Movie Review--Thor: Ragnarok

"I'm particularly fond of these.  I pulled them out of a place in Midgard called Texas.  I call them Des and Troy.  You see, when you put them together, they destroy."

--Skurge, Thor: Ragnarok

Thor: Ragnarok is what might be made when strong acting is paired with gratuitous comedy and a tendency to trivialize not only the in-universe significance of a story's events, but also the events of what comes before and after.  Set between Thor: The Dark World and Avengers: Infinity War, Thor Ragnarok does a terrible job of preserving the thematic and tonal continuity between its predecessor and the Avengers film it leads into.  Almost everything except the death of Odin and a scene where Hela discusses her role in Asgard's past is used as little more than a setup for a joke.  Even Ragnarok itself is reduced to throwaway humor.  Moreover, the attempts at humor range from clever uses of Jeff Goldblum's personality to unnecessary and weak one-liners that belittle what were one characters with substance.

Production Values

Never has a Thor movie had colors this diverse and vibrant on such a regular basis.  The trailer gave this aspect away beforehand, the visual style and tone coming far closer to those of Guardians of the Galaxy 2 than another MCU title.  Unfortunately, the effects, lighting, and general aesthetic, as consistent with each other and well-executed as they might be, are just the stage for a story with very lackluster and even incoherent characterization.  It is not that Chris Hemsworth, Tessa Thompson, Tom Hiddleston, Jeff Goldblum, Cate Blanchett, and Karl Urban are bad at delivering their lines and showing the physicality of their performances, but that almost all of them are given lines that do not fit at all with the gravity of the prior Thor movie and completely deviate from the desperation and somber nature of the opening scene of Infinity War--which literally starts where a Thor: Ragnarok credits scene stops.  Loki, who once invaded Earth intending to kill or enslave humanity out of sheer arrogance, and Thor, who once solemnly said he would rather be a good man than a great king, are especially reduced to characters with personalities almost interchangeable with that of Tony Stark.

Cate Blanchett's villain Hela is unsurprisingly wasted in a small number of scenes that do almost nothing but briefly describe her past and emphasize her blind love of conquest.  This disregard of villains has, after all, been one of the MCU's most glaring flaws that could so easily be fixed if the directors and writers would stop thinking about the increasingly unneeded style of comedy and fairly formulaic characterization the MCU has become known for.  Not every villain needs to be as philosophically inclined as Thanos or Killmonger, but to make so many of them this shallow is outright idiocy at this point that reflects on the ideological and storytelling depth of the MCU's guiding hands for the past few years (no, not everyone involved is shallow because there have been great aspects to most of the recent films as well).  Anthony Hopkins, Sam Neil, Matt Damon, and others have very minor roles that they handle with excellence, but a handful of great performances from well-known actors do not atone for the missteps Thor: Ragnarok takes with its almost relentless focus on comedy at the expense of general depth and character moments.

Story

Some spoilers are below!

Thor, in an effort to stop the prophesied end of Asgard via an apocalyptic event called Ragnarok, visits a being called Surtur.  The remnants of Surtur's body are taken to Asgard for safekeeping after his defeat, but Thor finds that Loki has secretly taken over the realm.  Odin is reached just moments before he tells Thor and his brother Loki that they have a sister named Hela--and that she is coming to Asgard as a warrior bent on taking the throne.  Thor and Loki both are cast aside by Hela on a planet called Sakaar where they have to deal with a figure called the Grandmaster as they try to return to Asgard before Ragnarok.

Intellectual Content

A few very scattered references to Odin's past and the people of Asgard supposedly being Asgard itself instead of people who live or once lived in Asgard are introduced more for the mere sake of moving from one plot point to the next than actually exploring anything sincerely or at least somewhat deeply.  Out of all of the Thor films, Ragnarok is by far the shallowest and most intellectually pathetic.  At least the prior two addressed the relationship between Thor and Loki with gravity and sincerity.  Here, other than in a very small number of scenes, even their troubled, complicated relationship is more about trying to make audiences laugh than it is about thoughtful depictions of familial strife.  Ragnarok could have at least kept this much intact on a more consistent basis.  Beyond this, there is nothing but almost a total lack of effort in developing any sort of clear or important themes about concepts or truth, unlike what can be found in the best MCU movies.

Conclusion

People who like comedies that are quite literally aimed at superficiality over almost any sort of substance might mistake Thor: Ragnarok for an excellent entry, but it is at best a mediocre mixture of undeveloped characters and inconsistent tones.  Liking or enjoying it and thinking it is a great movie in the context of what it builds off of and leads to are very different things; I am not saying that anyone who subjectively liked it is stupid, only that this appreciation does not reflect the storytelling quality on display!  For an example of how low the movie takes its established characters, take Bruce Banner and the Hulk.  In The Incredible Hulk, Bruce Banner was acted with sensitivity of facial expressions, introspective depth, and a genuine struggle at the forefront.  In Thor: Ragnarok, he almost exclusively says things to elicit laughter, even in his Hulk form.  The subtlety and strength of the original personality are completely gone, just like the depth of Thor and Loki in their previous films.

Content:

 1.  Violence:  Although confined by the PG-13 rating, decapitations, the removal of limbs, and the destruction of one of Thor's eyes are shown onscreen.

 2.  Profanity:  "Bitch," "damn," and "shit" get used.

 3.  Nudity:  One scene briefly shows Hulk naked from behind.