Thor’s last full-length film was the over-stuffed “Thor: Ragnarok” of 2017, with the God of Thunder dealing with dueling issues between brothers and sisters, the impending destruction of his planet, a companion drunk, a huge dog, friend Hulk with a panic attack and the death of his father.
It was the making of Taika Waititi at its most intense moment, with slow walks, stupid headdresses with antlers, cutting swords and laser cannons, undead cloaks and soldiers, a hair-cut Thor, an unbalanced Jeff Goldblum character, a prophecy, alien spaceships and a lot of Led Zeppelin.
If you thought it was a banana movie, its sequel is the whole fruit basket.
“Thor: Love and Thunder,” a rare fourth Marvel installment for a character, features giant goats, a horrible Zeus, caged children, space dolphins, Jodie Foster jokes, laser-eyed stuffed bones, a commercial parody of Old Spice, Natalie. Portman banging his head on a villain, blue aliens and many Guns N ‘Roses.
Waititi returns as co-writer, director and voice of the stony Korg, with Chris Hemsworth as our space viking, a man who really needs more credit for bringing Thor through the years from sad to hysterical. His ability to pronounce superhero things spectacularly and then become an idiot is infinitely endearing. There’s also Tessa Thompson as Valkyrie and Sif by Jaimie Alexander.
One of the troubled characters behind is Jane Foster, Thor’s ex, whom she still loves for eight years after they separated and she skipped the third film. But now Foster, played by Portman, has his old magic hammer, Mjolnir, and has become a superhero of his own, the Mighty Thor. He’s working on a slogan, such as “Eat that hammer!”
Thor, of course, has gone ahead, not with his romantic feelings, but with his favorite weapons. He now carries the enchanted Stormbreaker ax. You don’t have eyes for Mjolnir, do you? “Are we okay? I know it’s a little weird to have my ex weapon nearby, ”he asks his ax in a deliciously absurd scene, which basically reflects a love triangle between a Norse god and two metal weapons.
Our bad guy this time is excellent: Christian Bale plays the delicious name Gorr, the butcher of God. A once pious man who prayed in vain to the deities, has now decided to eliminate them after having had a personal setback. Bale is so creepy and so engaged that you can feel his hatred undoing the popcorn. “The gods will use you but they won’t help you,” he growls.
Again the strange comes from Russell Crowe, who plays Zeus as a boastful tyrant with a Roman costume (a “Gladiator” riff?) And an atrocious Mediterranean accent. He is surrounded by lackeys — some are called Zeusettes — and frustrates Thor, even stripping him of his clothes, to the delight of many in the audience. “You know what they say: never meet your heroes,” the Viking says.
The saw of death and suffering to the point of idiocy is amazing, with Jennifer Kaytin Robinson credited alongside Waititi for a script that seems to have stuck after the gerbils were a bag of words. Go from a hospital room on Earth suffering from a terminal illness to Thor dressed as a hot dog to a realm of shadows with little gravity where the film takes place entirely in black and white. There is very little logic and the connections between scenes are tenuous, giving the film the feeling of not building anything clear.
Maximum madness is achieved in the City of Omnipotence, where the gods of the universe hang out. There is the Aztec god, several Maori goddesses, the Mayan god and a round dough called Bao, God of the dough balls. It’s a gag that seems to come from a Mel Brooks movie, but as the Marvel movie universe goes, don’t be surprised to see the 47th installment called “Bao: Steam and Sauce.”
The film is full of cameos, many of which critics can’t reveal, but look for Hemsworth’s real wife and one of her children, a bunch of Guardians of the Galaxy fans and a very famous comic starring Cate Blanchett. role of “Ragnarok.”
What to think of this glorious, intergalactic mess? There is no better answer than sliding one of our hero’s slogans: “What a classic classic of Thor’s, Hurray!”
“Thor: Love and Thunder,” a Walt Disney Studios premiere that opens in theaters on July 8, has the rating of PG-13 for “intense violence of science fiction, action, language, partial nudity and some material suggestive “. Duration: 119 minutes. Three stars out of four.
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MPAA definition of PG-13: Strong warning to parents. Some materials may be unsuitable for children under 13 years of age.
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Online: https://www.marvel.com/movies/thor-love-and-thunder
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