Thor: Love and Thunder is a Thunderous Dose of Comedy and Heart
Thor: Love and Thunder, starring Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tessa Thompson, and Taika Waititi premieres on July 8th.
After the decidedly mixed response of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, the Marvel Cinematic Universe was in need of a refreshing return to the silver screen, and Taika Waititi’s vibrant Thor: Love and Thunder is exactly what the doctor ordered. Filled to the brim with heart, hope, self-discovery, and a healthy dose of humor, Love and Thunder is exactly what audiences expect as the follow-up to Thor: Ragnorak, except Waititi has completely perfected the formula this time.
In the post-Avengers: Endgame era, Marvel’s heroes have been reconciling their pasts while forging new paths forward—and at the start of Love and Thunder, Thor (Chris Hemsworth) finds himself on a similar journey. As Korg (Waititi) narrates, Thor has been in a rough spot for the past couple of years, only made worse by the heartbreak he went through when he and Dr. Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) broke up roughly eight years ago. Partnering up with the Guardians of the Galaxy, Thor has been spending his time helping people across the galaxy, and completely missing the importance of working as a team.
While Thor may be the titular character that puts butts into theater seats, Thor: Love and Thunder opens on the incredibly grim tale of what transformed Gorr into the God Butcher. Gorr the God Butcher (Christian Bale) is such a terrifyingly delightful addition to Marvel’s most recent slate of villains because he isn’t entirely villainous. The gods turned their back on Gorr and his daughter, causing her to die, and that leads him down a path of revenge. He’s my personal favorite type of baddie: a sad dad. Love and Thunder is Bale’s most frightening transformation yet; he is sinister, skeletal, and all-around creepy. Waititi and Jennifer Kaytin Robinson’s script is keenly aware of how to forge a sympathetic villain, particularly by crafting him as a foil to Jane’s own arc.
While Thor has been galavanting around the galaxy trying to find himself again post-break-up, Jane has dedicated herself to science, climbing through the ranks of academia and publishing a number of books about her research. Most recently, her focus has shifted to finding a cure for the cancer that has ravaged her body. Despite the dire situation that she finds herself in, she seems remarkably positive—which her friend Darcy Lewis (Kat Dennings) doesn’t entirely buy. Despite her insistence that Jane should call upon her godly ex, Jane is determined to fight cancer all by herself. It’s interesting that Thor and Jane both seem incapable of asking for help, even when they need it most. Unbeknownst to Jane, Thor’s love for Jane and Mjölnir while they were dating bound the two together, and now that Thor has moved on to using Stormbreaker, Mjölnir calls out to Jane in her hour of need—offering her a remedy for her current affliction, even if it is only a temporary one.
Jane and Thor reunite in the midst of the battle in New Asgard when Gorr attacks the sleepy fishing village and uses his shadow creatures to kidnap all of the Asgardian children. Their reunion is the perfect mixture of regret, shock, and conflict all blended together with the right amount of humor. With the exception of WandaVision’s more sit-com styling, Thor: Love and Thunder may be the first honest-to-goodness Marvel rom-com. It has all of the makings of one, even though it lacks a conventional happily ever after. Thor and Jane reunite after eight years apart, learn to work together again, and fall back in love with each other along the way.
Thor, Jane, King Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson), and Korg decide that the only way to beat Gorr will be to rally the rest of the gods to take action against Gorr—which unfortunately goes nowhere because the gods only care about themselves, as Gorr discovered many years ago. Omnipotence City is a glorious place filled with gods from every corner of the universe, presided over by the laughably unimpressive Zeus (Russell Crowe). It’s clear that Crowe was having a blast with this comedic diversion, employing a wide variety of accents, dramatics, and humor. When things start to go south, Thor takes things into his own hands and steals Zeus’ thunderbolt in hopes of using it against Gorr.
The third act of Thor: Love and Thunder is incredibly straightforward. Despite a valiant attempt to work together to defeat Gorr, Thor ultimately has to go to the Center of the Universe alone to face Gorr as he attempts to open a portal to Eternity. Rather than doing everything by himself (like he did when he was working “with” the Guardians of the Galaxy) Thor opts to temporarily instill Axl (Kieron L. Dyer) and the rest of the Asgardian children with the power of his thunder to let them fight Gorr’s shadow monsters while he faces off against Gorr. This is one of the best moments in the entire film: seeing children given the tools they need to fight their own monsters, strikes at the very heart of what makes comic books so magical.
