Ax or Hammer: Thor: Love & Thunder Review

Finally, the long-awaited (at least for some people) fourth Thor movie has arrived. Following in the vein of Thor: Ragnarok, this latest installment leans into lead actor Chris Hemsworth’s comedic chops. It is a marked improvement over the first two movies, but does not quite manage to balance the drama and comedy as well as Ragnarok.

There are two main storylines for Thor: Love and Thunder. The big picture plot is about a man, Gorr the God Butcher (Christian Bale), who makes it his mission to slaughter all the gods across the universe. When he targets New Olympus, Thor steps in to save the day. Only, he isn’t the only Thor. His shattered hammer, Mjölnir, is back, in the hands of a new female Thor – don’t call her Lady Thor, call her Mighty Thor – also known as the ailing Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), Thor’s former love interest. This brings us to the second main plotline, Thor and Jane reconnect and consider their past relationship. Also along for the ride are New Olympus’s king, Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson), and Korg (voiced by Taika Waititi). We’re even reunited with the long-absent Sif (Jaimie Alexander).

The comedy in the movie is enjoyable, if not as effortless as it was in Ragnarok. Korg pulls an Olaf and serves a sort of comedic narrator, recapping the past movies’ highlights (including Thor’s journey from controversial “sad bod” to his more typical “God bod”). This is, of course, how we see more of Thor and Jane’s relationship, including how their fear of commitment and loss ultimately led them both to sabotage the relationship.

We get to see how Valkyrie is as a ruler – powerful, in control, and perhaps a little bored with bureaucracy. She gets a little shafted in this movie (as she is in general, I mean, she’s a Valkyrie named Valkyrie) in order to give Jane and Thor more of a spotlight, but there is some definite joy in Jane and Valkyrie’s budding friendship. They are both supportive and gossipy in the best way and an example of the genuine female friendships we don’t see enough of in the realm of superheroes. (In part because there are rarely enough female superheroes for such moments and in part because they are rarely given much focus beyond an improbable moment when they all step in to fight together in Infinity War.)

One of the biggest issues I found was that the story strongly hinges on Jane and Thor’s relationship. We’re meant to believe that Thor has been mourning their breakup this entire time, despite her last being seen in Thor: Dark World (which came out in 2013) and a couple mentions of her since to explain her absence. While their romantic chemistry is fine, it isn’t good enough or recent enough to really carry this story the way it is meant to be. If we had truly watched them in a relationship and then seen their breakup, seen Thor talk about missing Jane, then maybe it would have felt like she was “the one that got away” but as it is, it mostly feels like there needed to be an excuse to make a female Thor work.

(SPOILERS AHEAD)

Asgardian children becoming Thor’s personal army was a bizarre moment that felt wildly over-the-top but the little girl with the bunny rabbit as a weapon was a cute touch. The children, kidnapped to lure Thor, and by extension his axe Stormbreaker (which can summon the Bifrost and open the way to Eternity), is perhaps a foreshadowing to the biggest development of the entire movie (beyond Jane’s death, of course): Thor adopts a child! Gorr’s evildoings are largely motivated by his desire to reach Eternity and resurrect his daughter who died needlessly because his people were waiting for their god to save them from starvation and destruction. Unsurprisingly, their sun god turned out to be a self-centered jerk who didn’t care about his worshippers because he could always find others. Thor assures Gorr that his daughter, once resurrected, will never be alone, and takes her in.

Thor as a father is super cute though we don’t know much about Love. (Is that actually her name? Unclear.) Whether she’s destined to be a part of the future Young Avengers that Marvel seems to be setting up or this is a way to help end Thor’s story or this is the long long game for Phase 10 of the MCU, I don’t know, but a series about Thor raising his new charge would be more than welcome. (I know we typically get movies for Thor but this storyline feels more like a TV show than a movie and it definitely shouldn’t involve her being kidnapped and needing him to come to her rescue, which feels like the most likely and also the most lazy option.)

Finally, it was also a little disappointing to be given a female Thor only for it to be taken away from us. I can’t say I’m surprised, since I would not expect Natalie Portman to stick around for a new series of Marvel movies, but it still would have been nice to have more than one movie out of it. (Could the mid-credits scene be a hint that there’s potential for her to return or was it simply confirmation that she is dead?)

Loose Thread: What are the origins of the Necrosword? How did it “choose” Gorr? How does it speak to him? Why does it drain his life energy? It feels like without the backstory, the sword is just a convenient plot device. Perhaps the sword, despite being destroyed, and its origins still has a part to play in the coming movies, but more likely it will never be mentioned again.

ABOUT THE MOVIE

Official Synopsis: Vengeance, the directorial debut from writer and star B.J. Novak (“The Office”), is a darkly comic thriller about Ben Manalowitz, a journalist and podcaster who travels from New York City to West Texas to investigate the death of a girl he was hooking up with.

Rated: PG-13

Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Christian Bale, Tessa Thompson, Jaimie Alexander, Taika Waititi, Russell Crowe, and Natalie Portman

Directed By: Taika Waititi

Written By: Taika Waititi and Jennifer Kaytin Robinson

Produced By: Kevin Feige and Brad Winderbaum

In Theaters: July 8, 2022

Runtime: 1 hr 59 min

Watch the trailer:

Photo: Natalie Portman and Chris Hemsworth as Jane Foster and Thor in Thor: Love and Thunder. Courtesy of Marvel.