Thor: Love & Thunder Was Just As I Expected

I was not the biggest fan of Thor: Ragnarok.

While the first two films gave him the short end of the stick regarding fish out of water stories that made him the butt of the joke at times, and a story that had the potential for greatness if the majority of it wasn’t left on the cutting room floor, Thor: Ragnarok sacrificed the character’s personality and depth from years of classic and modern comic writers for the sake of portraying him as a bumbling himbo jock just to keep Chris Hemsworth from being bored portraying him. There were ways it could’ve worked, sure. I listed a few of them in a previous write-up and a video adaptation of said write-up. But it wouldn’t have changed the fact that what it took to make people interested in Thor -- both casual moviegoers AND the actor who portrays him -- was to fundamentally change him into the comic relief embodiment of a heavy metal cover from the 80’s. That was when I realized that the Thor I wanted to see on screen would never happen, and that my expectations for any future solo venture of his should automatically be placed at zero.

This is how I walked into Thor: Love & Thunder. Despite knowing that the story was inspired by elements of Jason Aaron and Esad Ribic’s modern-day epic God Butcher and Godbomb stories from 2013’s Thor: God of Thunder. Despite knowing that Christian Bale would portray the villain Gorr. Despite knowing I’d see another fantastic decision Aaron made in modern-day Thor comics by making Jane Foster worthy of wielding Mjolnir and becoming The Mighty Thor come to life on the silver screen. I knew in my heart of hearts that the decision to canonically make Thor a himbo parody of himself in the MCU thanks to how well Ragnarok did and the overall decision to allow Taika Waititi to inject his sense of humor in whatever heartfelt message he wanted convey in the story he was trying to tell would negate any anticipation or expectations I would have for it.

And I was correct.

MCU Thor was MCU Thor, as expected. While I didn’t appreciate how the Russo Brothers used Endgame to make him the face of depression and subconsciously succumbing to fatphobia in the process, I did like the development he gained from it from his time with his mother and thought it was much needed after the events of Infinity War. However, I didn’t hold my breath in hoping that it would serve as a course correction into Love & Thunder.

The hill he was trying to climb over in Love & Thunder was allowing individuals to get close to him again after all of his losses, yet that isolation and depression were things he already overcame in Endgame. And while I can imagine a separate type of love and acceptance would be necessary because of the journey granting him reconciliation with Jane, proof that it’s just allowing him to open up to others in general is given at the end of the third act when he becomes the caretaker of Gorr’s daughter, born of Eternity. Character development established from previous non-Waititi films was sacrificed just for the sake of having Thor go through the same development but in a different box, just for the sake of it matching the same tone and comedy as the last Thor solo film, and that’s not necessarily something I appreciate.

I can say however, that my initial worry of seeing Gorr the God Butcher be butchered alive because of Waititi’s direction was laid to rest. Christian Bale’s take on him never worried me; I gave a very pleasant nod of acceptance when I first learned of his casting. While not because of how writers Eric Pearson, Craig Kyle and Christopher Yost handled Hela in Ragnarok, it was seeing them handle one of Thor’s most formidable foes Surtur -- both in the beginning and the end of the film -- that made me worry that Taika would give Gorr a sense of disrespect that he doesn’t deserve.

Thankfully, outside of some expected schoolyard teasing on Thor’s end during the first and second acts whenever the two interacted, outside of the lack of tendrilled ears and slender reptilian nose, MCU Gorr was pretty faithful to the one I read in Aaron’s run of Thor. And while the God Bomb was replaced with Eternity as a way of introducing the possible importance of the character when The Multiverse Saga or the Secret Wars arc reaches its “Event Status” while still keeping his goal of eradicating every god in place, Gorr’s motivations, personality and resolve was given life in both a respectful and beautiful collaboration of Bale’s acting and Waititi’s ability of tugging on our heartstrings at the appropriate time, as he displayed in 2019’s Jojo Rabbit.

I can even say the same thing about Natalie Portman’s final portrayal of Jane Foster. True, she doesn’t place Mjolnir on Thor’s chest and tells him to “Calm thy tits” like in the comics -- which I was absolutely surprised didn’t happen since that’s a bit of dialogue Taika would’ve DEFINITELY allowed -- but seeing Natalie portray Jane as someone who wishes agency in her own life, even in the midst of it ending, was so powerful. The cancer portion of her storyline was given a lot of care and dedication in her performance, and the way that the film displayed her willingness to be the author of her own destiny regarding wielding Mjolnir I thought was very well done.

Because as both Jane and Gorr have proven when it comes to Waititi’s sense of direction in his MCU titles -- and even in his own original stories untied to large franchises -- is that he understands the pathos of certain characters when it comes to seeing their struggles and desires when they aren’t one-dimensional. It’s what made Valkyrie so relatable in Thor: Ragnarok after that one gag where she drunkenly falls off the platform of the ship in Sakaar when she arrives to gather Thor. What confuses me is that same pathos seems to take a secondary priority when it comes to Odinson himself, because being a bumbling himbo that constantly struggles with processing his feelings and emotions seems to be the type of Thor that Marvel Studios enjoys.

And I hate that for Thor. I hate that for Thor SO MUCH.

However, I know that when it comes to certain things that were portrayed in Thor: Love & Thunder, that I’m kinda in the minority. Plenty of things made me roll my eyes straight out of my head just for the sake of jokes and comedy. The Infinity Cones ice cream parlor. The fact that New Asgard is a tourist stop. Toothgrinder and Toothgnasher being reduced to screaming space goats because of a Taylor Swift meme. Stormbreaker has sentience specifically to display jealousy of the reforged Mjolnir. The use of Zeus and how they used him to introduce Hercules in the mid-credit section was nothing but a watered down version of how Ayesha introduced Adam Warlock in the mid-credit scene of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 for the sake of presenting him in as satire. All of these nitpicks I had with the overall film can easily be seen as me not caring for a take on the source material that I’m sure the majority of casual movie-goers wouldn’t -- and probably don’t -- have a problem with.

But as long as Marvel Studios keeps hiring Taika Waititi to make solo Thor films, I will continue to be numb to them. That is the only way I can continue to sipher the gems from the soil.