In the end, Jane makes the ultimate sacrifice to ensure that Thor and the rest of the gods are not killed by Gorr, and Gorr makes the ultimate sacrifice to ensure that his daughter is able to live a long and happy life. As someone who typically dislikes sacrificial redemption, Thor: Love and Thunder manages to achieve it organically by never fully damning Gorr for his reaction to his circumstances. Ultimately both sacrifices feel true to character and it builds towards something incredibly satisfying.
Of course, Thor: Love and Thunder is not without issues. While it is, without a doubt, one of the best Marvel films—and the best of Phase 4—it often relies a little too heavily on humor to convey pieces of dialogue that should be given a bit more weight and really sticks to its guns for comedic purposes, particularly with a fake-out death that should have stuck. It is a breath of fresh air in comparison to other ventures into the MCU, relying on its main cast to carry the film, without needing cameos, allusions, or fan service. Riding on the high of The Batman, Jurassic World Dominion, Lightyear, and now Thor: Love and Thunder, Michael Giacchino delivers an epic soundtrack that perfectly mirrors the larger-than-life cinematography and storytelling playing out for a little over two hours. Combined with classic bangers like “Welcome to the Jungle,” the Love and Thunder soundtrack is a sheer delight.
Overall, Thor: Love and Thunder is a refreshing venture back to what the Marvel Cinematic Universe is best at delivering: summer popcorn films. As much as I am desperate for the MCU to delve into some of the more complex topics that the comics have tackled in the past, they often fail to stick the landing. With Love and Thunder you get exactly what you expect: two hours of laughs, colorful scenery, and the thunderous joy that comes with Waititi’s storytelling.
The next portion of this review veers into explicit spoilers, so click away if you’re not prepared to be spoiled for Thor: Love and Thunder.
Jane’s death will inevitably come as a surprise to some moviegoers, and it may even be a letdown considering how upbeat the rest of the film is, but for comic book fans, Jane’s death was entirely expected. In The Mighty Thor comic book run, Jane’s transformation into Mighty Thor comes at the same cost as in Thor: Love and Thunder—becoming Mighty Thor and wielding Mjölnir causes her body’s chemistry to reject her chemotherapy and ultimately she dies in Thor’s arms. This particular comic book run, and Secret Empire, is actually remarkably close to what the MCU has been putting on-screen over the past few years: Sam Wilson is Captain America, Kang the Conqueror is around, among other references to a handful of upcoming projects—which suggests that Jane’s story may not be done. At least not yet. In the post-credit scene, we see Jane at the gates of Valhalla with Heimdall (Idris Elba), confirming that her sacrifice made her worthy of a warrior’s welcome. In the comics, Thor finds a way to bring Jane back to life, which could still feasibly happen on-screen.
One of the key differences between the final moments of Thor: Love and Thunder and its comic book inspiration The Mighty Thor is Love (India Hemsworth). In the comics, Gorr has a son and a handful of unnamed children, but none of them play such a pivotal role as Love. To some extent, Love is a bit of a “token child” for Thor to focus his energy on after Jane’s death, but Waititi manages to make it far more palatable. Through Gorr and Jane’s deaths, now neither Thor nor Love will be left alone. Love and Thunder teaming up leaves the door open for new adventures into fatherhood and even Love reconciling with her origins.
Thor: Love and Thunder’s mid-credit scene delivers a fairly unexpected appearance by Hercules (Brett Goldstein) who is being goaded by his father Zeus to go after Thor to get vengeance for the events that occurred in Omnipotence City. Zeus isn’t about to let Thor get away with attempting to kill him! With the success of Ted Lasso, it’s no surprise that Goldstein has made his way into the MCU, and honestly, he’s the perfect Herc. Hercules has been a vital part of the Thor comics since the 1960s and there’s really no telling how they’ll work him into their Phase 5 plans. Will he make an unexpected appearance in She-Hulk? After all, Jennifer Walters did represent him once… and sleep with him.
As a self-proclaimed Marvel Cynic, Thor: Love and Thunder was exactly what I needed to reignite my love for this franchise. Multiverse of Madness left such a bad taste in my mouth, I was terrified that Love and Thunder would lead to more disappointment, but I should have known better than to doubt Taika Waititi. Love and Thunder is a dazzling, vibrant diversion from the bleak realities that we’re faced with daily, delivering a cosmically charged adventure. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll be half-tempted to sing along to the brilliant soundtrack, and you’ll walk away with a new love for how Waititi delivers stories.
Final Verdict: B+
