythology lovers?

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I high hopes for Natalie Portman as a girl-version of Thor but they handled it with the same bumbling, lack of confidence they did with the rest of the film. I wanted to see her be super bad-ass, maybe even more so than Thor. Seeing the hammer select her as more worthy than him, or for the weapon to be traumatized by being broken by Hela, or some explanation for how Hela even broke it to begin with.

There's a bit in the movie where we see in the past that Thor asks Mjolnir to promise to always try to protect Jane no matter what, which acts at the perfect motivation for why she may have become Lady Thor but they never address it.

Also, I expected a lot more from Natalie Portman. Since she's been doing movies since she was young and has done some great stuff: STAR WARS, BLACK SWAN, LEON THE PROFESSIONAL.

And then there's what what they did to Tessa Thompson's Valkyrie in this movie. She's probably the most badass character from Thor's corner of the MCU, especially with her kick-ass introduction in THOR RAGNAROK buther character gets robbed of any good action and wit in this movie.

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VALKRYIE: Where the hell did all my solo action-scenes and witty one-liners go?

THOR: Don't look at me. I was told we were doing "Asguardians of the Galaxy." No idea wtf this is.

Another guy who really looked like he didn't want to be there, was Chris Pratt. Source

THOR: Chris Prattlord, please don't leave me.

STARLORD: Nah, f^ck this Disney sh@t. Gonna do some Zero Dark Thirty stuff for Amazon.

And then this was THIS guy ... Christian Bale as Gorr the God Butcher, trying his hardest to carry this stinking pile of trash on his back to the box-office finish line. I have no idea how they got someone as great as Christian Bale to do such a rarely-known villain but not even his mighty star power and talent exorcise this mess of its demons. This is the guy from Nolan's DARK KNIGHT batman trilogy, AMERICAN PSYCHO, THE MACHINIST, REIGN OF FIRE, THE BIG SHORT, VICE, THE FLOWERS OF WAR, TERMINATOR: SALVATION, AMERICAN HUSTLE, THE FIGHTER, THE PRESTIGE, he's just in banger after banger after banger).

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Anyway ... it was a pretty big let-down and made Doctor Strange Two look like a masterpiece.

Final Grade?

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Hope you enjoyed this movie review!

If you're interested in more movies reviews by me, here's a list of my previous entries: