Review: Thor: Ragnarok
Thor:Ragnarok is wonderful. It is brightly colored and filmed expertly, the story is fun, the humor is great, and the action is fulfilling.
Thor:Ragnarok is terrible. It looks like a Guardians of the Galaxy sequel, the story is a poor attempt to do a Hulk movie - in particular the Planet Hulk story, the humor detracts from the emotional punch the movie could have had, and the action seems to cover some unfortunate plot holes.
So, Thor: Ragnarok is up for grabs, comic fans.
All in all, I did enjoy it. I found it to be a far better sequel than the second entry, "The Dark World" which had a great plot, but then went off key by trying to pull a fast one with the Loki story, a story that was more or less ended in the Ragnarok story, though somewhat unconvincingly. Odin had Loki hide him so he could die in peace? "Oh, and by the way, I forgot to tell you boys that when I die it is all going to fall apart. And you have a sister. That I locked up. Who is really powerful. And...um...gee. I wasn't very communicative as a father, was I?"
I will say, though, that the moment between Thor, Loki, and Odin has a sentimental moment when Odin does tell them that he loves them. That has been an underlying theme for every Thor movie and it resolves itself nicely.
Seeing Dr. Strange was a nice touch, and a good tie between the mythical and the magical. But even there, the humor, which I appreciated in the movie, would not have been present in the comics. And here is where I know I find myself a bit too preoccupied with the old comics. Thor was pretty serious in the comics, as was Dr. Strange. You didn't read them for laughs. As my grandmother used to say, "Those 'funny' books aren't that funny." True enough. But times, audiences, and demographics change as does the desire to bring in the money. Guardians of the Galaxy 1 and 2 had a humor to them very absent from the early Marvel movies. Thor seems to have been written to be the bridge between the humor of those movies and the current push towards Avengers 3. I kind of doubt Black Panther will be so humorous - and I actually hope that is true.
Civil War and Iron Man have had their funny moments. All of the Marvel movies of late have (with the possible exception of Man-Thing - did anyone see that one?). Thor:Ragnarok has had the most, to be sure. I don't know if it took away from the movie - I certainly enjoyed it. But it did take away from the heaviness that we find in the character of Thor in the comics.
But Ragnarok could have had a much, much darker feel. When DC comics did their version of the Ragnarok story in the really powerful story The Last Days of the Justice Society in which heroes from the Golden Age of DC Comics (post-Crisis on Infinite Earths) take on the roles of the Norse gods in order to prevent Ragnarok, the destruction of the world. To do so, they are forced to repeat the events over and over and die as the characters in the Norse tale repeatedly in order to prevent Earth from being destroyed.
So perhaps the comic version of Ragnarok would be too heavy to deal with in a franchise that counts on building towards the next movie and the next movie.
I will say that I was disappointed in the Jeff Goldblum version of the Grandmaster. This has to do more with my insistence on the old comic source material. Grandmaster was no goofball. He was a clever, cunning, even dangerous character. Games were not just for amusement, they were for high, high stakes and he often played games within games. One did not go against the Grandmaster easily because he had a mind that could run circles around his opponents. And, as an Elder of the Universe not one to be trifled with or sent up as a game show host-like buffoon.
The Thor movies have introduced us to two of the Elders - the Collector and the Grandmaster. Only the Collector is close to his comic version. Herein, though, is another tie to the Guardians movie. in which the Collector does not come across as someone as 'above the fray' as the Elders often are. Of course having the Grandmaster in the MCU does provide a potential window for the possibility of a great movie trilogy, "Contest of Champions." That would be fun.
Thor:Ragnarok does tie up the fate of Heimdall, though you might have missed the fact that his story line had an arc to it from the Dark World. He was a traitor in that one, and did go into hiding. Not because of Hela, but because of his knowledge from the previous movie.
The one thing that this movie does do well is to present Thor as a true god of thunder. If you played his character in the old video game Marvel:Ultimate Alliance, you know that he is a force to be reckoned with. The movies haven't done that justice until this one. He has just been more muscle and hammer than lightning and thunder. Ragnarok turns the tables on that one and makes his powers really come to the fore. Of course the loss of his hammer still kind of stinks. I presume it will show back up at some point.
Thor:Ragnarok is a fun movie. It doesn't stay true to the comic roots, but it is in keeping with the MCU - which has veered off the comic book plot line many times over. I wish they could have done a true Planet Hulk movie and made this one something more than it was, but it was still a good movie and well worth the time.
