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Thor: Ragnarok - Movie Review

The Best Thor Movie to Date!

By Thanura RavindraPublished 6 years ago 4 min read
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Third time's the charm!

Thor: Ragnarok directed by Taika Waititi is the third cinematic solo outing for Thor Odinson (Chris Hemsworth), the Thunder God superhero from the Marvel Cinematic Universe franchise. The film centres upon Thor's cosmic journey through different worlds to prevent Ragnarok, an event of cataclysmic proportions that could spell the end of Thor's home world of Asgard by the actions of Surtur (Clancy Brown), an omnipotent demon as well as Hela (Cate Blanchett), a long lost Asgardian set to conquer and rule. Along with Thor, the movie sees the return of Loki (Tom Hiddleston) as the trickster god who as usual gets up to mischief and trickery, Hulk and Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo), who finds himself in another galaxy as a gladiator champion to the Grandmaster (Jeff Goldblum). We also see the debut of Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson) who is a wayward Asgardian warrior who adopts the "Han Solo"-esque lifestyle of working as a mercenary for the Grandmaster.

Chris Hemsworth's portrayal of Thor continues to succeed as usual. This time around, Hemsworth injects a better form of humour compared to previous outings. It is clear that Taika Waititi knows what to do with the character and other big bombastic characters such as Hulk whether it would be when he's Green or not and that is to just let them do the big stuff. One of the major shake-ups the movie offers is a completely new supporting cast for Thor as well as notable minor characters and this is a rather welcome change.

At the same time as Hemsworth, Ruffalo's Hulk also has a bit of a character arc as well. We see Ruffalo convey a Bruce Banner that is challenged on whether or not he really wants to stay as Hulk for a possible permanent basis. The previous outings for Thor had virtually unlikable female leads that offer cheap slapstick, low-brow humour as poor writing and acting in the form of duo Kat Dennings and Natalie Portman. Fortunately Tessa Thompson on her own as Valkyrie succeeds by offering a strong, funny female lead that is an equal to Thor. If anyone should replace the archetype Thor fulfils in Avengers movies, it may as well be Valkyrie. It is a shame that we could not see Jaimie Alexander return to the movie as Sif, as she was often an underused character in these particular set of movies.

A review about Thor cannot be done without talking about Loki. As usual, Hiddleston effortlessly slides back into the character that launched him into worldwide superstardom in 2012. Loki from Thor: The Dark World has since moved away from the villain status of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and has shifted to a "sometimes-ally" status when the goals and common agenda lines up with those around him. Over the course of the movie, he develops and eventually redeems himself as a hero among Asgard. As with Hulk and Thor, Waititi gives him plenty of big bombastic, laugh out loud moments for Loki in the movie.

Waititi also inserts himself into the movie by portraying the rock alien Korg. From audience reactions, he earned plenty of laughter particularly during his interactions with Thor and allowing him to have big bombastic moments. It is great that there is a good chance we'll see him and his friend Miek in future movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Another minor character of note is Skurge (Karl Urban). He also gets a bit of a heroic character arc and even got a chance to be big and bombastic use his rifles before meeting his end.

A big success for this movie would be the unapologetic fantastical action and visual spectacle worthy of Nordic proportions. Where this movie delivered would be in most of the fight scenes where Waititi just decided to embrace the comic book fantasy and allowed it to flourish with examples such as Hulk and Thor's fight as well as the third act of the movie set to the perfect choice of bombastic rock music of "Immigrant Song" by Led Zeppelin to deliver a great fight that people can see themselves watching on YouTube again and again. For the hardcore Marvel fans that keep up with the franchise, Easter eggs and callbacks to previous movies are abundant. At the same time, minor cameos will have you laughing.

The villains and antagonists of the movie were a bit of a step back compared to that of Spider-Man: Homecoming in that they embraced the usual path of character development as seen in previous movies but they nonetheless bought spectacle when they could and delivered the action. The humour at times while better than previous Thor movies felt oddly placed at some sections and was a little unnecessary.

Overall, Thor Ragnarok is a marvellous time at the cinema and a great way to cap off the year for Marvel movies before "Black Panther." It'll offer many laughs and unhindered bombastic fantastical action and if you were let down by previous Thor movies, you won't be this time.

Score: 8.5/10

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