THOR RAGNAROK REVIEW

     The Marvel Cinematic Universe may be considered the most critically acclaim film franchise of this current generation, but they haven’t always struck gold as much as fans claim. The Thor films in particular often tend to be a dark spot in Marvel’s great track record. The first was a decent film with some flaws in terms of making a movie about a god and bringing him down to Earth and the second one is considered by many to be the worst Marvel. With that in mind and also the stigma of third film, there could have been a strong possibly for the third Thor movie to be the worst Marvel movie. Luckily, Thor Ragnarok, while still flawed in some areas where the MCU can improve upon, manages to be an incredible enjoyment and unique route for a Marvel film to go through.

     Much like the first Thor, the plot of Ragnorak deals with Thor being a fish out of water story, however this time instead of a mythical god being in a world we’re familiar with, this time it’s a fantasy character in a science fiction world. As Thor ends up a part of a strange planet to which he has to escape in order to save Asgard from the apocalyptic event known as Ragnorak, and the on the way he meets up with new and older friends and foe on his journey. The film’s plot does serve as somewhat of an issue in regard to the film’s tone. Much like other Marvel movies, the film makes very little effort to have a ton of dramatic moments and instead uses this time to crack jokes. This serves as bit of an issue as since the film is essentially about the apocalypse, it does feel like the threat of it isn’t being taking as seriously as it should be. This would be a major issue for another other Marvel movie, however this film surprisingly works. The best way to describe this movie is take the story sci-fi elements of Samurai Jack but give it the humor and zaniness of Army of Darkness, and although Ragnorak isn’t nearly as good as either of those things, this combination serves as an incredibly entertaining one. Even though there are a couple of misses in terms of hit hard jokes, more often than not the film’s humor works incredibly well, mostly due to the actors giving it their all and having great timing with their jokes. This film got a director that is known for his comedy and the payoff is really good because it’s one of the funnier Marvel movies in recent memories. Thankfully Marvel was able to hire someone like Taika Waititi because if the film was made by anyone else with the same plot and attempt at humor, it would have fall flat on its face and most likely have Kat Dennings still making poor Two Broke Girls style jokes.

     As mentioned earlier, the cast of Thor Ragnorak does an excellent job working with Taika’s direction and sense of humor. Actors like Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo and Tom Hiddleston have been great in their other movies prior but here they manage to have more fun with the material given to them. They’re given plenty of opportunities to improvising and play their characters in a way that even if the script’s jokes aren’t the funniest, their delivery of them easily makes them a million times better. As for the new cast of characters, they also work very well with their material, Tessa Thompson as Valkyrie is very fun as the drunken yet bad-ass warrior she is, and Jeff Goldblum wasn’t so much playing a character as he was playing Jeff Goldblum but for the film’s bizarre tone, it was very fitting. Cate Blanchette comes close to being one of the best Marvel villains, although sometimes the scenes where she has to tell jokes do feel a bit forced given how serious her character is compared to the rest of the film. Never the less, her character still has a great design and she give it her all playing as the antagonist Helena. The highlight of the new cast is the character played by Taika Waititi himself, Korg. Korg might be the funniest character to the MCU, he’s given some of the best lines and humors and his character design with his voice is so mismatched it because one of the funniest jokes in the entire film by itself. Korg and the rest of the cast serves as a summary to why this movie works so well, it’s a bit mismatched, but it’s so strange and funny, you forgive it for being bizarrely entertaining.

    It would not be a Marvel movie without a lot of spectacle flare and Thor Ragnarok certainly has a lot of flare in that regard. However, if there is a downside to this film, it’s also the visual elements. It’s not to say the visual effects or cinematography is poorly done, in fact they’re quite well done. Where the film has it faults in the visual elements is how the film appears as a movie as something that the MCU films are criticized for are there lack of color in terms of filming. Something about most of the MCU films don’t look nearly as cinematic as they should look and Thor Ragnarok suffers from this the most. It’s unsure whether this is due to the lighting or camera being used, but the film looks as it needs to have a bit more flare and filmic look to it, something about how the film looks most of the time seems oddly lacking. It’s disappointing in a sense that this film has potential to look amazing with all the set designs, CGI and cinematography being all up to par on what is expected from a good blockbuster, however there is a feel that this film could have looked more cinematic. This wasn’t a problem with Guardians of the Galaxy 2 or Spider Man Homecoming so it’s rather surprising to see this problem here. Not to say that the film doesn’t have visually impressive moments that do look cinematic, in fact those moments are most definitely the highlights of the film. Even when it does have those visuals elements lacking, Ragnarok is still a visually appealing film as a whole.

     It’s amazing to see a film from what is the weaker of the Marvel films to have the third one be pretty damn good in its own way. Thor Ragnarok is unique, funny and an over-all delight to behold. It may have some tonal issues and some visual flare is to be desired but it still manages to be an incredibly entertaining film from Marvel. It is another solid Comic Book Movie to add to this year’s consistent record of good films with our favorite superheroes.