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Thor: Love and Thunder Movie Review

Thor: Love and Thunder is a 2022 superhero film directed by Taika Waititi and starring Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Christian Bale and Tessa Thompson. It’s an underrated flick.

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“I’ll call the axe when you call a dentist!“

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Thor enlists the help of Valkyrie, Korg and ex-girlfriend Jane Foster to fight Gorr the God Butcher, who intends to make the gods extinct. First off, ‘Ragnarok’ was very strong and it remains the best entry in this series, but Love and Thunder came close and to me. It received overly harsh reviews when in reality it’s one of the funniest and most entertaining MCU movies to date.

In an era when comedies are almost extinct on the big screen, it was refreshing to witness one loud, hilarious and over-the-top comedy coming from the studio that always delved into humor, but rarely at this capacity. It’s by far the funniest Marvel movie alongside the first ‘Guardians’ movie. I laughed out loud so many times while watching it, especially at those hysterical screaming goats, the god orgy hints and Thor himself.

Chris Hemsworth has become so much fun in the role of this god that was once too serious in the hands of Kenneth Branagh, but now flourished in Waititi’s hands as an almost hippie-like creation. His line delivery was top-notch and the character was very funny throughout, but his arc is also quite moving as he feels lost and when he encounters Jane again, the two reconnect in a very charming way. Their romance was actually quite lovely and those tender moments were unexpected for this studio.

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Natalie Portman was terrific as Jane Foster in this story that was a wonderful ode to her character that never felt more alive than she was here. Going into the movie, I was afraid that Marvel would make light of cancer, but that not only did not happen, but they actually told this storyline in a very serious, tragic and dignified manner, which was only fitting for the worst of all illnesses. How this storyline ended was quite unexpected and moving.

She is also excellent as the female version of Thor and the fact that she never replaced the main Thor was reassuring. The two acted as a great team and their action sequences were thrilling. Valkyrie herself got a bit less to do here as she was much more impactful in the previous flick, but Tessa Thompson is still terrific in the role and she was a lot of fun.

Korg was very amusing, Russell Crowe as Zeus was delightfully villainous and the post-credits sequence hinting at the arrival of Hercules to the MCU was exciting. As for our villain, I am not a fan of Christian Bale, but here thankfully he wasn’t as annoying as he usually is. Gorr the God Butcher had a much creepier look in the comics, but here he was pleasantly humanized and his arc was quite touching. He was menacing at first and empathetic later down the line.

Thor: Love and Thunder is a messy movie. The Guardians in the first arc were totally misused and that beginning was the weakest section easily. Taika Waititi’s uneasy tonal balance between tragedy and comedy was still problematic and the movie was definitely overly humorous in certain sequences that needed a more dramatic approach.

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However, the humor and dialogue are so good and the characters are so likable that eventually I did not mind its jokey tone, but came to appreciate it. The visuals are also lovely in their colorful palette while that black-and-white sequence pleasantly contrasted the brightness of the rest of the picture. The pacing was problematic, but the film was so much fun from start to finish, which is a rarity for these overblown superhero epics, and it doesn’t have a bloated runtime, which was also a big plus.