Marvel Studios’ Thor: Love and Thunder (2022) Review

Before I proceed any further, this is a spoiler-free review. That means I won’t be discussing any specific plot points related to Marvel Studios’ Thor: Love and Thunder.

Five years ago, Marvel Studios brought in Taika Waititi to give us a different vibe of a Thor movie. A vibe that was more irreverent and colourful than what Kenneth Branagh and Alan Taylor had previously offered in the first two Thor movies. It somehow worked, thanks to Waititi’s gleeful B-movie energy that reminded me of the 1980s era of Flash Gordon. It even drove better-than-expected worldwide box-office results that beat the previous Thor movies with an impressive US$854 million.

While Thor: Ragnarok may have been both critically and financially successful, I always thought the movie’s tongue-in-cheek approach would be better if it were served as a one-off experiment. But knowing that Waititi is still calling the shots for the new Thor movie, he continues to embrace the same candy-coloured 1980s space opera style previously seen in Thor: Ragnarok and added a romantic-dramedy twist to its existing tone.

The twist in question is due to the return of Natalie Portman’s Jane Foster after her long hiatus since 2013’s Thor: The Dark World (not counting her voice performance in last year’s one of What If…? episodes). This time, her return has to do with her battle with cancer and long story short, she reunites with Thor (Chris Hemsworth), looking all different with bleached-blonde hair and even dressed like him. But what surprised Thor the most is Jane somehow wields a reconstructed Mjolnir, which was last destroyed by Thor’s older sister Hela (Cate Blanchett) in Thor: Ragnarok. Their reunion also includes Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson) and Korg (Taika Waititi), as they join forces to stop Gorr the God Butcher (Christian Bale) from killing all gods.

The story — credited to Waititi and Jennifer Kaytin Robinson, where the latter’s screenwriting credits include TV’s Sweet/Vicious and also served as a consulting producer for Disney+’s Hawkeye — moves at a brisk pace. The jokes fly thick and fast but personally, I find most of them either too cringey for their own good (the whole sequence that involved Thor and his company meeting up with Russell Crowe’s Zeus immediately comes to mind) or downright annoying (seriously, what’s so funny about a pair of goats that can’t stop screaming throughout the movie?).

While the humour mostly misses the mark, Waititi still deserves credit for incorporating the dramatic side of the story, notably Jane Foster’s cancer-stricken battle to stay alive and the introduction of MCU’s new villain, Gorr the God Butcher. The latter may lack the comic-accurate resemblance while I can’t help but feel that Christian Bale’s physical appearance reminiscent of a malnourished Kratos from the God of War video-game console series.

And yet, Bale remains a nice addition to the movie, thanks to his sympathetic scene-stealing antagonist performance that offsets the shortcoming of his character. The grim nature of his character brings a much-needed stark contrast against the movie’s otherwise all-out vibrant visual aesthetics (more on this later) and its overall cheeky storytelling. Waititi also gives him a brief but effective backstory that showcases why Gorr the God Butcher is hellbent on eliminating every god in the first place.

The romantic-dramedy part of the movie does work fairly well in its favour and it helps that Chris Hemsworth and Natalie Portman share a wonderful on-screen love-hate relationship. Tessa Thompson delivers a decent supporting turn as Valkyrie while Waititi’s comic-relief appearance as Korg isn’t as funny this time around, unlike when he was first introduced in Thor: Ragnarok.

The rest of the characters are mostly a hit-or-miss affair, with the cast from the Guardians of the Galaxy team (Chris Pratt’s Star-Lord and Dave Bautista’s Drax among others) largely reduced to stunt-casting appearances. Franchise newcomer Russell Crowe shows up in a scenery-chewing supporting turn as Zeus. But it’s kind of a pity to see Waititi turning one of the most powerful gods in Greek mythology into an overly jokey Zeus.

Now, speaking of its visual aesthetics, the movie looks stunning and Waititi’s love for the 1980s era is vividly realised, complete with some of Guns N’ Roses’ signature songs (“Welcome to the Jungle”, “Sweet Child O’ Mine”) blaring in the background. But I particularly enjoy the bold, yet unique visual moments of a fight scene beautifully shot in black and white and contrasting them well with vibrant colour selections. As proven in Thor: Ragnarok, Waititi always has a good eye for staging spectacular effects-laden action sequences with enough kinetic energy as if they jump straight out from the comic-book pages.

Overall, the mixed result of Waititi’s brand of zany action-comedy is a step down from Thor: Ragnarok. But at least the movie isn’t as bad as I thought it would be since it does retain a few worthwhile fun and dramatic moments throughout its nearly two-hour length.

Likewise, don’t forget to stick around as Marvel Studios’ Thor: Love and Thunder ended with not one but two stingers including mid-credit and post-credit scenes.