Thor:Ragnarok is terrible. It looks like a Guardians of the Galaxy sequel, the story is a poor attempt to do a Hulk movie - in particular the Planet Hulk story, the humor detracts from the emotional punch the movie could have had, and the action seems to cover some unfortunate plot holes.
So, Thor: Ragnarok is up for grabs, comic fans.
All in all, I did enjoy it. I found it to be a far better sequel than the second entry, "The Dark World" which had a great plot, but then went off key by trying to pull a fast one with the Loki story, a story that was more or less ended in the Ragnarok story, though somewhat unconvincingly. Odin had Loki hide him so he could die in peace? "Oh, and by the way, I forgot to tell you boys that when I die it is all going to fall apart. And you have a sister. That I locked up. Who is really powerful. And...um...gee. I wasn't very communicative as a father, was I?"
I will say, though, that the moment between Thor, Loki, and Odin has a sentimental moment when Odin does tell them that he loves them. That has been an underlying theme for every Thor movie and it resolves itself nicely.
Seeing Dr. Strange was a nice touch, and a good tie between the mythical and the magical. But even there, the humor, which I appreciated in the movie, would not have been present in the comics. And here is where I know I find myself a bit too preoccupied with the old comics. Thor was pretty serious in the comics, as was Dr. Strange. You didn't read them for laughs. As my grandmother used to say, "Those 'funny' books aren't that funny." True enough. But times, audiences, and demographics change as does the desire to bring in the money. Guardians of the Galaxy 1 and 2 had a humor to them very absent from the early Marvel movies. Thor seems to have been written to be the bridge between the humor of those movies and the current push towards Avengers 3. I kind of doubt Black Panther will be so humorous - and I actually hope that is true.
Civil War and Iron Man have had their funny moments. All of the Marvel movies of late have (with the possible exception of Man-Thing - did anyone see that one?). Thor:Ragnarok has had the most, to be sure. I don't know if it took away from the movie - I certainly enjoyed it. But it did take away from the heaviness that we find in the character of Thor in the comics.
But Ragnarok could have had a much, much darker feel. When DC comics did their version of the Ragnarok story in the really powerful story The Last Days of the Justice Society in which heroes from the Golden Age of DC Comics (post-Crisis on Infinite Earths) take on the roles of the Norse gods in order to prevent Ragnarok, the destruction of the world. To do so, they are forced to repeat the events over and over and die as the characters in the Norse tale repeatedly in order to prevent Earth from being destroyed.
So perhaps the comic version of Ragnarok would be too heavy to deal with in a franchise that counts on building towards the next movie and the next movie.
I will say that I was disappointed in the Jeff Goldblum version of the Grandmaster. This has to do more with my insistence on the old comic source material. Grandmaster was no goofball. He was a clever, cunning, even dangerous character. Games were not just for amusement, they were for high, high stakes and he often played games within games. One did not go against the Grandmaster easily because he had a mind that could run circles around his opponents. And, as an Elder of the Universe not one to be trifled with or sent up as a game show host-like buffoon.
The Thor movies have introduced us to two of the Elders - the Collector and the Grandmaster. Only the Collector is close to his comic version. Herein, though, is another tie to the Guardians movie. in which the Collector does not come across as someone as 'above the fray' as the Elders often are. Of course having the Grandmaster in the MCU does provide a potential window for the possibility of a great movie trilogy, "Contest of Champions." That would be fun.
Thor:Ragnarok does tie up the fate of Heimdall, though you might have missed the fact that his story line had an arc to it from the Dark World. He was a traitor in that one, and did go into hiding. Not because of Hela, but because of his knowledge from the previous movie.
The one thing that this movie does do well is to present Thor as a true god of thunder. If you played his character in the old video game Marvel:Ultimate Alliance, you know that he is a force to be reckoned with. The movies haven't done that justice until this one. He has just been more muscle and hammer than lightning and thunder. Ragnarok turns the tables on that one and makes his powers really come to the fore. Of course the loss of his hammer still kind of stinks. I presume it will show back up at some point.
Thor:Ragnarok is a fun movie. It doesn't stay true to the comic roots, but it is in keeping with the MCU - which has veered off the comic book plot line many times over. I wish they could have done a true Planet Hulk movie and made this one something more than it was, but it was still a good movie and well worth the time.
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