Thor: Ragnarok

After all the embarrassing and serious stories about saving the world, or even the universe, Marvel finally excels at what it does best: a comic book comedy caper. It’s a tad worse than the first Avengers, but the juicier and snappier humour and the great characters (Cate Blanchett with antlers and a painted Jeff Goldblum) are a hit. What is absent, however, is a balanced group of superheroes where everyone has their own. Even so, it's damn catchy, and every time the spoiler from the trailer played, the audience in the cinema giggled with satisfaction, quite rightly so. (10/27/2017)

Colorful, funny and also strangely fateful. Thor has finally found his feet and he’s just the powerhouse that his solo movies needed. Waititi packed the movie full of his unreal director’s individuality which overturns genre rules on a level similar to Guardians of the Galaxy (not always better, but he isn’t afraid to take risks). The childish photos suit the videogame atmosphere and the newly built planets. Inspiration from Planet Hulk is obvious, just the heroes have swapped roles. Great one-liners, ingenious action scenes (the hammer finally has its say) and playful. Cate is real foxy in this movie and her acting is great, although she doesn’t get much room to display her skills. Incredible care is devoted to supporting characters (the theatre scene) and Korg the crusher shines whenever he is in shot. Ragnarok can’t stand alone, but at the same time it didn’t seem like the final part of a trilogy – it’s too high-spirited, but still, it’s the best movie about Thor that we’ve seen on the silver screen yet. (10/28/2017)

I didn’t have that much fun. Like Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, the third Thor wants to be a very family friendly film, so it crams in a bunch of characters that are completely useless, but every viewer gets a chance to pick their favourite. It mixes in humor, because is needed, and visually and musically, it references the 1980s because that was a cool era. Or something like that. Well, again, it all works only halfway. Taika Waititi and Chris Hemsworth, who is good at comedic acting, push the humour forward so much that the film grinds along like an adventure flick. So while there are some truly spectacular things happening on screen and the story has the potential to be epic, with scenes that send chills down the spine, overall it's more of a comic book sitcom. There's so much comedy and over-the-top characters that when it comes to the real fight for life and the fate of Asgard, it doesn't work. The banter and buddy chemistry with the Hulk are fine. But when everything else doesn't work because of it, and the fight with the goddess of death has about as much emotional impact as waiting in line at the post office, I see that as a problem. I'm not saying I didn't have fun, but I really probably won't watch it again in the years to come. Maybe I wouldn't mind if Marvel started having a bit more ambition than just making "big, successful, and pretty cool" movies. (07/27/2018)

Never mind the destruction of the soul, never mind the darkness. Let's enjoy the ride. After the amazing second Guardians of the Galaxy, New Zealand joker Taika Waititi arrives in a garbage spaceship to transform Thor’s theatrical woodenness and mythological sculpture into a highly human portrait of a ripped daffodil that has daddy issues and is morbidly dependent on its phallic pride - a giant hammer. Marvel tried out this seriously unserious style in the third Iron Man, and thanks to the Guardians of the Galaxy, Marvel already knows that people want escape, retro, and nonsensical alien worlds inhabited by eccentric piles of rocks and other strange homuncules. The third Thor thus resembles a euphoric 8-bit arcade, which uses only the X and Y axes to move, but you can also enjoy a lot of gags, shooters and action escapades. It's not without its flaws. Hemsworth sometimes tries so hard that he distorts his face, and the joke-a-minute syndrome does lead to dead spots. Moreover, Thor does not have much of an elegant plot, where the traditional world-destroying motif is transformed into a moving statement about family relationships like the second Guardians of the Galaxy. The fashionable hooker Hela it's quite amusing, but everything around her is rather desperately generic, so the accumulated eruption of energy at the end eventually leads to clichés. Fortunately, Taika almost always accompanies them with some full-fledged ironic gags that will restore balance to the universe. Did you want an empty, badass, yet confidently biting spectacle? Here's your stuffed portion. (10/27/2017)

The funniest and probably also the best Marvel movie I’ve ever seen. Plus there’s even some 1980s music that fits the story perfectly. It was literally as if Daft Punk started yet another movie music orgy after Tron. Anyways, I realize that choosing a very alternative New Zealand director Taika Waititi must have been a big risk. Especially since most of the dialogues were improvised. You could expect anything at all, but once you know what kind of brilliant movies he’s already filmed, you can just hope that Thor: Ragnarok will be a success and so will Taika. Of course, it’s also important whether you like Thor as a character. I’d say it’s currently the best, the most original, the most inventive, the funniest Marvel cinematic universe character. However, the movie has taken this originality and wittiness to a whole new level. I haven’t laughed this hard watching a movie for a long time. The improvisation has brought some amazing scenes to life and I’d be surprised if people didn’t talk about them and even make parodies of them. Furthermore, the story itself is great, Jeff Goldblum is brilliant as a leader of a planet riddled with trash. And Mark Ruffalo as Hulk is probably the most prominent he’s ever been. Everybody has their say; Anthony Hopkins, Karl Urban, Cate Blanchett, Tessa Thompson, Idris Elba, even Benedict Cumberbatch who has proved that he’s funny with a single scene. Unlike his own – often far too serious – movie Doctor Strange. And don’t even get me started on all the cameos in Ragnarok, one of them played by the director himself, as has become a tradition. Overall, I thought it was more than amazing. I don’t think I’ll see anything better or more fun this year. Or ever. (11/07/2017)