The movie opens on Gorr (Christian Bale) dragging his dying daughter to a temple to pray to his god Rapu to spare her life. After she dies, Gorr finds his way to an oasis, where Rapu mocks his devotion and Gorr is able to take up the Necrosword, killing Rapu, and declare war on all the other gods. Hey, we have a multi-verse in in MCU now, get ready to deal with it.
Okay, I've got a bit of a spoiler in the next paragraph, though if you know anything about The Mighty Thor comic series, you know it. If not, skip the next paragraph (and resume with the next picture).
After killing several gods, Thor (Chris Hemsworth) finds out about his actions and his next target, New Asgard. Unknown to him, his ex, Dr. Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) is heading there as well, looking for a magical cure for her stage four cancer, as medical science has failed to cure her.
He gave them a warning. It's their fault if they didn't heed his advise.
Okay, it is no spoiler that Jane is deemed worthy by Mjoinir to wield the power of Thor and, as Gorr attacks New Asgard, she joins Thor, Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson) and Korg (Waititi) in battle, displaying some pretty awesome new powers and setting up a jealousy arch with Stormbreaker.
Yeah, I'm not kidding there. And that's part of the issues I had with the film. But more later.
Thor, Jane, Valkyrie and Korg head to Olympus Omnipotence City, to implore Zeus (Russell Crowe) to generate an army of gods to attack Gorr. But Zeus is more interested in hiding, and the four must battle their way out of the city, after stealing Zeus' thunderbolt, and head to the Shadow Realm, where Gorr has imprisoned hostages taken from his attack on New Asgard. Jane deduces they were lead to the realm so Gorr to take Stormbreaker and use it to summon the Bifrost and enter the realm of Eternity, where his wish to kill all gods could be granted.
As expected, some pretty cool CGI battles ensue.
I have to say, the Shadow Realm looks REALLY cool on film. And scary as hell.
I liked parts of the film, but the uneven tones just never meshed together. The scenes in faux Olympus, the jealousy Strombreaker exhibits once Thor sees the reformed Mjoinir, the bleating space goats, all would have work had the film echoed Waititi's first Thor film. But Jane's story line, as well as Gorr's, belong in a different movie, as both are pretty dark and clash with the 80s rock aesthetics of the previously mentioned scenes. It feels like Waititi wanted to have the best of both worlds, but couldn't figure out how to mix them together.
Which is too bad, as Gorr is damn scary at times. Forget Doctor Strange in the Madness of the Multiverse, had the story focused more on Gorr, this would have been Marvel's first horror movie. Seriously, some of the scenes of him talking to his hostages are pretty chilling. And, given Bale said more disturbing shots ended up on the cutting room floor, I think Marvel would have struggled to get a PG-13 had Gorr's arc been more fully explored.
Just imagine being locked in a cell and this guy emerges from the shadows. Hope you're wearing brown pants.
The script also fails to give us a good reason to be concerned over the death of the gods. With the exception of Thor, the gods we see in the film are just a bunch of a-holes. Rapu is vile, and Zeus isn't much better, which lead me to side with Gorr. And it's not a good thing in a superhero film when watching the heroes trying to save the gods isn't as satisfying as watching them die. Fine for an 80s slasher, not good for a MCU film.
Making the villain's goals sympathetic worked in Black Panther, but it didn't work here. Come to think of it, it didn't really work in that film either.
One final point. I was really annoyed with the space goats, which seem to exist just as marketable figures, like the Ewoks. Then, after seeing the film, I read online (and everything on the Internet is true, right?) that Waititi actually intended to pass them onto James Gunn in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, which really bothered me. I've read a couple Exquisite Corpse collections, where one author passes the story to another, while saddled them with outrageous endings just to see how the next author writes their way out of it. And, believe me, the results never end well. Thankfully, cooler heads must have prevailed here, as I suspect the studio heads nixed that idea.
Because, like the Ewoks, I never want to see these annoying bits of merchandising again.
I'm not saying Thor: Love and Thunder isn't fun. The film has plenty of amazing battle scenes, the cast does a great job, and some of the jokes do land, despite the uneven tone throughout the film. Go check it out in a theater if you can, as it looks great on the big screen. Just be aware, you're going to like one of the two story lines in it, and just end up waiting for the film to come back to the plot thread you want to see. It's not the worst Marvel movie out there, but Waititi just failed to mix the light and dark story lines. They went together like oil and water, not peanut butter and chocolate. Still, it was nice to see someone try something different in the MCU, even if they fail, rather than just remake the same damn plot.
Of course we'll get a sequel. We're in the MCU, after all.
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