Movie Review: Thor Love and Thunder.

Hey everyone, my name is Anthony and welcome back to my movie review.

Back in 2017, i reviewed Thor Ragnarok that its a very fun movie for the story of Asgard's decline, its a fascinating action, memorable characters and its funny. Looking back, i still a great third installment of Thor's standalone film, even though im ok to have this as a trilogy like Iron Man and Captain America, but rather than ended into trilogy, it looks like we have another one, which i wasn't sure at first, but give a shot.

"Thor: Love and Thunder" is a 2022 MCU Superhero film that was written/directed by Taika Waititi, produced by Kevin Feige (not surprising when we have him) and Brad Winderbaum, then co-written by Jennifer Kaytin Robinson.

The idea of this film begins in discussion between Waititi and Chris Hemsworth (who's Thor) for a 4th installment after Ragnorok, while they planning for the 4th film, one character who's missing from the third installment (that i haven't realized) is Jane Foster, so not only the 4th title will be "Love and Thunder" to give a romantic story with the feel of 80's adventure, but also have a story element from Mighty Thor (aka Jane Foster in Thor based on her health issue from cancer), but it got changed drastically based on the storyline of Infinity War to Endgame, which it obviously takes place after Endgame (SPOILER) where Thor joined Guardians of the Galaxy for his new life journey.

So, with all that said, will Thor is gonna make another fun adventure with reuniting Jane Foster, or is this film's love isn't the same as before?

Well, lets find out.

The Story

Now, we expected that the story should be a new journey with Thor's new heroes working together from the evil threat as usual? Well, it could've gone better, along with the obvious cliché.

The movie begins in the desert with two last surviving kinds, Gorr and Love are both struggling to live, while Gorr tried for pray to the god Rapu, his daughter died, not before once he arrived to see Rapu, he heard the disturbing voice from dangerous shadow sword called "Necrosword". Once Gorr grabs it, he uses it to kill Rapu after being both rejected his request and humiliation, leaving Gorr becoming a Butcher God for killing gods on his way. Meanwhile, Thor was in meditation before have a call to save the land from Yakan in superhero's clean up with Guardians of the Galaxy. However Thor's partnership of the Guardians didn't last long, due not only starting to having a midlife crisis, but also hearing Sif was attacked by Butcher God, Gorr. While Thor is traveling back to Earth to the village "New Asgard", the village is invaded by Gorr for summoning his shadow creatures to kidnapping them into the Shadow Realm, at the same time, Thor was surprised to witnessing a reunion of his ex-girlfriend Dr. Jane Foster (who's sadly diagnosed from stage four terminal cancer) thanks to wielding his former weapon Mjolnir. So its up to Thor, Jane, Valkyrie and Korg the Kronan to leaving Earth to rescuing the children of New Asgard from Gorr.

While the story is not bad that i can say, especially for Thor has been changed back where he used after being a lumpy Thunder God in Endgame, but he's now in midlife crisis for his journey (but we'll get to the characters later), but the story pretty much running out of ideas for another rescue mission and the most obvious cliché in this movie. The parts that i finding to be wasted for the plot following is when they cut out Guardians of the Galaxy, which obviously means the team up between Thor and the Guardians is not only retconned from Endgame's ending, but pretty much a waste of time of their appearances, meaning Guardians of the Galaxy are pretty much nothing to do with the plot. Sure i do appreciating for the extra moment where Thor and his pals travels to Omnipotence City for help, while i appreciated to show us more gods, but does the helping gods is also to do with the plot? Well, yes and no. Yes, its mainly to finding Zeus's signature weapon, and no, they obviously refusing for help based on the fear if Gorr will ruined the city from the shadow's threat, despite the city is much protected to be hidden, in other words, helping other gods like Zeus and others are pretty much nothing to do for plot's goal. It feels like the writing has plenty of road block for make Thor tries to ask for help, but pretty much made him looking like idiot, in other words, the writing is not that good for its plot, along with the main cliché of this movie is "The Power of Love!", its pretty obvious to noticing the film's cliché.

Speaking of writing, as for the humor, it has a few chuckle moments that i had, but sometimes most of them just didn't turned, i know it tries, but its not as very funny as Thor Ragnarok, ranging from Thor's struggling to either his old signature hammer and his axe Stormbreaker to Thor's embarrassing situation while being startled by Zeus, which i did chuckles from the first of which, but sometimes got old rather poorly.

The writing is pretty weak for the obvious cliché, subpar humors and the story is ok for the most part for being not as original for the superhero's goal.

The Presentation

Unlike Ragnorok that it costs $180 million, this one sorta doubled the budget for $250 million. This movie's presence is a surprisingly fascinating, for the most part.

