Thor: Ragnarok (2017): Review

 

*** review contains a few small spoilers, so be warned***

I am sorry to say that although Thor: Ragnarok was a shiny Marvel Cinematic University movie, it was just average and felt more like a transition movie in the universe than a true stand alone Thor movie. This is probably because of a lot of the characters I expect to see in Thor movies were not there and I really felt their absence. The movie didn't know what it was trying to be and combined three different types of movie into one.  This resulted in a movie that felt very disjointed and would jump in tone from one scene to another. For open disclosure, the Thor franchise is not my favorite of all the Marvel movies but I still have liked the previous two. I did like this movie but it will not be what I will first grab when I want to re-watch a Marvel movie and will just watch it if I am doing a marathon.



Thor: Ragnarok starts by quickly bringing Thor, played by Chris Hemsworth and Loki, played by Tom Hiddleston, back together with Thor returning from a battle to hopefully prevent Ragnarok (the destruction of Asgard) and finds that Loki has been masquerading as their father Odin, played by Anthony Hopkins.  They go to find Odin before he dies and discover that they have an older sister Hela, played by Cate Blanchett, who is the Goddess of Death and who has been kept at bay by Odin but who will be released once he dies.  Once Hela is released, she seeks to destroy Thor and Asgard and plans to conquer all of the realms.  While Thor is trying to stop her, he gets stranded on the planet Sakaar, where he is forced by the Grandmaster, played by Jeff Goldblum, to battle against Hulk, played by Mark Ruffalo, for entertainment.  Here he meets and tries to get a former Valkyrie, played by Tesse Thompson, to help him escape and then battle Hela before she is able to destroy Asgard.

As I mentioned above, Thor: Ragnarok felt like three different movies mushed together.  It seemed as if it was going for trying to change more into a Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) type movie, with wanting it to be humorous; having strong music/songs behind very stylized battle sequences, and having lots of alien races (this led to me feeling it was more of a transitional movie).  There was an attempt at having scenes be funny with the dialogue trying really hard to be funny. This overall didn't work for me because it was trying to make Thor both the funny man and the straight man at the same time. This doesn't work, a character needs to be one of the other.  The only character I thought was truly funny was Korg, voiced by Taika Waititi, he was by far one of the most enjoyable bits of the movie and the only one who had me laughing at his antics. Loki also had a few good moments., Thirdly there were times that were more serious and had great acting in them, this sub story line focused around Heimdall, played by Idris Elba.  When I see a movie I want it to have a consistent tone and feel thought it. There can be subtlety and differences but it just needs to fell like it all goes together or meshes well in how it is put together.

I wouldn't mind the fact that it was several different types of movie in one if it didn't seem like all the movie was trying to do was set up for what is coming next.  It pulled lots of different things together just to get characters to be working together or over story points that need to happen.  Take Dr. Stange, played by Benedict Cumberbatch, the movie brings him in and has help Thor really quickly and then disappear. Yes I understand that it was basically a cameo but based on what was going on, why would Dr. Strange just let Thor handle the rest of what happened.  I mean Thor was still on Earth when the main stuff started happening.  Ugg, I just wish the movie stood better on its own and felt like its own story not a transitional movie beefed up to just accomplish a few plot points. And while it was doing this it made everything so complicated and convoluted. I feel like it could have been much shorter and accomplished what the movie did.  While this frustrates me, it doesn't take away from how independently I liked the different bits.  I especially liked Jeff Goldblum but what actually happened on Sakaar wasn't much in either plot points or character development.



I feel like I have been complaining a lot so far but the movie was still good and a solid blockbuster.  The things that I do complain about doesn't mean that the movie was bad, I just don't think it got all the attention or effort it could have.  It felt very much phoned in for the Marvel Cinematic Universe.  This may be that it is very difficult for movie franchises, especially ones with lots of movies to make everyone special and work with the overall story arcs.  I know they can do them very well and I know that this movie will be hugely successful, I just expect more.  Especially as I really liked the other Marvel movies that have come out this year so well. When I think of Ragnarok against them, this movie just isn't as good.

Although I missed the Thor characters from the previous two movies, I liked the cast.  Casting Cate Blanchett was good, but with her being such an amazing actress, it made it more obvious that the others are not her caliber.  Even with the silliness of the movie, she still showed herself to be a great actress. Idris Elba was good as well, even thought he was only in the movie a little bit. Chris Hemsworth continues to be very attractive, and the movie has another one of those scenes just put in to enjoy and objectify his body. 

 

The CGI on CGI scenes were obvious and there was a few moments where I was distracted by it.  Usually CGI looks better when it is either in the foreground or background but not both.  I really, really enjoyed how the lighting was done with Thor and this was a nice development for Thor. The production value was high and a lot of time and effort was put into the CGI but I could tell there were moments where everything was computer generated. It is what is expected with Marvel.



This is a movie that people already know if they want to see.  If you like Marvel, it is worth watching but don't expect it to be of the higher caliber.  It is going to feel more like Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), then Captain American: Winter Soldier (2014).  I just wish that they didn't try to put so much into each movie and make them so complicated.  I am a regular audience member and not a super fan with these movies so I miss the majority of the easter eggs and have to ask "who/what is that."  I don't want to have to have seen and remember all of the previous Marvel movies to figure out what is going on.  Yes, there needs to be easter eggs for these type of fans but it is hard to join into or watch these movies if you haven't seen or at least know what has happened before.

My Rating: 2

P.S.  Of course you need to stay for the entire credits if you want to see the extra scenes, this is  Marvel movie after all.