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drwexThor:Ragnarok is a tangled mess of a film that can't decide what it wants to do. Heaps of fan service and attempts to be funny collide badly with a supposed massive destruction plot and a need to move a few more pieces into line for the upcoming Avengers movie. 2/5 stars for wasting so much potential.
Start with "you really can't do an end-of-the-world film as an Abbot and Costello slapstick movie." Well, you can, but what you get is a slapstick movie where things that are trying to get you to take them seriously end up looking weird and out of place.
The movie is just rife with 12-year-old humor. Dick jokes, anus jokes, titter titter naked, Daffy Duck-esque physical comedy, on and on. I really felt sorry for Tessa Thompson who is doing her best to infuse a character with depth and emotional conflict amid the juvenile humor. Not only did Marvel execs cut the scene that would have established her character as bi (apparently over her and the director's objections) she doesn't even get a real name. "Valkyrie" is a generic role and there is plenty of opportunity to establish her as an authentic named person. But that would've required getting serious, which this movie simply can't.
From here this review slides in and out of minor spoilers; I can't easily separate them because my problem is structural with the film as well as with the characters. I felt this film easily competes with GotG 2 and Ant Man for Worst Marvel Movie Yet. See it for the fan service or if you're compelled to see everything; otherwise, don't.
I also felt sorry for Cate Blanchett, whose Hela is possibly the best and certainly the most wasted character in the film. Whoever came up with the little bit of business where she brushes her hair back and sprouts the massive helmet should get an award. She's a bitchin' awesome character who also has a real potential story that falls to meaninglessness amid the laugh lines. Her fighting style is a great blend of magical and physical, her modus of "tear down the illusion and face the reality underneath" is something I would have loved to see explored. What's her end game? What will she do when she finds out Odin is no longer around but isn't exactly dead?
Don't get me wrong - I don't mind humor, and I think there's plenty of opportunity for humor here that would not have undercut the entire premise. Or just decide that you're going to do a funny movie and don't try to ladle it down with Deep Themes. "Thor Gets Kidnapped on Whacky World and Teams Up with Hulk to Escape" isn't as catchy a title, but it would've worked just fine, particularly with Jeff Goldblum camping it all the way up (excellent casting choice there).
But trying to wrap that whacky core into an epic story about Odin ?dying? ?committing suicide? ?going to join Obi-Wan? so he can avoid getting King Lear-ed by the daughter he just conveniently forgot to tell everyone about? (By the way, who was her mother and why doesn't Mom even get mentioned?) And the entire planet of Asgard being destroyed so everyone can escape in a giant space ship a la Battlestar Galactica is just fail.
As a comic-book nerd I can't help but gripe about the movie's inability to keep Thor's power level straight. This is a god (alien, whatever) who can take a massive hit from Hulk and walk around the next day mostly unbruised but can't even remove a stupid metal disk from his neck? Really? Also, the idea of controlling the god of thunder by zapping him with electric jolts is just... really? This being has millions of volts running through his body whenever he wields his powers.
Comic-nerd me also really objects to reducing Bruce Banner to a whiny incompetent. This is the guy who we early (in the Marvel movie universe) were told stuck a gun in his mouth to try and escape Hulk. We've been told (again in the movie version of his character) that his secret is that he's "...always angry." Now waking up on an alien planet suddenly turns him into quivering jelly? Puh-leeze.
Again, I could see the glimmer of a serious issue here - what happens when Banner is convinced he's never going to come back? Is he hero enough to throw himself on that grenade to save innocents? Interesting potential tension and character development here, particularly since the last time this happened there was that TOTALLY NON-CONSENSUAL scene with Black Widow. Finding out he could, after that, do it voluntarily would have been a really key character moment. Instead, totally wasted.
As an SF nerd it really bugs me when non-human beings talk in Earth terms. Why does Valkyrie say "Five seconds?" How does she know that measurement and why assume that the alien beings she's talking to will understand that? Then she and Loki play "Name That Tune" in hours? Why? It's lazy writing.
