Movie Review: Thor: Ragnarok

Thor: Ragnarok [2017]

Well, that was pretty superb. Thor: Ragnarok is the third Marvel Cinematic Universe movie to star everyone's favourite boisterous God of Thunder, as well as Thor's own fifth cinematic movie outing. The movie also stars Thor's brother Loki, a long-runner in the MCU himself, as well as the Incredible Hulk, who has made a career of never actually getting a proper standalone movie after Incredible Hulk due to licensing problems or whatever.

In any case, Thor: Ragnarok is the 17th movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and that's without counting TV show entries. That means we're two more movies before we actually get to Avengers: Infinity War... but even then, Thor: Ragnarok actually has a pretty big pressure. It's a third Thor movie, and the first one was just fine and the second was kind of poop, so can this one actually be a fun, standalone movie, or would Thor work better as part of an ensemble cast? Why give Thor a third movie, when multiple characters like Hawkeye, Black Widow, Scarlet Witch, War Machine and many others haven't gotten a movie yet -- and that's not counting all the other Marvel characters who haven't actually been adapted into live-action yet? More importantly, how can they make Thor: Ragnarok special and not just well, 'another Thor movie'?

Well, clearly by setting almost the entirety of the movie off-Earth, casting Kate Blanchett to play the goddess of death, shatter the status quo (somewhat) and co-star the Hulk. Thor: Ragnarok is a bit of a mixed soup in that it not only adapts the titular Ragnarok (I'm unfamiliar with the Marvel comics arc, but I do know a fair bit about Norse mythology), the villainness Hela, as well as the Planet Hulk storyline. All the while, the three main players Thor, Hulk and Loki, as well as newcomers Valkyrie and Skurge, are given character arcs that carry them throughout the full 2 hour runtime and makes an actually satisfying story as opposed to, well, Thor: The Dark World.

Oh, and the entire movie is done in a space opera style, in a delightful homage to the Jack Kirby era of madcap vibrant aliens that inspired a lot of DC and Marvel comics work. 

The movie isn't perfect. There were many times where I felt like they moved from set piece to set piece a bit too fast. There were times when I thought the gags (which were admittedly funny) were slightly overused -- in particular, in the climax when Asgard exploded I really wished Korg would shut the fuck up, as much as I enjoyed Korg for the rest of the movie. And the villains of the piece, Hela and Skurge, clearly could've done with more character development and interaction with Thor. And while we did get an introdump about Ragnarok, there wasn't a sense of dread about the incoming apocalypse that could've been added with a couple extra lines sprinkled throughout the movie. When Thor decides to "yeah, let's cause the prophecy to happen!" at the end, it felt more of a 'oh yeaaaah this plotline exists huh' moment instead of a lightbulb flickering on.

The climax is also guilty of many things that multiple MCU movies and indeed superhero movies in the past decade has been guilty with. When dealing with an ensemble cast, the villain must apparently have an army of disposable goons that die with one shot which our heroes can murder with abandon while showing off their cool moves. And that kind of cheapens some moments, I think, like Skurge's last stand, and it did go on for a bit too long. 

Still, you know what the movie did right? Making the movie fun, but still have stakes. And it did so without actually seeping itself too much in drama the way the second Guardians of the Galaxy movie did. And a good chunk of that comes from the fact that more than half of the movie's runtime happens with our heroes in the wacky planet of Sakaar, which is the dumping ground of the galaxy for all the scum of the universe. 

Let's talk about Sakaar a bit, before we get to the nitty-gritty Asgard stuff. The Grandmaster (played by Jeff frikkin' Goldblum) is an amazing antagonist that rules over the world, setting up big championship gladiatorial matches, which is honestly just a long, convoluted way to get Thor to fight the Hulk in the arena, and it's as amazing as it sounds. Mind you, having Thor be disabled by a little doohickey (his thunderbolt didn't fry the mechanism?) is a bit grating and I really wished they had found a better way to incapacitate Thor if they needed to do so... but eh.

Thor's character arc is more or less stable in this movie, where he's a lot more level-headed. Compared to the hot-headed prince that he was in the original Thor, he's far more forgiving of Loki (or rather, not wanting to give a shit), he's grown past bickering with his brother enough to even second-guess his betrayal (and actually gives a speech about growing beyond their static characters, something that apparently hit home for Loki), he's became a bit more subtle in trying to... 'manipulate' Valkyrie, Hulk or Bruce Banner, and he's had to deal with loss over all that. I really wished the movie had spared more time to allow Thor to contemplate the arguments that Hela is making -- that Odin is as much a warmonger in his younger years as Hela is being right now -- but that's a bit of a small complaint. 

Thor gets Mjolnir shattered by Hela into a thousand pieces, and I guess part of his Sakaarian arc is to discover what makes him truly Thor, but he does that relatively quickly and seamlessly as he realizes that he is the God of Thunder, not the hammer (as Odin notes, he's not the 'god of carpentry tools'). It really could've benefited for a bit more comparison with the whole 'Asgard isn't the place, it's the people' deal, and is probably one or two more lines short of that. 

