credit: MCU
One thing that shouldn’t come as any surprise is that the MCU has continued to do Thor dirty in a few ways. He’s powerful, regained his godlike physique, and has a weapon that can cause mass devastation. However, he’s still kind of a big blond dummy that tries to be awesome but comes up short far too often and appears just a little dumber, just a little more arrogant and full of himself, despite the lessons he’s learned along the way. It’s almost as though the events of Endgame have been shrugged off, including the humility he’s gained in other movies. In Love and Thunder, it’s almost as though Thor has returned to being the vapid, hard-hitting, self-serving individual he was in the first movie. Thankfully he’s a lot more humble, but at the same time, he still appears to be more muscle than brains. This is where deviating from the comics becomes a problem since the Thor experienced on the page wasn’t a genius, but he was wiser by far than the character that Chris Hemsworth is being allowed to play.
credit: MCU
Whatever issues there might have been with the ladies are kind of secondary since they’re dealt with during the course of the movie.
In other words, the need to see a female Thor isn’t that big of an issue since the explanation of why this happens and the exposition that Korg, of all people, gives is interesting enough that one can see past the supposed feminist need to inject a lady into the story. Jane Foster’s portrayal of the Mighty Thor, not Lady Thor, comes off in a way that, initially, has no clue of what she’s been given and takes it for granted in a big way. In other words, she turns into a female version of Thor the way he used to be, all power and no conscious thought of how or why to use it. But she does manage to find new ways to use Mjolnir, which is very interesting, and she does calm down a bit throughout the movie, which is even better since she shows a great deal of personal growth and self-sacrifice that is truly inspiring. Even the King Valkyrie title wasn’t that big of a deal since this character has been well-established, and she’s been seen as both feminine and forceful alternately, and it works.
The villain was a lot less than what was expected.
In the comics, Gorr the God Butcher is a terrifying character who looks like someone who might easily tear people apart, whether young or old and would do so simply because they’re in his way. The fact that he kidnaps children makes it clear that he is a villain, but the manner in which he reacts to the kids and how he comes off as a silly villain rather than a dyed-in-the-wool killer kind of makes this character less than effective. It might have been a stretch to see what the CGI effects could do to bring the actual appearance from the comics to the big screen, but it would have likely been far better simply for effect. The acting, on the other hand, and people might hate me for this, was not the best that’s ever been seen from Christian Bale since Gorr came off more like a cosmic Joker wannabe.
credit: MCU
Thor wasn’t the only deity that was done dirty in this movie.
It has to be said that Zeus and the gathering of deities were ridiculous since there was an actual dumpling sitting in for the dumpling god. Even Korg had a god in the vast chamber, and he was much more impressive than many others. But Zeus, huh boy, this is one representation that made it clear that as skilled as Taika Waititi is, his sense of humor goes around the bend when it comes to the characters he comes up with. The fact that he’s such a powerful individual and yet acts the way he does makes it clear that the MCU isn’t bound to show much respect to its characters.
The movie did introduce at least a couple of cosmic entities, kind of.
When the final fight is taking place, it is fun to see the likeness of Eternity, the Living Tribunal, and the Watcher. There’s even the likeness of a Celestial in the chamber, and there are a couple of Celestials looking in on the divine meeting assembled by Zeus. This makes a person wonder if said beings will be making an appearance in any other movies that are yet to come. It’s likely that it’s one big tease, but it could happen that we’ll see live-action representations of these figures at some point.
All in all, this movie wasn’t the epic that people were hoping to see.
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