Thor: Love and Thunder Movie Review
Nathan Swank
July 6th, 2022
I never considered myself the biggest Guns N’ Roses fan, but THOR: LOVE AND THUNDER has just converted me. The newest Marvel film, fourth installment to the Thor stand-alone films, and second outing for the brilliant writer/director Taika Waititi, is an absolute rockin’ retro spectacular. Emitting a glorious showcase of color, humor, and joy, THOR: LOVE AND THUNDER is a blast from start to finish.
After a brief introduction to our new tragic villain figure, Gorr the god butcher, played by Christian Bale, the film opens with our lovable and goofy rock monster Korg, voiced by Taika Waititi, as he begins telling the story of Thor to a group of children. This simple but effective tactic gets us through the major talking points of the character in quick but humorously entertaining fashion. We even get an incredible glimpse of his time spent with The Guardians of the Galaxy crew, which I selfishly want a film of its own. But the key storyline is the return of Thor and the new Mighty Thor, aka Dr. Jane Foster played by Natalie Portman. Teaming up with Korg, Valkyrie, played by Tessa Thompson, and a couple of giant screaming goats, they all head off on an insane adventure to rescue a bunch of children and stop Gorr the god butcher. Any discrepancies with the story can easily be blown off, because who really cares when you rock this hard!
After a handful of extremely okay superhero movies, THOR: LOVE AND THUNDER is here to right the goat led ship. Chris Hemsworth returns in the title role and is once again absolutely incredible. Hemsworth is clearly having a blast in the part and is a big reason the character and film works so well. After two of the lesser Marvel movies in THOR and THOR: THE DARK WORLD, Waititi tapped into Hemsworth’s comedic talent better than anyone and gave us arguably the best Marvel movie in THOR: RAGNAROK. THOR: LOVE AND THUNDER isn’t quite to that level (that is an extremely high bar to reach), but it does capture fun and humor more than most of its superhero counterparts.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate BLACK WIDOW, SHANG-CHI AND THE LEGEND OF THE TEN RINGS, SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME, DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS, or THE ETERNALS (okay, that last one is definitely below average), but they didn’t do much for me other than the gimmick of bringing in other characters from past movies and stories we’ve known before.
Quick-paced and energetic, THOR: LOVE AND THUNDER has a few brief lulls and is made up of about four or five absolutely banging scenes. The soundtrack is perfect and carries the film to new heights. The choice of multiple Guns N’ Roses songs and how the film utilizes them is something quite amazing that I did not expect. The build up scene to ‘November Rain’ in particular gave me goosebumps. Smiling ear to ear, all I could think of is the reaction my grade school aged children will have to all the insane glory. That’s not to say this is completely family appropriate. However, the PG-13, two hour film definitely elicits a child-like joy for adults. I’ve realized, I prefer my Marvel movies with a bit more comedic edge, which is why Waititi is clearly the best filmmaker for the job.
While I may have to wait to show my children the thrilling conclusion to THOR: LOVE AND THUNDER, which I know they will gleefully love, I am eager to introduce them to some more classic rock n’ roll by the name of Guns N’ Roses.
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