Hulk, surprisingly, gets far more screentime than puny Banner. Banner does show up, but it's mostly for gags as he finds himself in a goddamn alien world that happens to have a population that's fans of Hulk, but Banner himself didn't really quite impress as a character. Hella funny, though, simply on the strength of Mark Ruffalo himself. Hulk himself is an interesting enigma because in all his three previous outings in the MCU, he tends to just be rampaging, the inner monster unleashed by Bruce Banner to fight. Here we actually get to see Hulk just be Hulk, and in addition to, again, a lot of great comedic beats ("But... giant monster!") for the Green brute, he also gets to speak a little and talk to Thor. Not as an extension of Banner, but as Hulk himself. He's not particularly verbose, of course, and he thinks in terms of strength more than anything, but beyond his pontificating as the star of the arena, it's clear from his arguments with Thor that he still likes his friend around, and despite his harsh attitude is looking for friendship. 

Best shown in the relationship between Hulk and Thor is the calmer, quieter scene in the two's shared quarters, where Hulk actually gets to emote expressions that aren't "angry" or "angrier", and Mark Ruffalo's character performance really shines here. 

Rounding up the main heroes is Valkyrie (played by Tessa Thompson), a newcomer to the MCU. She's... okay. Many people are hailing her as the best new character in the MCU. I certainly like her. She's a tough badass lady that drinks a lot, shoots a lot and beats up people a lot. She gets a backstory as a member of the valkyries, which were all slaughtered by Hela in the past and she's running away from that. Her character arc is simple -- stop running from her problems, and start fighting for Asgard and defeat Hela. It's a simple character arc, but it's effective nonetheless, making me root for Valkyrie as much as I do Thor or Hulk. Valkyrie's lack of actual romance with Thor or Hulk is also very much welcome, with how enroachingly filled previous Thor movies have been with the romance stuff.

Loki is also for the ride for the majority of the movie. His duplicity in replacing Odin is quickly revealed, and after Thor exposes it, he drags Loki to Earth ("I left him here, I swear.") and after an encounter with Dr. Strange (which was perhaps a bit too self-indulgent, but hardly detrimental) Loki's meeting with Odin as his father that he tricks and despises dies is definitely effectively portrayed by Tom Hiddleston. Loki's constant changing of allegiances, and his love-hate relationship with Thor throughout the early Sakaar arc is well-done, as he naturally worms his way up Thor when he seemed to be in power earlier in the movie, and later to the Grandmaster in Sakaar. While Thor recruits Loki's services and has some great scenes, the brotherhood bond between the two is definitely the highlight of the movie once more. 

Yes, Loki, like the rest of the cast, is great for gags. Between the constant throwing of rocks at his face to see if he's a hologram, to "Get Help!", to his 'eep' reaction when seeing Hulk show up in the arena and his bombastic "YEAH NOW YOU KNOW HOW IT FEELS" when the Hulk whacks Thor around in the arena... Loki's fun. But Loki's also great for drama, as that elevator ride when Thor reveals that... he doesn't actually hate Loki. He's just done. If they're just that different, he's going to be a mature, supportive brother and tell him to go off where he clearly can excel. And that clearly disturbs Loki.

But nothing more than Thor's deft handling of Loki's attempted betrayal, double-crossing Loki and giving him a speech about how he should grow beyond being a 'god of mischief' and actually do something -- be it a villain or a hero or somewhere in between, just don't stagnate pathetically. And this ends up with Loki deciding to take over Korg's rebellion (I love Korg) and showing up to Asgard with a gigantic spaceship, and later participating as one of Thor's allies in the final battle. It's one of the best heel-face-turns as Loki gets absolutely deconstructed and reconstructed by his brother, showing that, yes, he can grow from the increasingly repetitive Starscream archetype.

Perhaps the weakest link among the protagonists is Odin. Anthony Hopkins turns in an amazing performance as always, but while the wise daddy Odin in both real life and flashback clearly is well-portrayed, we never actually get any real conversation between Odin and Thor or Odin and Hela about the fact that he used to be Nordic God Hitler or some shit like that. I felt like that could've been better told, beyond Thor's shrug that, yeah, Odin's a shit dad despite all his zen speeches.

Hela herself, played by Kate Blanchett, is our very first female supervillain in a MCU movie (the TV shows have had multiple female supervillains) and Kate Blanchett clearly had a lot of fun chewing the scenery. Her backstory as Odin's eldest child (as opposed to being Loki's child like the actual Nordic myth) and being someone so powerful that Thor and Loki combined couldn't make her break a sweat is pretty awesome. She doesn't actually get to do much beyond giving huge speeches, summoning weapons out of thin air and lobbing them at enemies, resurrecting the dead and killing unimportant side-characters, though. Sure, she's got a couple of 'here's my motivation' lines in regards to her status as Odin's executioner and how Odin discarded her like garbage when his ambition was lacking. Still, better than Malekith. Oh, and Hela totally killed Hogun, Volstagg and Fandral, those three dudes from the previous two movies! Hogun had a badass scene leading that army. I kinda wished Volstagg and Fandral had a better death scene, but the movie's running as long as it is already.

