Well, that was an interesting day; I did some Christmas shopping, bought a sweet Blade Runner 2049 Tshirt, stuffed my face at an Asian buffet, had a chocolate milkshake with whisky in it, and of course, saw Thor: Ragnarok, the 3rd MCU film I've seen in cinemas, and the 8th I've seen overall, yes, I really need to catch up. To be honest though, Thor: Ragnarok had some promising promotional material, and I'd heard good things about it, so why the hell not, it's not like there's anything else on, he says while holding his Paddington teddy bear.
Thor: Ragnarok is the first in the Thor series that I've watched, so maybe it's just something I'd notice, having not seen the first two, but Thor: Ragnarok has a very hasty introduction. It's not a bad thing, there's a cool action sequence in the first scene, and the introduction to Thor is very well done, with some surprisingly funny dialogue between him and the Balrog of Morgoth, and me not having any knowledge of Thor's character from prior films, I really liked Thor in this opening scene, and throughout the movie for that matter. As the film goes on, Thor's character growth is very minimal, the enjoyment comes from his interactions with his fellow heroes; the scene with Doctor Strange is great, and I actually wish there was more, because I liked Doctor Strange, and Doctor Strange has changed a fair bit since his film, sure he was getting good at magic in the film, but here he's got it nailed, he's teleporting all over the place and refilling Thor's beer with magic, it's actually really cool. I've never understood the love people have for Loki, apparently there's a huge Tumblr fan obsession thing for both Loki and the actor Tom Hiddleston, but it's Tumblr, so I have no fucking idea, I did however like Loki in this film, I thought a lot of his dialogue with Thor was very funny, and I like that his trickery isn't fooling Thor, who gets the upper hand a couple of times, and it was great. What was also great, there's actually a lot of great in this film, spoiler alert, was Hulk, I loved Hulk in this film, there's was a lot less Banner than I was expecting, which confused me a bit as Banner introduces into the film a threat that the film then doesn't really capitalise on, it does in one scene near the end, but it kind of gets lost in the comedy, a point we'll be getting back to. But it's just really easy to like Hulk in this film, where he's played up like a big childish dummy, it's weird how cute it is. I could talk about the characters in this film a lot, since I actually liked all of them; Valkyrie was cool, the Grandmaster wasn't in it much, but he was alright, Hela was a cool villain, and thankfully the family tragedy dynamic wasn't played as much as it could have been, it's already a sci fi comedy about Norse Gods, Shakespeare might have been overkill. What I will say however is that while Hela was cool, she wasn't the most menacing villain ever, after banishing Thor and Loki and laying waste to Asgard's defenses in a pretty ridiculous battle scene, she does little besides be in asgard, spouting exposition and occasionally doing something, her fight with Thor in the film's climax is where things pick back up, and there's a really cool scene where she reveals the hidden history of Asgard, but she's no Vulture, more Ronan the Accuser. Her henchman was pretty cool too, only he actually did things, and was played by Judge Dredd, so not liking him is already really hard. The film's plot mainly centres around two worlds; Asgard and the shithole scrap planet Thor lands on after being banished, with a few scenes on Earth, and to be honest, I like that, of the Marvel films I have seen, my favourite ar the Guardians of the Galaxy films, so I am very much a sucker for sci fi, and this film tells a very enjoyable sci fi story, depicting an interesting world in the scrap planet, a place where the rest of the universe dumps it's literal and figurative trash, and where a society somehow managed to form out of said trash, it makes sense then that it's a shithole run by a lunatic. But Asgard is equally as interesting in this film, as we see it's hidden history, and get a look at its society too, maybe that was in the first two, don't know, but I liked it here.
Something pleasant is the film's visuals, I love the way the film looks, the film's visual effects are top notch of course, but rather than being dull, colourless landfill like it could have been, the trash planet is gorgeous; it's bright, colourful and vibrant, and visually appealing. Asgard, while less colourful and chaotic, is very grand and pristine, and similarly visually appealing, but until the final battle with Hela, I was far more interested in the trash planet, where Hulk is the champion of a gladiatorial arena and a rebellion against the Grandmaster is slowly simmering, seeing Thor and company piggybacking on the rebellion in order to get back to Asgard was really entertaining, and it allowed for some really enjoyable action sequences, like the gladiator battle from all of the trailers, and a great ship escape through the skies of the trash planet. But what was equally entertaining was simply the characters, Hulk and Thor arguing was surprisingly endearing, and Valkyrie's drinking habits made for some good laughs, while Korg was great, with such a juxtaposition in his voice and appearance, and such a polite and friendly demeanour, he's really good, and his comedy is usually really good. But the comedy, while working for the most part, is also one of the film's failings; near the end the film depicts a significant event, one that should carry significant emotional weight for both Thor and the audience, but then Korg makes a joke, Banner's Hulk transformation in the film's climax carries serious implications for Hulk and Banner as characters, but it's done for comedy; there are times then Thor: Ragnarok compromises the moment by trying to be funny, and it happens enough to be bothersome, it happens a couple of times just in the gladiator fight, this is a problem that was very minor in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, but here it's a lot less minor, and the film does have its moments, like Thor's final interaction with Odin, Skurge's repentance, and Scarlett Johansson's cameo appearance, but for all of them, there's one that was made less impactful by a forced joke, and I know that many other people have the same problem with this that I do, in your story there are times when a joke just doesn't fit, and a lot of the Marvel film's I've seen, including this one, don't seem to know that. This creates a sort of tonal inconsistency that is pretty much the only thing I do not like about the film, other complaints are minor, like the lack of blood in the action scenes, which usually pits people with swords and axes against other people with swords and axes, I know Marvel is aiming to make their films as inclusive as possible to generate mass audience appeal, but when someone gets a huge blade thrown at him and it hits him in the chest and kills him, the lack of blood makes it look a bit silly. There's a scene about half way through the film that looked like it was going to a really dark place, but then the film pussies out at the last minute, as if going through with it would have been too extreme, which is the only reason I can think of, what annoys me about it is how had the film actually gone through with it, Hela would have become more menacing as a villain, and Skurge's repentance would have carried more weight, but instead the film keeps it clean, that could be called a nitpick, especially when there's so much to like about Thor: Ragnarok, but it's something to think about, especially given what Hela ends up doing to Thor in the finale.
I ended up really enjoying Thor: Ragnarok, something that was probably inevitable, but here we are. Right from the outset I thought this film was funny, entertaining, visually great, and had some really endearing characters that I ended up loving, particularly Hulk. The film's villain ends up being nothing special, but she gets the job done. But where this film shines is in its great presentation and comedy, even if the film develops a habit of having jokes that compromise the tone of a couple of scenes. It doesn't really change the fact that I was smiling for the majority of the film, and still had a smile on my face after it ended. Thor: Ragnarok is a solid film, and it's definitely worth watching.
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