Thor Odinson is back in theaters with the colorful, guitar-riff-filled Thor: Love and Thunder. The latest Marvel Cinematic Universe entry — Taika Waititi’s second at the helm of the franchise — is much like 2017’s Thor: Ragnarok. While Love and Thunder does not reach the same heights as its predecessor (a difficult task as Ragnarok is nearly flawless), it is the character’s second-best solo movie and a worthy addition to the MCU.
But Thor’s latest adventure has become one of the most polarizing.
Love and Thunder is sitting at a 67% from critics on Rotten Tomatoes, making it tied for the third-lowest in the MCU, ahead of just Eternals (47%), Thor: The Dark World (66%) and tied with The Incredible Hulk (67%).
SPOILER WARNING! DO NOT PROCEED IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN THOR: LOVE AND THUNDER! WE ARE NOT TO BLAME FOR YOUR REBELLIOUS NATURE!
Complaints about Love and Thunder include struggles with tone, relying too much on humor, and a meandering plot. In the fourth Thor installment, our hero (Chris Hemsworth) is trying to track down and stop Gorr the God Butcher (Christian Bale) from doing exactly what his name implies: killing all the gods.
Bale is absolutely electric as Gorr, and my biggest issue with Waititi’s latest is maybe there wasn’t enough of him. Spurred on by the death of his daughter and dismissal by his god, Gorr acquires the Necrosword and takes up this raison d’être. Along the way, Gorr kidnaps Asgardian children to lure Thor to the Shadow Realm, needing Thor’s weapon, Stormbreaker, to open the doorway to Eternity and get his one wish: wipe out all the gods at once.
King Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson), Korg (Waititi) and Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) all return to assist Thor on his journey. Foster is also now the Mighty Thor after Mjolnir deems her worthy, but the power that comes with it is sapping the life out of her as she battles with a Stage 4 cancer diagnosis.
These moments are incredibly heavy, along with overall themes of loss and sadness as Thor tries to navigate his life. One can make the argument that Thor has had the roughest draw of any Avenger. We have seen the death of his mother, father, brother Loki (three times!), best friend Heimdall as well as fellow Avengers in Tony Stark and Natasha Romanoff. We’ve also seen the guilt Thor lived with after failing to deliver the death blow to Thanos before half the universe was eliminated with a snap. And don’t forget he was forced to kill his sister, Hela, too.
For a god who’s been alive for thousands of years, dealing with all of this over the course of a decade is … a lot.
Waititi’s Thor deals with his trauma by secluding himself, lightly painting over his feelings with humor and sarcasm. The use of humor doesn’t automatically diminish the seriousness of the issues at hand, but rather feels like an outlet for that emotion. Mjolnir holds so much history for Thor, and all he wants is to feel that connection again, even if that puts Stormbreaker on the back burner.
As someone who thoroughly enjoys Waititi’s brand of humor, I laughed heartily throughout — I will not apologize for cackling at the screaming goats — and love that Hemsworth’s comedic abilities have been unlocked. That said, I also cried several times. There’s something incredibly sad and touching about Thor imploring Mjolnir to look after the one true love of his life.
I will fully admit to being an MCU fan who has not read the comics, but I have a general idea of where everything is headed as Phase 4 continues. And at this point, we are still in building mode.
Phase 4 has had its struggles connecting with some fans in the wake of the Infinity Saga. A lot of the complaints seem to be exaggerated or setting expectations too high. Not every MCU movie that came before Infinity War and Endgame were instantly beloved or told a story that directly tied into the Infinity Saga’s end picture outside of introducing new characters or developing current ones. The MCU’s capstone to its first decade not only rewarded fans who stuck with the series from Iron Man’s humble beginnings, but it raised the audience expectations for every film that followed whether right or wrong—regardless of how much groundwork was laid for the portals payoff in Endgame.
There have been six films — Black Widow, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Eternals, Spider-Man: No Way Home, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and Thor: Love and Thunder — released as part of Phase 4, as well as seven shows in WandaVision, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Loki, What If?, Hawkeye, Moon Knight and Ms. Marvel.
Eternals (which really isn’t as terrible as people like to say) pulled in the second-lowest domestic box office with $164.9 million, but doubled its budget with $400 million made worldwide. No Way Home is literally one of the biggest movies of all time with over $1.9 billion (with a b) made at the box office. What If? and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier underwhelmed, but WandaVision and Loki knocked it out of the park both with story and character development.
Look, everyone is entitled to like or dislike a movie, it just feels like massive expectations might be hitting Love and Thunder harder than it should. Despite that, it has already crossed the $400 million threshold and is well on its way to doubling its budget.
If you go into Thor: Love and Thunder expecting a serious and dramatic film, you’ll likely be disappointed. If you go in looking to have fun, laugh, maybe cry a little, and be impressed by sweeping vistas of gorgeous color, you’ll probably enjoy it.
Thor: Love and Thunder isn’t the best Marvel movie, but it’s certainly nowhere near the worst. Where this will fit into the bigger MCU picture as Phase 4 unfolds is still not clear, but the post-credit scenes make it obvious that Thor will continue to grow (and face a brand new, exciting foe/potential ally).
