[Rating: Swiss Fist]
In Theaters Friday, July 8
The fourth installment in a famously turbulent MCU series, Thor: Love and Thunder is a clinic in substituting fun at the expense of substance. The cinematic equivalent of empty calories or junk food, where the movie suffers from a dearth of new character development and narrative cohesion it subsidizes with effortless charm, top-tier villainy, and absurdist hilarity.
After a brisk cold open to set up the story’s big bad, Thor: Love and Thunder (L&T) gives the audience a CliffsNotes update on the franchise and its principal characters. Rock monster ally Korg (voiced by director Taika Waititi) explains that Thor (Chris Hemsworth) spent the intervening years between Avengers: Endgame and L&T getting back into shape while swashbuckling across the stars with the Guardians of the Galaxy. It’s the appearance of a god-killing maniac, Gor (Christian Bale), that sets Thor up for a solo mission back on Earth and New Asgard, where Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson) is overseeing the rehabilitation of their people.
Thor’s arrival coincides with a fresh attack from Gor and his forces, revealing that a newly-empowered Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) has arrived and is serving as a sort of temp protector alongside Valkyrie. When Gor kidnaps the children of New Asgaard to force a confrontation on his own terms and terf, Thor, Jane, Valkyrie, and Korg band together to take on an enemy who is not only appropriately equipped to kill gods, but equally motivated as well.
The broad strokes for an interesting story are all there, yet too often that is what all of this feels like: a hazy sketch of plot and character touchstones with only the barest connections binding them together. The path to Jane-as-Thor-Lite just kind of happens without much of an explanation before or after, and while the seeds of real character growth harvested from the fruits of previous installments are planted, all the ping-ponging back and forth between terminal cancer sub-plots and dick jokes gives them no time to flower. In Thor: Ragnarok, Waititi deftly balanced the picture’s broader narrative alongside the emotional components of its characters, yet too often his follow-up finds itself skipping over crucial narrative elements for the sake of the next gag or fight sequence.
And as for the action, it is nothing to write home about. The kaleidoscope of colors from Ragnarok are replaced here with a bland grey-scale theme (owing largely to Gor’s shadow powers), which blends the CGI renderings to an almost cartoonish effect. It feels much the same with the score, which was so vibrant and evocative in the last installment, yet finds itself wanting for the deft touch of Mark Mothersbaugh, here.
L&T doesn’t suffer from a lack of chuckles throughout, though, even if it comes at the expense of a few papered-over plot points. Thompson and Portman make for a great pairing as a counterpunch to Hemsworth’s bumbling beautiful idiot schtick, and a host of returning/familiar faces populate the background to give it all a cozy, familiar vibe. There are some genuine laugh out loud moments that pay off the eight MCU appearances Thor has made up to this point, and a trip to the court of Zeus (Russell Crowe) in the second act is a veritable life preserver for a movie that is listing dramatically up to that point.
And while most of the leads are doing decent work with the scraps made available to them by the threadbare script, Bale runs away with the movie’s MVP award. Although his makeup isn’t that prohibitive or restrictive (on a scale of Vulcan ears to full-face/torso-prosthetic Mystique, it lands somewhere in the lower-middle), the actor’s use of his body and face is haunting: almost Kabuki-like. Fully invested in his character and that journey in a way that isn’t matched elsewhere, Bale steals every scene he’s in, and brightens the prospect of L&T every time his Gor is on-screen.
As for the plotting, earned character development, and broader franchise world-building…meh/shrug. That seems to be the attitude of Waititi, anyway, who somehow squeezed this production into the maniacal acting/producing/writing/directing schedule that he keeps (with occasionally middling efforts like this to show for it). The fact that this is the fourth outing for the franchise seems altogether fitting, too, because like a Senior in high school showing up for their perfunctory fourth and final turn, this picture often feels like it is coasting on the hard work, charm, and good will of the previous three.
A forgettable trifle that rarely makes sense and doesn’t look particularly interesting, L&T is nonetheless funny and easy to consume. A credit, perhaps, to Waititi and a cast that can make something this anemic watchable, this fourth installment in the Thor franchise nevertheless makes a case for yet another reboot for the franchise, or at the very least, a smaller usage rate for one of the marquee characters in the MCU stable.
“Obvious Child” is the debut novel of Warren Cantrell, a film and music critic based out of Seattle, Washington. Mr. Cantrell has covered the Sundance and Seattle International Film Festivals, and provides regular dispatches for Scene-Stealers and The Playlist. Warren holds a B.A. and M.A. in History, and his hobbies include bourbon drinking, novel writing, and full-contact kickboxing.
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