This past week, I was finally able to watch Thor: Love and Thunder. It's actually pretty rare that I watch movies too much anymore. My time just doesn't allow me the luxury of sitting through a whole movie all at once.
Between laundry, snacks, refilling drinks and Jovi needing to go outside, we need something that we can easily pause or watch a single episode at a time. On top of that, @mrsbozz doesn't really care for anything fantasy or sci-fi related, so I usually have to watch this sort of stuff when I have free time (good luck with that).
Like I said though, this past week, I was finally able to watch the latest Thor movie.
I don't know if you recall, but there was a big ruckus over some of the previous Thor movies. The first one was pretty well received, but then the second one people downright hated. I honestly don't even remember what the name of the second one was. Dark something maybe.
That should tell you how good it was right there.
Then, with Thor: Ragnarok, they decided to take the hero a totally different direction. Actually, a direction that it seems would lay a path for the future of all things MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe).
The thing that made the huge difference in the last Thor movie was the fact that they basically made fun of themselves. I remember reading an article that talk about Ragnarok being so good because it basically didn't take itself seriously.
That's definitely the case with Love and Thunder as well.
Like I said, it feels like a lot of the stuff from them lately has been taking that track.
I subscribed to Disney+ a while ago with every intention of cancelling it after I finished watching The Mandalorian. Then they just kept coming out with more and more shows. Before I knew it I had been paying for close to a year of the service and enjoying every minute of it.
There has been a lot of critical response to the stand alone series that the MCU has been producing, but I have found them to be pretty good. Like I said, they have really been "leaning in" (my dad hates that phrase) to comedy and trying to bring it to nearly every piece of intellectual property they release these days.
It was really nice to see Natalie Portman back on the screen with the rest of the gang. It was also really exciting to see Kat Dennings return as Darcy, even though her part was no more than five minutes in the whole movie. We really need more Darcy in pretty much every MCU offering from this point forward.
There was also a relatively short appearance by the Guardians of the Galaxy at the beginning of the movie.
It's interesting to note that much of the comedy relief supplied by the character Korg is voiced by none other than Taika Waititi the director of the movie.
Christian Bale did a great job as the villain in the movie, but honestly I didn't like it as much as Ragnarok.
I felt like it tried too hard in a lot of places leaving the dialog stale and stunted. It's like they were trying to force something that they knew the audience just wasn't going to be able to grasp. Either that, or they were just showing up to get a paycheck and not really putting a lot of effort into the acting.
The movie also made a point of trying to integrate 80's rock songs through much of the show. While that lends itself to an awesome soundtrack, it was once again more forced than we have seen in past movies. Guardians of the Galaxy 1 was a perfect example of the right way to integrate a killer soundtrack with a movie.
Speaking of soundtracks. I have to point out that Ms. Marvel and SheHulk have both impressed me a great deal with their soundtracks. You can tell the producers put a lot of time and effort into getting things just perfect with those two shows.
It honestly took me a little bit to get into Ms. Marvel, but after about the third episode I was really impressed and I ended up learning a lot more about world history than I had expected. The whole partition with India and Pakistan was a foreign concept to me. I had pretty much zero knowledge of it.
Not being from either of those countries, I won't speak to how well the show handled the material (I have read they did a good job), but I will say that it taught me about a period of history that I never knew before and for the educational value alone, it was worth it.
If you are a Marvel fan, you are clearly not going to skip Thor: Love and Thunder, but you definitely need to watch it with an open mind and take it with a grain of salt. If you are looking for a critical masterpiece, you aren't going to find it here.
It's honestly probably best to just think of it as a rock video with some fight scenes and questionable comedic timing.
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I recently saw the new Thor as well; I was left feeling largely indifferent. My view of MCU movies is often colored by being avid comic reader and collector when I was young. So to that end, I tend to be a purist as far as the characters and their story arcs.
I never read the comics, so I have that benefit of objectivity. I still feel a bit meh on this one.
I just watched Love and Thunder recently. I enjoyed it. Taika Waititi does bring the fun, but it's quite violent in places too. They did shoe-horn in a fair bit of Guns and Roses. I think they could have done more with Christian Bale. Okay I get that he was distraught over the death of his daughter, but the response seemed over the top. I guess the sword affected him. I just watched him in Le Mans '66 (aka Ford vs Ferrari). He uses yet another accent in that and it was good, especially if you like motor racing.
My other half and I are not always wanting to watch the same movies, so I tend to watch a blockbuster if she is out for the evening when I can turn up the surround sound.
I thought Ms Marvel was good. Could be aimed at a teenage audience, but worked in the history well. I have yet to start She Hulk, but I hear it's good. I am watching Andor, which is another Star Wars show. It's a bit darker than the Mandalorian.
I think I find enough on Disney to justify the cost. With that and Netflix we have plenty on top of the standard broadcast services.
I have to start watching Andor. I am waiting for them to have some more episodes out. I hate having to wait. I thought Bale was quite good in Love and Thunder too.
We're so spoilt by having all this content available. We used to have to wait a week for a new episode not so long ago. Not sure my kids even watch any live TV.
Yeah, it's better. I Choose to see it as progress rather than being spoiled.
I just watched this for the first time and yeah not as good as it could have been. Some parts were really dark and other bits were comedic...but yeah it was fun.
I'm glad I watched it just for the sake of continuity.
I haven't hated any of the Thor movies. Or any of the Marvel movies for that matter. Though some are certainly better than others.
I think some people take them much too seriously. That or they have the comic connection and they are purists.
Nice review, very helpful. But I confess that I am a lover of superhero movies and my critical visions are not aonuma ... I like everything even the worst ones, dehihi! Sorry for my bad English.
No worries. I can understand being a fan.
Thanks for your honest review. I will still watch it, but yeah, it's good to go in with lower expectations and be positively surprised than expecting great and getting a turkey.
I think just to understand what is happening with the next phase you need to watch it.
Yeah, I had Disney + for 6 months and managed to watch most things I liked, but it's cancelled now.
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That is exactly what I thought a Guns'n Roses music video lol
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Yes, I would tend to agree with that. I am glad I watched it, but it wasn't my favorite movie of the series.