THOR: Love and Thunder REVIEW: What Worked and What Didn't | ScreenCrush Rewind

Thor Love and Thunder is an epic new chapter in the MCU, but the tone has some fans feeling irked. Was the movie too silly? Too much of a good thing? Where does the movie rank with other MCU projects. We explain the tone of Love and Thunder, and hear form two experts, Marr Singer and Rachel Leishman.

Edited by Harriet Lengel-Enright, Srinidhi Rao, and Sean Martin

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Welcome to ScreenCrush, I’m Ryan Arey, and let’s talk about Thior: Love and thunder. Recently I polled our viewers on my twitter and our community page, asking if they liked the movie. While the majority of people said yes, a lot of people commented that the movie was too silly, or that it undermined its dramatic moments with jokes.

And that’s a fair criticism. But I’m going to explain my thoughts on the movie, and why this silliness is Taiaka waititi’s greatest strength, not his greatest weakness. A little later I’ll be joined by two of the best, SctreenCrush’s own Matt Singer and Rachel Leashman from the Mary Sue to give me their take on Thor love and thunder. Big annoincement on friday

Now, you can;t help but compare this movie to Thor: Ragnarok, because, you know, the same director, writer, cats, style, characters, etc. My feelings for Ragnarok are well documented on this channel–it’s my favorite MCU movie. Because. It’s not just hilarious [klorg clip]. But it;s also a story about nationalism, colonialism, and immigration. [hudusker proxy, for kids].

It’s also metal as hell [screaming part of immigrant song].

But Thor Ragnarok also had a huge advantage, it was the movie that followed thor the dark world. The stylistic break from one of the weakest MCU movies made Ragnarok even better–but Love and thunder has to follow Ragnarok, which might make it seem less by comparison.

But I think Love and thunder is still leagues ahead of most other MCU movies. There is so much to love in this movie. It manages to weave in the entire history of the Thor movies, showing that he and Jane broke up because he was scared of being heartbroken, And we see why–in in Endgame Thor doesn't handle heartbreak very well.

There were also subtle nods to the rest of the franchise, like when hor enchants mjolnir like his father did. And the movie ends with thor also becoming his father–granting power to children, and adopting the child of his enemy. It’s also hilarious–but most of the jokes serve a double purpose.

Stormbreaker being jealous was a funny gag, but it also showed that the hammers are conduits for Thor's emotions, not just his powers. We also saw some new creative choices for the MCU, like the black and white shadow realm, which is an outward expression of Gorr’s internal suffering.

But most importantly, the movie is fun. Everyone in the movie is happy to go off on a space viking adventure–especially Jane. Jane is the ultimate audience member. She’s been on the sidelines for years, watching the heroes, and now she finally gets to play too. Just like any of us would. Plus, she has an incurable disease, which creates a delicate balancing act for the movie. Luckily, Taiak Waititi is the perfect director to tell this story.

Taika Waititi is in his Imperial phase. This is a term, usually used in music, that describes the peak of an artist’s commercial and creative success. There are certain themes present in all of his movies that you can see expressed perfectly in Love and thunder.

Waititi once said, "I want to explore the painful comedy of growing up and interpreting the world. I believe that despite our faults and inadequacies, through all pain and heartache, there is still room to laugh. I think that’s what makes my films different, the feeling that although there is often darkness, there are also little bits of light to encourage hope and hold on to possibility."

The Thor movies are essentially about Thor growing up. He is an angry teenager in Thor [clip]. In the dark World he’s a teenager who falls in love, Ragnarok is about a young man who suddenly learns that his parents were flawed, and learns to believe in himself. And this movie is about thor taking responsibility and raising a family. [clip]

So thor, this all powerful cosmic viking, is still like a kid, learning how to interpret the world. [clip]

Waitit’s breakout hit, Boy, is about a poor kid who idolizes his dad, even though his dad is a layabout jerk. But there are all these silly fantasy sequences where we see this imaginary dad, and how great he is [clip]. When in real life, his dad is a loser, and a terrible father [clip]. This is basically thor’s arc in Ragnarok.

[xcywxbl]

It was really hard to take Gorr seriously because I felt like Thor didn't even take him seriously. I couldn't even take the kidnapped kids seriously because Axel joked, Thor joked. It felt like every line Thor said was a joke. I liked Ragnarok because there was a good balance but they took it wayyy overboard this time with the one liners and comedy

[mitchsn]

A couple times during the movie I was wondering if Korg was still narrating and we were seeing an interpretation of his exaggerated story. This had a little TOO much Taika.

