Thor's eponymous movies always struck me as somewhat odd compared with the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He's not exactly designed for viewers to relate to, being a demigod prince from another realm. And unlike Wonder Woman, he really doesn't face any of the challenges that ordinary people typically face. This may explain why I never felt the motivation to watch his movies in a theater -- until now.
When the not-so-immortal King Odin (Anthony Hopkins) passes away, Princess Hela (Cate Blanchett), goddess of death, can finally return from a long exile, planning to expand Asgard by conquest. Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and Loki (Tom Hiddleston) together are no match for her. Complications in their retreat send Thor to Planet Sakaar, where he promptly gets enslaved (the god of thunder is surprisingly susceptible to electrical shocks) as a gladiator. If you've seen the ads, you know that that's how he meets "a friend from work" for the first time since Age of Ultron....
Odin turns out to be the first of several great permanent losses for poor Thor in the course of this film. Maybe he would've been better off joining the civil war after all. Nevertheless, I still find him more enviable than Bruce Banner, whose Hulk form has become more dominant. And a little more talkative.
In spite of these losses, it's one of the funnier MCU entries. I attribute that in large part to director Taika Waititi. Probably the funniest character overall is the Grandmaster (Jeff Goldblum), who doesn't carry himself the way you'd expect of a tyrant. Also amusing for a while are Asgardian Skurge (Karl Urban, not resting on his Dredd laurels), who'd like for people to believe that he's hot stuff; and rocky alien Korg (Waititi himself), who's awfully easy-going for a revolutionary leader.
My favorite character remains Loki. Like Magneto, he's even more fun when not entirely villainous. Thor keeps reestablishing fair-weather bonds with his adopted brother, whose treacherous ambitions do not stop him from lending some much-needed assistance when they face a worse threat. Loki doesn't weave quite as many illusions as in The Dark World, but that's OK; he gets to be the butt of many gags.
If you're concerned that I've mentioned only one woman so far, know that an interesting key part goes to Thor's initial captor, a rogue valkyrie (Tessa Thompson, who's black but still less improbably cast than Idris Elba as Heimdall). But yeah, this is a pretty testosterone-heavy piece. Heck, Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song" accompanies two battles.
The action seems about par for the MCU. Having relatively few major heroes on hand helps prevent the fights from overwhelming us, and the camerawork never gets irritating. OTOH, not many scenarios look especially innovative. I suspect that some were made with a video game adaptation in mind, anyway.
Very little of the story takes place on Earth, and much of that portion is dominated by Dr. Strange. I consider this a plus, since Thor's non-Avenger human acquaintances tend to be dull and a bit dim. And if the success of Guardians of the Galaxy is any indication, most viewers don't mind the absence of Earth as long as the aliens aren't too alien.
I'm not sure whether the ending setup will be good or bad for future installments. Regardless, my dad and I were glad to have come. (FWIW, he's seen 10 MCU movies, while I've caught up with all released so far.)
No comments:
Post a Comment