'Thor: Love and Thunder' film review: Bathos taken to its MCU extreme
To this point, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has balanced cheeky quips with entertaining drama - but 'Thor: Love and Thunder' (opening in theaters nationwide July 8) is silliness at its most undisciplined, almost reducing a galactic threat to pure absurdity.
In short: Thor (Chris Hemsworth) enlists the help of Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson), Korg and ex-girlfriend Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) to fight Gorr the God Butcher (Christian Bale), who intends to make the gods extinct.
First and foremost: 'Love and Thunder' includes a mid-credits scene and a post-credits scene.
Writer-director Taika Waititi cements his spot as most visionary filmmaker within the MCU so far with 'Love and Thunder' feeling like a perfect follow-up to the vibrant 'Ragnarok.' Waititi truly gets what it means to tell the story of a space viking traveling the cosmos on a rainbow bridge. The visuals of 'Love and Thunder' are strikingly, uniquely Waititi to the point of accomplishing a rare feat: a Marvel Cinematic Universe movie with the filmmaker's fingerprints all of it.
From the silliness of the Guardians of the Galaxy to the snark of Tony Stark the MCU has relied on humor as a sort of secret ingredient to keep their films accessible and entertaining. When used correctly, this humor can take the edge off an otherwise completely bleak ordeal. When used incorrectly, the humor devolves into bathos, which threatens to trivialize the entire story (stakes, plot, character and all).
Bathos mocks a situation without satirical motive. It unintentionally undermines the very story. It reduces characters to walking punchlines without adding little or no narrative substance. And in its worst abuses, bathos turns the dramatic ... into anticlimactic. Bathos is a double-edged sword - that entertains and delights when used carefully ... but can sabotage a story by eroding its stakes and characters. 'Love and Thunder' is bathos left unchecked, rendering a story - which should be an existential threat to the entire MCU - nearly inert and meaningless.
'Love and Thunder' opens with a powerful scene featuring Gorr - a devout man who has lost everything, with his faith mocked by the very god he worshipped. It's a fundamentally stirring introduction to a righteous character and plainly lays out his loss and his mission: to kill all the gods. The very next scene is an overpowered Thor recklessly saving the day - with almost no effort and little regard for wanton destruction. This is the first trouble sign of a recurring problem for 'Love and Thunder': jarring shifts in tone. When the characters and story do not take a threat seriously, it becomes difficult for the audience to invest or care about the outcome.
Beyond the fact that the script spends more time on fleshing out "goofy non-King Thor," is the basic plot here: Gorr is intent on killing all gods. But the film makes virtually no effort to describe how or why this would be bad for the MCU. There's a vague notion of chaos in the void left by dead gods, but little the way of real, tangible stakes. Let's assume Gorr succeeds in his mission: so what? This is a question the movie, with the exception of a few throwaway lines of dialogue, fundamentally just ignores.
Even though this is the third 'Thor' flick featuring Jane Foster, this is the first time Foster is given any sort of character arch. The original 'Thor' was a pretty meager introduction to Foster and she was treated as little more than a walking plot point in 'The Dark World.' Portman is finally given a chance to tell a real Jane Foster story - where Foster faces dire circumstances, yet (to her surprise) becomes an Earthling worthy of the power of Thor. Waititi and Portman deserve credit for making her story resonate as strongly as it does in 'Love and Thunder' - but the missed opportunity here is the events of this fourth 'Thor' movie would hit so much harder if only Jane Foster had been a more integral character in any of the three preceding 'Thor' films.
'Love and Thunder' would have been all the stronger if the story had focused on Thor, Foster and Gorr - sadly, the most important characters are underused while other supporting characters could have been left on the cutting room floor. Valkyrie and Korg were central to 'Ragnarok,' but this time around they simply tag-a-long for the duration of 'Love and Thunder.' They're characters that deserve better than merely ride in the backseat of an adventure across realms - unfortunately neither Valkyrie nor Korg have much influence on the story. After Gorr's heartbreaking introduction, the God Butcher's actions are mostly off-screen and Bale doesn't really get to sink his teeth into the character until the third act.
Going forward, Marvel Studios needs to reconcile the dramatic weight of the original 'Thor' with the humor of 'Thor: Ragnarok.' There's nothing inherently wrong with a "funnier" Thor Odinson in the MCU - it actually works to great effect in 'Avengers: Infinity War,' when it becomes clear Thor's less serious take on life is directly related to all the loss he's experienced so far. His sense of humor belies the tragedy of his journey, from heir apparent to wandering hero who lost everything.
Despite its uneven tone, 'Love and Thunder' really is a rollicking space adventure. Waititi nails the feel of an absurd, '80s era comic book brought to life. And clocking in at under 2 hours, 'Love and Thunder' jumps into the story and moves along without too much fat to trim. Bale absolutely makes the most of his minimal screentime to create a threat of zealous menace and Portman finally gets a chance to flesh out Jane Foster as more than just a love interest for Thor.
Final verdict: Funny and entertaining, 'Love and Thunder' is silly to a fault and suffers from missed opportunities.
Score: 3/5
'Thor: Love and Thunder' opens in theaters nationwide July 8. This action adventure is rated PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi violence and action, language, some suggestive material and partial nudity.
