Ask a fan of the superhero genre what their favorite film from the last 20 years has been – either from Marvel, DC, or an unaffiliated brand – and Taika Waititi’s Thor: Ragnarok will receive a lot of love. Following up on the dreadful and miscalculated Thor: The Dark World, Waititi’s Thor: Ragnarok took a pendulum swing in the other direction, trading broody Shakespearean melodrama for weird but inspired sci-fi, and incorporating the filmmaker’s dry sarcasm. At the time, Waititi’s contributions to the Thor franchise was the breath of fresh air Marvel needed with that character. There’s a reason why the movie ranks high on our list of Marvel Studios movies, ranked. That air grew stale with Waititi’s follow up sequel, Thor: Love and Thunder, and now I’m beginning to understand why.