For the filming, its no stranger that it was all done in green screen at Fox Studio in Sidney, Australia. Sure they did filmed outside of studio like Centennial Park in Sidney, but its the studio is obviously the main focus of the CG background from any places where Thor and his pals in journey, but in admit, they looks pretty fascinating to visiting like in Omnipotence City, which has a shiny golden and beautiful place for the gods, New Asgard is nice to give a new generation of Asgardians, the dark monochrome in Shadow Realm.

As for the designs and quality, i think the budget is not just the CG background, but the quality in order to make an 80's vibe what they wanted, which i gotta say, its not bad, but i maybe understand they don't wanna make a cheesy quality (even if the film writing is cheesy and lazy), despite without having a cheese, it looks pretty good for the quality how the world gave us the presentation, from like i said before bright in gold in Omnipotence City to darker with monochrome in Gorr's Shadow Realm. Some quality details look amazing, but other times it could be look video game-ish for me.

Meanwhile the designs are kinda reminding me of Wonder Woman 87 based on some of the costumes' color are somewhat lighter, which i gotta say, they look pretty good that i like to see more brighter and colorful rather lacking them with just darker and silvers, don't give me wrong, i like silvers, but it just needs to have a extra layers of colors. Of course, the armors of Asgards like Thor, Jane's Mighty Thor and Valkyrie are pretty cool looking, meanwhile, Zeus's armor design is pretty basic, just give him a armor plate and a toga skirt, i know its a Greek myth gimmick, but maybe to give a little extra? Just saying. And we have Goor and his shadow monsters, they look both pretty good and pretty disturbing for the presence of horrifying how Gorr brought us, cause im sure the Asguardian kids will probably having a nightmare from Gorr being a Boogeyman.

As for the action, they're always fun to watch, the highlight is Thor and his pals facing against Gorr's shadow monsters from the beginning in New Asgard to the end, but im not gonna give more detail about the rest of action to preventing spoilers. But its not just a Thor vs shadow monsters, but also the battle between Thor and Zeus's guards and i gotta say, this may or may not be the goriest fight ever thanks to the blood bursting made of gold or something (which im assuming they using a golden paint for the purpose of the blood, just saying), even though this movie is rated PG-13, now that i think of it, this movie is kinda risky for the amount of blood and a gory kills, not just the blood, but also the killing of monsters and some stabbing, again, no spoiler details for my review.

One last thing i wanna pointing out, is because this is second Thor movie with an 80's gimmick, they brought 80's hair-metal music, the most notable one that they use is 4 songs from Guns N' Roses like "Welcome to the jungle", "Paradise City", "November Rain" and everyone's favorite "Sweet Child o' Mine", it turns out it wasn't just a marketing purpose, but its probably the reason why the director Taika Waititi loves G'N'R so much. Sure they pick others than G'N'R like Dio's "Rainbow in the dark" (which is one of my favorite), Enya's "Only Time", Abba's "Our Last Summer" and some others.

While have some flaws, the presentation looks good for the action and the style, for the most parts.

The Characters

For the characters in this movie, they're still nice to see them again, including one of them to give another chance, but some are wasted.

Lets start with Chris Hemsworth's role of Thor, as we all know, he's an axe wielding god and Avengers member to save the world since he used to live in Asgard. In this movie, he's now struggling whether or not he prefers to retire again or stay as a hero, due to his midlife crisis he's getting. Even though he's still a fun one for his changing life, but it seems that his time of hero could possibly coming to the end (or so we thought in the future as im writing this), but the whole midlife crisis is kinda lacking, he's still trying to save the day, but maybe they could've give more development of his difficulty life decision, but still Chris Hemsworth did a pretty good word of his role for almost more than decades.

Next up is Dr. Jane Foster (played by Oscar winner Natalie Portman), i've seen her in Thor's first film in MCU (maybe il review it in the future), she's an astrophysicist before eventually falling in love together before they're pretty much separated after "Dark World". But in this movie, while its good to bring back, she's sadly diagnosed from Terminal Cancer, leaving her life on the line, that was until she discovers a destroyed Mjolnir before she's eventually becoming worthy with the hammer as "Mighty Thor" and partnered with his ex-boyfriend, despite Thor's both suspicious and hesitation of her life with Mjolnir. I gotta say, its pretty nice to see her becoming the female version of Thor much like in the comic, but instead of diagnosed with breast cancer (which is not so bad), this version, her health is on the line from Terminal cancer (since there's no cure to stop this as we all know), which is obviously meant to be Foster's last ride (sorta like Iron Man for his sacrifice). Its pretty that she's dying, but Portman did a pretty good work of her role since the first and two movies of Thor, it may sounds like an obvious spoiler, but its understandable for her life ending.

