We live in a time where Hollywood’s undying obsession with the lucrative superhero genre is so very strong that it has resulted in several films. We also know that some productions have been planned decades in advance, leading to the belief that some of it is purely plastic and done in the name of money.
CinemaScope
You don’t have to be a fan of the superhero genre to enjoy what is easily the goofiest sequel to have emerged from Marvel Cinematic Universe.
We live in a time where Hollywood’s undying obsession with the lucrative superhero genre is so very strong that it has resulted in several films. We also know that some productions have been planned decades in advance, leading to the belief that some of it is purely plastic and done in the name of money.
While Christopher Nolan remains the only director to have done justice to Batman with his three-film trilogy, the battle between DC Comics and Marvel Studios is only getting stronger as the former develops its own multiple-superhero vehicle, Justice League, slated to release this November.
None of those industry matters matter right now. It doesn’t even matter if you’ve never seen previous Marvel films or even the previous Thor films.
With an all-star cast led by Chris Hemsworth, Thor: Ragnarok is everything a film should be and more. Most may think that it’s about yet another battle to save the world from extinction from yet another villain but Ragnarok is so much more.
For one thing, it’s the funniest film from the Marvel Cinematic Universe where the humour drives the plot forward.
Secondly, depiction of Norse mythology despite inaccuracies, has never been this beautiful. Most of all, it’s a film where women are as central to the plot as the men and that may be its greatest strength.
Leaving behind the unnecessarily dark world that made the second sequel of Thor so insipid as well as the morality that made the all-star Captain America: Civil War a duller affair, here Marvel creates a film whose cosmic universe is so entertaining that it will be the benchmark against which every MCU film will be judged.
Directed by Taika Waititi, the film features Thor (Chris Hemsworth), the God of Thunder trapped on Sakkar, the other side of Asgard where he must participate in a ‘gladiator’ match starring Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) in order to get back home. At Asgard, Hela with antlers, the goddess of Death awaits him. Tom Hiddleston’s Loki, the god of mischief also stars in this epic comedy while Tessa Thompson’s Valkyrie and Jeff Goldbaum’s Grandmaster make their respective debuts to the superhero universe. Idris Elba’s Heimdall returns as well to make the the Thor world complete though he was underused in the film.
Collectively, this is a group that is more than willing to make fun of themselves and the MCU history. Equally important is Cate Blanchett’s Hela, who not only destroys Thor’s ‘hammer’ but is so snarky that you can’t help but root for her (silently). The soundtrack, led by Led Zeppelin’s ‘Immigrant Song’ is used at the perfect moments, when this team of misfits who don’t trust each other at first, come together to remind us that a place is made by its people. In some subtle ways, the attack on Asgard and the plight of its people is a reflection of the real-world plight of refugees all around the world.
The film is nowhere near as profound as Nolan’s Batman films where each film had at its core center a theme. Batman Begins was about fear; The Dark Knight was about chaos and The Dark Knight Rises was about pain. But Thor: Ragnarok doesn’t need to be profound. While the action in the film is typical CGI stuff, it’s the goofy oddball interactions that have made it such a success.
As Barry Hertz rightly notes for The Globe and Mail, “The film, the God of Thunder’s third solo vehicle apart from his Avengers buddies, has made every conceivable effort to twist itself into an uber-wacky comedy that might have come out of the Judd Apatow factory. Its producers hired Taika Waititi – easily New Zealand’s funniest man alive, if not the wittiest filmmaker in the entire Southern Hemisphere – to ensure the gags are fresh, the dialogue is deadpan, the pacing is tight and the visuals kaleidoscopically trippy. Hemsworth, already an expert at poking holes in his heartthrob persona… is allowed to flex all manner of muscles, comedic and otherwise” before adding: “For the most part, it works.”