[d.maxwell]

My main issue is that established MCU characters like Thor and Dr. Strange are starting to behave like caricatures of themselves. They don't act like people anymore, cracking jokes all the time regardless of circumstances. Ragnarok is really great, and Thor in that movie still appeared to have real genuine moments even if he was joking most of the time. In Love and Thunder, those moments are far in between and I started not seeing him as an individual with struggles anymore. Don't get me wrong, they're there but those moments started to seem like afterthoughts more and more. Ragnarok was able to balance the all its serious elements with its comedic ones, while Love and Thunder leaned too heavily in the latter, compromising what could have been a profound emotional story. I hope Guardians 3 will not suffer the same fate.

[matthewmigliorino]

They need to release those extra scenes about Gor going after the gods. I think the comedy could’ve been toned down just a bit. They should’ve really pushed the boundary of almost being rated R like madness of multiverse teetered on that line. Gor is an awesome character. And they should’ve made us a little more anxious/scared/uncomfortable while he was on screen. Bale definitely deserved those cut scenes as well as more time. I would love to see him come back if they were to do the secret wars reset.

[ChristopherYeeMon]

I COMPLETELY agree with Matt Singer here. Not only is it tonally inconsistent, but it's the cliff notes version of both the Gorr and Jane Foster storylines. Neither one grabs me the way either of them should. Gorr's not scary enough, and Jane's affliction did not resonate with me, the way a cancer storyline should, even though I also know what that's like.

[chrismcgirr]

This would be a great movie to release a Director's Cut, as the original tone of the film was meant to be much darker, more Tragic Love Story, and Marvel intervened to make it more Rom-Com for 'broader appeal'. I think the reason some stuff feels very incongruous is that they had to change a lot after the fact and that's always a bad idea.

[timb]

I wanted more of a "god killer". I wanted to see him actually kill a few gods....less of making Thor look like an idiot and more of making both have epic battles leading up to the climax.

I just don't understand why they seem intent on making a very old being like Thor an idiot. He must have learned a few things over the centuries.

[superslimshady]

This should have been a disney plus series. You get to explore more of Gorr’s background, more of Thor and Jane’s love story, still enough comedy and we get to see serious savage Thor that we miss from Infinity War. The movie was by no means bad, there was just way too much left in the air regarding his character.

[LightningStrikeify]

I can’t pin it down perfectly, but I didn’t enjoy Love and Thunder. I’d hope to see some real butchering scenes, but no, and agree that the silliness at times was off putting to a story I read in the comics. Forgetting what happened after an hour of seeing the film made me realise I just didn’t connect

[Scrapluv]

I think it should've just been the Jane storyline considering the tone of the love & thunder theme. Jane's Mighty Thor and the issues with Zeus could've been a balanced storyline. They really did the Godbutcher storyline a disservice. That should've been the main focus of another film. So the tone wasn't really the main problem, the antagonist just didn't fit.

[ICantThinkOfANameB]

It occurs to me that TLaT might have been more wacky than previous movies because the entire movie is ACTUALLY being told by Korg, as he is heard recapping major events (Story of Thor, story of Jane, their relationship, etc) and thus actually an unreliable narrator due to his personality and sometimes more simple-minded views. While the facts remain true enough (Thor learning to roller skate, them living together, etc), things like all the women in the God realm all fainting at the sight of his...err, mighty hammer, could have been hammed up by Korg because of how HE might have felt or just to give the story more entertainment. Meanwhile, all the flashbacks were Korg imagining how Thor and Jane acted (also explains the misspelling of Nick Fury and him having a cell phone despite not knowing how things like email and phones work as mentioned in Ragnarok; yeah it's also a callback to his comedy shorts, but as a narrative perspective that makes more sense). The only times the movie "present time" gets really serious is at the end when Korg isn't there and clearly Thor made sure his retelling the story was accurate. But storytelling plays a major role in the entire movie, with Korg and the followers, Axel and the kids, Thor and the kids, and even Gorr and his child in their religious beliefs.