I mean, sure, she's got style. Between her fancy spiky helmet (guess we know which elder sibling Loki emulates) to her endless barrage of giant nordic blades to her big-ass giant wolf Fenris, she just exudes style. Pity that her status as Thor's sister is barely acknowledged beyond some "SISTER!" "BROTHER!" screams at each other. 

Hela toppling over the 'Infinity Gauntlet' that cameod in Thor all the way back before Thanos was planned for the MCU and going "FAAAAAKE" was the most hilarious meta joke ever.

Skurge the Executioner (Karl Urban!) is the other villain here, although to call him villain might be a bit... too much. He hangs out with Hela because, shit, doing otherwise meant being shish-kebabed like all the other Asgardian warriors, but his heart is clearly not in it. His death is nowhere as badass as what Wikipedia tells me his comic counterpart was, but it's still pretty badass in a way, wielding guns and shooting down undead soldier after undead soldier to allow the Asgardian refugee ship to get away, before being killed by Hela. Skurge is likable for the majority of the movie as this unwilling anti-villain, and I do like what little he was given. 

The bookends of the piece is Surtur, the fire giant lord, who promises to herald the titular Ragnarok by destroying Asgard. Thor beat him in his weakened form (too soon!) and sealed him within his eyebrows crown, but later Loki and Thor would unleash Surtur with the Eternal Flame, and summon Ragnarok to destroy Asgard and Hela, while they bugger off with the actual people that mattered. It felt a bit too much, and again, either better flow from Ragnarok to Hela to Sakaar to Hela to Ragnarok would've definitely worked better. Maybe if Hela was part of the Ragnarok prophecy itself, or if Loki unleashing Ragnarok was a central part of the prophecy? As someone well-versed in the Nordic lore I know they are, so it would've been pretty easy to make the climax actually revolve around Loki, Thor and Hela more than it is Thor going "hey, let's unleash the plot device introduced in the opening act!" (And yes, as entertainingly hammy as Surtur is, he's definitely a plot device)

The Grandmaster is fun. There's nothing much more to say about that. He's Jeff Goldblum as a Marvel alien overlord, and that's all you're getting and that makes me happy. 

What else? Korg and Miek are funny. There's not much more to say about them. I'm pleased to learn that they're not brand-new original movie characters, but are actual adaptations of existing comic-book characters. I hope Korg shows up more. He's fun. Dr. Strange is great as he has been in his home movie, and while his interactions isn't quite that much he's still enjoyable. Stan Lee gets a cameo as a psychotic alien barber and it's hilarious. 

Heimdall! I knew I forgot someone. Idris Elba is a great actor, but he's made his distaste of being in superhero movies well-known and his performance as Heimdall is... isn't bad, but it clearly could've been better. He mostly acts as the 'face' of the resistance on Asgard, to have someone ferrying away the refugees while Hela is going all crazy and shit.

So yeah. Like many recent blockbusters, Thor: Ragnarok feels like two movies stapled into one. I really wished that we had the Planet Hulk stuff separately as a Thor/Hulk buddy cop movie, and the Ragnarok Thor/Hela/Odin/Loki stuff as its own movie, but this was what we got. An ambitious movie that jumps from set piece to set piece, and never forgets to be funny... and honestly? It's a pretty accurate adaptation of the 80's/90's comics anyway that jump from plot thread to plot thread as fast as it could. It's funny, but perhaps too funny for its own good at some points, and maybe the movie would've flowed better with some editing that prioritized the Asgard plot over the Sakaar plot. It's not perfect.... but by god, it's fun.

Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:

• Stan Lee cameo! As an alien barber.
• The Grandmaster introduces the Hulk with a long "the... incredible...." which ends at the word champion, but clearly is supposed to be a reference to the incredible Hulk's full title.
• The events of Age of Ultron is mentioned, both the invasion, Hulk going MIA in the quinjet, and Thor's own (apparently unsuccessful) quest for infinity stones. Loki freaking out over Hulk whacking Thor around like a ragdoll is a reference to the beatdown done to him in Avengers. Thor and Jane have apparently broken up since, although it was a mutual dumping, as Thor notes. 
• The 'Revengers' that Thor says as the name of their group is the name of actual evil Avengers teams in the comics. 
• Obviously the Infinity Gauntlet appeared in Thor in Asgard's trophy room several years before Thanos is revealed as the Big Bad of the MCU -- and the Infinity Gauntlet's appearance in Asgard has been the subject of much debate. 
• The fake actors that played Loki, Odin and Thor in the play on Asgard are played by Matt Damon, Sam Neill and Chris Hemsworth's own brother Luke Hemswroth. 
• Hela in the comics is actually Loki's daughter, accurate to the Nordic mythology. Her role here as Odin's secret daughter that neither Thor nor Loki are aware of is taken from the character Angela in the comics.
• Among the sculpted busts on the Grandmaster's tower, you can see Beta Ray Bill (a horse-faced alien that became Thor in the comics), and, as the internet tells me, also Man-Thing, Bi-Beast and Ares, none of which are characters I recognize other than Beta Ray Bill.