After that, we have Valkyrie (reprised by Tessa Thompson), last time in Ragnarok, she was an alcoholic slave trader before eventually joining Thor as his sidekick and of course, got sober forever and of course, becoming the King of New Asgard after taking Thor's torch. In this movie, she's more brought over as still a sidekick, but she said she prefers to be a discipline than focus on war, which is where the rescuing kids is the focus of Thor and his pals goal. And they even one point planning her to be bisexual, which at first, i though she's a lesbian that i would like, but turned out to be Bi, aw well, im ok with it, but Tessa did a nice work improved Valkyrie.

And we have Korg (voiced by film's director Taika Waititi, up for the second time since Ragnarok), he's pretty much Thor best friend since we saw him. In this movie, he's just... There, but also as a small-time narrator for the plot development, its nice for that, but what's the point to having Korg being a brief narrative storyteller, he's just a Kronan gladiator to be Thor's best bud. No disrespect for Taika, he did a fun work of his role, but its just that despite being a 4th sidekick, im not so sure why he's there for purpose, but i know its for the comedy purpose.

So now we got characters we all know from the previous films, lets get to the new characters.

First is our main villain in the movie, Gorr the Butcher God (played by Christian Bale), he's a one helluva villain for plain disturbing, but honestly, i like him. Unlike most villains, he's the most darkest and nastiest villain in MCU, ever since he wields a Necrosword, he becomes a Butcher God for murdering gods, kidnapping kids in attempt to wiping out Asgard and even summoning shadow monsters. He's also playfully nasty for his goal of killing gods on his way for Eternity, which what makes him for me, a memorable villain for gruesome nature. In fact, they're many scenes of Gorr's violence act, but pretty much cut down for obvious PG-13 reason, considering how dark and nasty Gorr really is. Despite toned down, i like Gorr for memorable, dark and nasty villain, and Bale did a great work of his role, talk about playing opposite after his role of Batman.

Next up, its Zeus (played by Russell Crowe), he's the kind of Olympian and main protector of Omnipotence City with his main weapon "Thunderbolt", he's a pretty fascinating one, though pretty much either neutral and briefly appeared for Thor's asking for help but rejecting him. Its a shame for his brief appearance, cause aside of not-so original outside he's wearing, he's somewhat fascinating both for Crowe's delivery and his accent (though more like a mix between British and Greek accents).

There's Sif (played by Jaimie Alexander) who's Thor's childhood friend before got attacked by Gorr by dismembering her left arm, not much to give her, i mean i know she appears the first Thor and Dark World, but like Jane, she pretty much disappeared in Ragnarok before we eventually see her, but she's just wasted inclusion of this film, but for plot purpose as an alert of Gorr's incoming.

And finally, we have Guardians of the Galaxy, Peter Quill, aka Star-Lord (reprised by Chris Pratt, aka upcoming Mario in Illumination's Super Mario Bros), Nebula (reprised by Karen Gillan), Drax (reprised by Batista), Mantis (reprised by Pom Klementieff), Kraglin Obfonteri (played by Sean Gunn), Rocket Raccoon (reprised by Bradley Cooper) and Groot (reprised by Vin diesel). These guys shown up at the beginning where Thor was left off after Endgame, but instead, they left after the beginning of this movie, in other words, the ending of Endgame is pretty much retconned as Thor is going back on his own without his fellow Guardians, nice way to brought them up for NOTHING...!

While the rest of the characters are fine, its obviously the focus of Thor and Jane for the welcoming return, but its just that some characters that i mentioned are pretty much a waste of space, especially some are pretty much thrown in a garbage after the ending of Endgame...!

And now for my final opinion of this film.

Overall, Thor: Love and Thunder is an ok film the action is fun, the designs and effects are beautifully done work, the main villain is memorable and i appreciated for the welcome reunion of Thor and Jane Foster.

But this movie has plenty of problems from some effect that while looks good, but could be flawed, some characters are wasted, and the writing is a serious problem from retconned ending from Endgame, not-so original story of saving kids like any distress superhero goals and of course, the big fat cliché of "The Power of love!", i mean come on, this is anime's cliché, not in MCU...!

Yeah, i think we can noticing a pattern of Thor movies, it went good, then gotten bad, it went back to be pretty good and then a disappointing film what we have, no wonder why this film flopped the box-office for not just bad timing, but obvious writing just plain cliché...! But im not saying its the worst, i may like some stuff, but this movie is just disappointingly average film for problematic writing. But im sure Thor fans will like this movie (perhaps), but this is the film that you should definitely watch once, whether you like it or not, its an ok film, but the writing could've been better...!

For my rating, im gonna give this one a 5.5/10.

So this ends of my movie review, if you guys have your opinion or any suggestions, let me know at comment bellow and support me on KO-FI.com/blackevil.

Thanks for reading, and im Anthony, signing out.