[joshualogan]

I enjoyed most of Love and Thunder, I think where it falls short for me or it feels like a missed opportunity is the character of Gorr. Gorr is a serial killer, he is 'Gorr the God Butcher' and after he kills the first god, his god; Gorr is depicted as less of a butcher and more of a boogey man as the film progresses. One of the things Marvel is having a problem with in phase four (we are in phase four, yes?) is showing and not telling and boy howdy, is that Gorr's problem. We see very little of his mind games, of his murders or his battles. Instead, we see the aftermath, the deed after it is done and then him traumatizing children and this is the exact opposite of Gorr in the comics. I think if we would have gotten two scenes of him felling gods and debating them and their worth as he is doing it, we would SEE him in his corruption and his goal could have been more dynamic. Gorr could have been a Thanos villain in which we, the audience, actually debate our own values and morals when it comes to gods and belief structures. Instead, he is another Dark Elf ala Thor 2.

In my head canon, as Thor debates/battles Zeus, we flash back and forth with Gorr killing/debating a good god or a god that devoted itself to its followers and yet, Gorr STILL kills it. We see the parallels of the two debates and how complicated the issue of being a god can be. Zeus the arrogant All Father vs Jesus or a Sacrificial type of god and our Protagonist and Antagonist debating them for relatability.

[ajwatson]

6.5/10 Not bad, but not great, it had some great emotional beats, but the jokes and humor overshadowed the emotional beats, plus they did the Guardians of the galaxy dirty.

[skychaos]

Same problem with Shang Chi, you've got an excellent villain but lacks the time to develop them. It should have been a two part movie Wen Wu and the Legend of Ten Rings, and Shang Chi in the Legend of Ta Lo. And for this it should have been Gorr: Rise of God Butcher and Thor: Love and Thunder.

[questionyourbeliefs]

I actually believe this movie could be solved by simply adding a few more moments of sadness to each tragedy: children being kidnapped, Korg body disintegrated, thor finds out Jane has cancer, Valkyrie being stabbed, Jane getting worse with cancer. All of these moments I just wanted to sit with and see Thor sit with the emotion longer. Without that it didn’t feel real. The danger of the kids being harmed didn’t feel real. I actually think it’s a simple fix that would make the comedy of this movie so much more impactful.

[RatedRKO]

As a HUGE fan of Taika’s, I loved it, though as you said, Ragnarok is still one of my favorite MCU films. Some of my friends are among those who just couldn’t get into it. For me those are the films I enjoy talking about - divisive ones. If a film is getting mixed reactions that doesn’t mean it’s “bad” as clearly there are many who like it as well as dislike it. My biggest issue is when people get upset over films and go off online telling others their opinion is the right one. I personally like how phase 4 is giving directors more freedom, of course people are noticing a downside to this as sometimes films or shows feel out of place in the mcu after 11 years. Still, the MCUs success giving more creative freedom to filmmakers is something that makes me happy - especially as a soon-to-be filmmaker myself.

The silliness was fine for me as I left with a smile on my face. My biggest gripe was not getting enough of Gorr. Hela got so much screen time between Thor’s scenes that it built the climax better when they finally had their big confrontation. In this one Gorr just sits around waiting for Thor. I think the film would’ve benefited from seeing Gorr travel around and fight other gods.

[twiglet]

Yes, the movie should have been longer. However, IMO too many reviewers and casuals have a fixation on Ragnarök to the point I don't even want to hear the word, an obsession trying to make sense of "Phase 4", false expectation of GOTG being in half the movie (despite them clearly leaving in the trailer) and taking themselves and the film way too serious. It's a comic book movie have some fun. Also, the movie is a very smart, detailed movie hidden behind a very goofy facade. That's a Taika joint. Is there fair complaints? Yes. People, including myself, wanted more. We wanted more Gorr and more Jane. The story moves at a breathtaking pace, it could have been extended 30 minutes and let the scenes breathe more. Also, the themes of the movie are great and deep but never fully explored.

[Stormnorman]

“Christian Bale’s arc?!” He had like 4 damn scenes!! He acted great! Story wise: I expected more exploration for his character

[ericlipton]

I spent almost all of 2019 in the hospital. I survived by laughing as often as possible. As someone who, at one point, was literally dying for many months, I found the tonal switches between “cancer” and “jokes” to be 100 on target.

And as a dad, yeah, the end got me too.

The movie was exactly what I expect from Waititi — dark themes attacked with brash humor.

[snuffles]

100% Agree with everything Matt said on this. I love Ragnarok, but am very conflicted on L&T.

Taika Waititi's antics suited the environment of Sakaar, which itself served as a brilliant counterpoint to Hela's and Asgard's imperial majesty. But there's nothing in this story beyond the Guardians that benefits from that wackiness.