Apparently my problem is that I have consistently too-high expectations.
Start with "you really can't do an end-of-the-world film as an Abbot and Costello slapstick movie." Well, you can, but what you get is a slapstick movie where things that are trying to get you to take them seriously end up looking weird and out of place.
The movie is just rife with 12-year-old humor. Dick jokes, anus jokes, titter titter naked, Daffy Duck-esque physical comedy, on and on. I really felt sorry for Tessa Thompson who is doing her best to infuse a character with depth and emotional conflict amid the juvenile humor. Not only did Marvel execs cut the scene that would have established her character as bi (apparently over her and the director's objections) she doesn't even get a real name. "Valkyrie" is a generic role and there is plenty of opportunity to establish her as an authentic named person. But that would've required getting serious, which this movie simply can't.
From here this review slides in and out of minor spoilers; I can't easily separate them because my problem is structural with the film as well as with the characters. I felt this film easily competes with GotG 2 and Ant Man for Worst Marvel Movie Yet. See it for the fan service or if you're compelled to see everything; otherwise, don't.
I also felt sorry for Cate Blanchett, whose Hela is possibly the best and certainly the most wasted character in the film. Whoever came up with the little bit of business where she brushes her hair back and sprouts the massive helmet should get an award. She's a bitchin' awesome character who also has a real potential story that falls to meaninglessness amid the laugh lines. Her fighting style is a great blend of magical and physical, her modus of "tear down the illusion and face the reality underneath" is something I would have loved to see explored. What's her end game? What will she do when she finds out Odin is no longer around but isn't exactly dead?
Don't get me wrong - I don't mind humor, and I think there's plenty of opportunity for humor here that would not have undercut the entire premise. Or just decide that you're going to do a funny movie and don't try to ladle it down with Deep Themes. "Thor Gets Kidnapped on Whacky World and Teams Up with Hulk to Escape" isn't as catchy a title, but it would've worked just fine, particularly with Jeff Goldblum camping it all the way up (excellent casting choice there).
But trying to wrap that whacky core into an epic story about Odin ?dying? ?committing suicide? ?going to join Obi-Wan? so he can avoid getting King Lear-ed by the daughter he just conveniently forgot to tell everyone about? (By the way, who was her mother and why doesn't Mom even get mentioned?) And the entire planet of Asgard being destroyed so everyone can escape in a giant space ship a la Battlestar Galactica is just fail.
As a comic-book nerd I can't help but gripe about the movie's inability to keep Thor's power level straight. This is a god (alien, whatever) who can take a massive hit from Hulk and walk around the next day mostly unbruised but can't even remove a stupid metal disk from his neck? Really? Also, the idea of controlling the god of thunder by zapping him with electric jolts is just... really? This being has millions of volts running through his body whenever he wields his powers.
Comic-nerd me also really objects to reducing Bruce Banner to a whiny incompetent. This is the guy who we early (in the Marvel movie universe) were told stuck a gun in his mouth to try and escape Hulk. We've been told (again in the movie version of his character) that his secret is that he's "...always angry." Now waking up on an alien planet suddenly turns him into quivering jelly? Puh-leeze.
Again, I could see the glimmer of a serious issue here - what happens when Banner is convinced he's never going to come back? Is he hero enough to throw himself on that grenade to save innocents? Interesting potential tension and character development here, particularly since the last time this happened there was that TOTALLY NON-CONSENSUAL scene with Black Widow. Finding out he could, after that, do it voluntarily would have been a really key character moment. Instead, totally wasted.
As an SF nerd it really bugs me when non-human beings talk in Earth terms. Why does Valkyrie say "Five seconds?" How does she know that measurement and why assume that the alien beings she's talking to will understand that? Then she and Loki play "Name That Tune" in hours? Why? It's lazy writing.
Apparently my problem is that I have consistently too-high expectations.
