Thor: Ragnarok

This film is made for the crowd. I went on opening night with a friend and I am so glad I did not go alone. To have someone to laugh with makes the experience worth the money, and personally if I went by myself I would not have enjoyed it. Apparently, eighty-percent of this film was improvised; the actors showed up on set, talked with the director on the key elements they needed to do, and then made up the lines when the cameras starting rolling. That is something people should know before seeing this film.

Having most of the action and dialogue improvised makes the chemistry between the characters stronger than any interaction with actors I have seen in years, but when the actors are focused on what to say to increase the humor of that one scene, the potential of character development deflates. Thor and company have their intentions and obstacles, but there is no depth into how they strive towards their goals. There was so much potential that this movie could have fulfilled, but they chose to throw out moral arguments, themes, symbols, and actual antagonists to drown every minute with humor. There is a giant wolf that steels every scene it is in, and I was very impressed by how it looked on screen, and I thought “Man it is going to be SO COOL when it starts shredding through people”… It shows up for about five minutes. Yeah Hulk gets to fight it, for less than a minute, and then the problem is solved and they move on. Three specific characters die, and we never hear about it later. There is no mourning scene, nothing. They die, and their corpses are taken away by magical fairies to never be seen again. Of course, if there was a mourning scene then it would not be as funny, so the characters never even find out their friends are dead. The fact that the main antagonist kills an ally, and it does not become fuel for the hero to overcome his fears and defeat the evil, makes that scene a complete waste of time. I did not care about their deaths, the villain did not care about killing them, she just did it and walked away, and Thor never finds out. Why not, because we cannot see Thor in distress? This is a microcosm of the main problem:

The antagonists are abysmal. There are technically three, but all of them combined do not amount to the full effect an antagonist should have. This is the problem I have with Marvel movies, the thorn that digs into my heel every time I step into one of their showings. Hela, goddess of death, does kill a lot of people, but the people she kills do not phase me in the slightest. She is terrible at her job. To be honest, there are significant moments that would have given her character much impact to Thor and the story as a whole, but she shows up right after those moments happen. So who is to blame about the inciting accident? Thor? Hela? Nope. There is no tragic hero or true antagonist. Thor’s arrogance blinds him, but it is not the cause of his problems, and the solution of his apparent conflict is spoon fed to him like an infant. Now, Hela is a forgettable opponent, how her story ends surprised me, and the third act really brought the narrative together in an unconventional resolution. The consequences of the characters' actions were heavy for them, not to the audience, and it rounded the humor with a solid bittersweet end. Thor was a great hero for the story, both showing hints of what they could have been, but the two satisfying characters that did have depth were Valkyrie and Loki. If I were to forget this entire movie except one aspect, I would choose to remember Tessa Thompson’s Valkyrie. She came out of nowhere for me, and I was pleasantly surprised. Loki was himself, which is a good thing because he has been the only solid antagonist in the Marvel series– he was technically a good guy in this film though– and Tom Hiddleston knows how to perform in front of a camera. The two other characters that are noteworthy are Idris Elba’s character and the rock guy, Korg. I am a huge fan of Idris Elba, and I will leave the surprise of Korg’s humor for you to discover.

I enjoyed the jokes, I was laughing throughout, but from the first scene to the last end-credits-scene (there are two) I knew that Marvel was going head first into the comedy wall. I sat in the theater, watching the screen, waiting for the moment we were all waiting for, but when it came I was the only one not screaming or applauding. I sat in a room with a hundred people and I was the only one that was not impressed with what I saw. I liked the director, Taika Waititi. He gave Thor a fresh makeover that was very necessary, and Chris Hemsworth flashes his muscles and low voice with such charm that he deserves a shout out. The CGI, mostly, was very well done. When you see this movie– I am going on a limb and am assuming you will pour your money into the box office pile this film has already received– there is a scene where Thor is in a field, and it is blaringly obvious that they changed the background well after the main production. That same scene is in the trailer, and it is an alleyway, not a field. I know why they changed it, but I am guessing the decision was too late to fully correct the editing of the green screen.

It is refreshing to see such a fun and action packed blockbuster come out of the see of bleak storytelling and shameless explosions. Thor: Ragnarok is not a perfect film, but it is one I would re-watch on a plane or a road trip to make the trip more enjoyable. If you are one of those Marvel fan boys, get your Thor costumes out of your closet and get a few tickets to watch it with your friends. If you think the superhero genre is overrated and are annoyed on the hype this film has been getting for the past few months, I would recommend sticking with Netflix. Stranger Things season 2– yes, I know I am being a hypocrite here– has more character development and almost as much humor than Thor: Ragnarok, so if you have a little more free time, I would recommend that as a replacement or something to follow up after coming back from the theater.

Story Rating: 6/10

Character Rating: 7/10