Dir: Taika Waititi. Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Christian Bale, Tessa Thompson, Jaimie Alexander, Taika Waititi, Russell Crowe, Natalie Portman. 12A, 119 minutes.
I can’t remember the last time the A-list stars of a Marvel film have all seemed genuinely happy to be there. But in Thor: Love and Thunder, Natalie Portman, Christian Bale, and Russell Crowe beam like they’re kids dropped headfirst into a vat of Tango Ice Blast. Portman, whose Jane Foster here wields the power of Mighty Thor, flexes her biceps and lands dorky joke after dorky joke – two things so rarely granted to the actresses Hollywood demands are perpetually dainty and polite. Bale, as villain Gorr the God Butcher, gets to crawl around on all fours wailing and hissing, with amber-hued snake pupils and a profile that’s distinctly Skeletor-esque. Crowe, as Zeus, has a miniskirt and the wildest Greek accent you’ve ever heard in your life.
