Thor Ragnarok (Please, Don’t Pay Attention To The Plot Behind The Curtain)
A review with brevity (if not wit)
<warning…there are some spoilers in this review…but they are almost all spoilers revealed in the commercial campaign>
Thor Ragnarok is funny.
You will 100% laugh, probably 20 or more times, during a full viewing of the movie.
This is a blessing to anyone who sat through 2013’s Thor the Dark World (and God help me I did, and might never entirely recover from the experience). <Heck, this is a blessing to anyone who sat through Avengers Age of Ultron>.
In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, funny is a blessing (and I am not talking about shows or movies which were unintentionally funny like say…Iron Fist)
No, if there is one central requirement for new MCU movies it has to be that the movies are funny.
Did I mention Thor is funny?
Please Don’t Look At The Plot Behind The Curtain
This review will sound more critical than it really is. I honestly enjoyed Thor Ragnarok (it is great fun).
I have three problems with Thor Ragnarok (not that it matters much what I think — Thor is probably sitting right now in his throne at Asgard counting his huge stacks of cash donated by millions of laughing humans):
1) Thor is funny in the same way that Maroon 5 is a good band
Yes, I laughed about 20 times during Thor Ragnarok (sometimes out loud) but next year if someone mentions it, I will only vaguely remember that it was funny and I virtually guarantee I won’t remember any of the jokes.
By far the funniest single part of Ragnarok is Jeff Goldblum doing a cheeky comic impersonation of Jeff Goldblum and while he is very funny he isn’t “Brando doing Brando in the Freshman” funny or memorable.
Runner-ups for most funny (1. Hulk 2. 142 3. Korg 4. Hela).
2) The Plot Makes Almost Zero Sense
So let me get this straight, The Hulk left earth because he (and Banner) no longer wanted to be an indiscriminate danger to civilians so he goes to Sakaar becomes a Gladiator and kills people every day for a living (so successfully that he is the grand champion of the grand master).
WTF?
But, why worry? The Hulk is funny (and if you get him angry, you would not like him angry, Hulk Smash).
Or Hela, why can they beat her at the end again? Because Surfur and Ragnarok? I dunno, this one is probably on me (for never reading Norse mythology).
I am just saying they have a real habit of just saying something is true, giving no reasoning for it, and just assuming nobody cares enough about the plot to complain (and by box office receipts they are obviously correct).
Guess that makes me the one jerk who cares.
3) There are, as always in the MCU, ZERO stakes
It is hard to care much about characters that you know are in no moral peril ever (and no, killing of Quicksilver, a character nobody cared about, doesn’t count and by the way, even in Age of Ultron, nobody aside from Wanda seemed to give two damns about Quicksilver dying either…go back and watch again, even Wanda basically just jumped right into the New Avengers).
Not only did I never think Thor or Hulk or Loki were at any risk, they didn’t either (just kept joking all the way as they watched Skurge take the mandatory dirt nap for the team).
Also, and I am asking this honestly, how did they have a control chip that worked on Thor (who is after all a Demi-God)? Just because 142 was from Asgard?
CGI graphics with zero stakes makes for a movie that is hard to emotionally care about, at least not for very long.
Sometimes empty calories are provided by something tasty, but they are still empty calories.
In all seriousness, I didn’t hate Thor Ragnarok, I had a good time. It is well directed, the actors do a great job playing Thor as camp, but it is still empty calories.
But at least Thor was funny.
Thinking Out Loud
- Yes, I really hated Age of Ultron. This is mostly because Ultron was one of the most innovative and interesting characters in the Marvel universe and they reduced him to an almost Adam West level batman villain with a ridiculous plan.
- Yes, I really hated Thor: The Dark World. I love movies and it was one of about three movies I have ever seen that I considered walking out on mid-movie (it didn’t improve).
- No, I don’t hate all Marvel’s stuff. I thought Winter Soldier, for instance, was great. I loved Season 1 of Daredevil (Kingpin). Jessica Jones was pretty great too (if super dark). I loved the first Iron Man. Enjoyed Dr. Strange. Ant Man was fun.
- I do think the Direction by Taika Waititi was great, he did a bunch of really creative stuff and overcame the CGI with interesting use of color.
- Mark Mothersbaugh did the music and for those who don’t know he was largely responsible for DEVO.
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Conclusion: Tasty But Empty Calories (Good)
