SPOILERS
There seems to be a not so universal love for Thor: Love & Thunder out there in the Marvel fan universe. This is surprising, due to the very warm welcome Thor: Ragnarok received. Applauded for the comedy, story and bringing Thor back from the brink of the Dark World debacle. Director Taika Waititi was an out the box choice for a Marvel film and it paid off. Giving the director a second chance at recreating that magic, plus picking up Thor’s character after all the grief and loss he experienced in the previous films was no easy challenge.Including the trend of the last few Marvel films where other characters from the Avengers films make a more prominent appearance, so do the Guardians of the Galaxy, minus Gamora which isn’t talked about because rightly so, this isn’t their film. But with Star Lord and co there to ground the story in the universe, like the left fielders themselves, Thor is then transported to his own story. It’s a hilarious and a needed intro, bringing the focus to Thor and a hint to where the Guardians will be when we next see them, finally.
Similar to the Multiverse of Madness did before, Love & Thunder brings back an old flame from a previous film. Unlike the pointless and dull Dr Christine Palmer and Doctor Strange that have no chemistry, Dr Jane Foster and Thor did. The reappearance of Jane was either going to be a passing of the mantle or it was going to mean a farewell. From the minute its revealed (very early on) that she has stage 4 cancer, it was always going to be the latter. The twists and turns of her becoming the Mighty Thor were also going to be patchy and thin but it didn’t matter because it meant Jane was back and she was going to get a proper farewell. The grief and pain that Thor has had to go through is reaches the highest with the loss of the love of his life. But Jane’s death was needed in the grand scheme of things, even though some believe that that Valhalla scene means the dead could come back.
For a story that sits outside Phase 4 of the Marvelverse plan, a decent villain was needed. Gor the God-butcher seemed like a good choice; a man infected by the sword that kills gods in his thirst for revenge. Played with the utmost dedication by Christian Bale, he embodies a man who worshipped a god who did nothing for his followers, letting them perish and die. Gor actually brings up fair points in the god killing and how it could be justified but because Thor is a god himself, we can’t have the villain kill all gods. New Asgard is where the drama is set and stakes are not about saving Earth or the universe or whatever, the story is contained with Asgardians it feels like a huge relief that the story only expands to other gods. The comedy is also amped up just making this film more fun. The moments of seriousness and sadness, which are inevitable, are treated carefully and don’t over power nor feel out of place, there is a balance.
Thor is broken man, or space viking or god, he seeks clarity and in the end is given purpose which makes the film feel like a closed story which is far more refreshing that what the other films in Phase 4 are doing. The fact that this phase is far bigger and too vast to contain all the characters with their own shows and films and spin offs, its too much to take in. The picture is too wide and with no direction but this is why Thor: Love & Thunder works so well, stepping outside the chaos to deliver a great story which we’ve been missing.