Without hesitation I can say that the Thor series isn’t anywhere near the top of my favourite Marvel films. Don’t get me wrong, I really liked the tone and humour of the first film, but that’s where it ends. The second movie is just boring and forgettable, and I didn’t even bother to revisit it for the screening of Thor: Ragnarok. And I didn’t have to, because where ‘Thor: The Dark World’ fell, this film soars into my top of Marvel films.
In layman’s terms, Thor: Ragnarok can be described as the hilarious 80’s VHS lovechild between Star Wars and Lord Of The Rings.
The fifth chapter of the third phase of the MCU sets Thor on a collision course with Hela, the goddess of Death, leaving him stranded on a weird planet under control of Jeff Goldblum. On this planet he encounters Hulk who we last saw leaving Earth in a quinjet in ‘Avengers: Age Of Ultron’.
I’m not going to spoil more of the story but there are some things I really want to talk about further. One of those things is the visuals. Director Tamika Waititi and cinematographer Javier Aguirresarobe put colour and music front and centre, not too dissimilar to ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’. Expect a lot of shots to be posted to One Perfect Shot because they are plain gorgeous. ‘Thor: Ragnarok’ is one of those movies that you need to see on the big screen with a great projection to experience all of the colours the Arri Alexa XT can capture, and it should be a demo disc for a 4K HDR release.
Another thing is Mark Mothersbaugh’s score. The composer, who we also know from ‘Devo’ dusted off his old progressive rock synthesizers, and creates a soundtrack that made me grin all over. A completely different spectrum compared to Zimmer’s attempt to recreate Vangelis for ‘Blade Runner 2049’.
The fast-moving cut moves at a breakneck speed, yet still strikes the perfect balance between advancing the story, and not overly dwell on exposition and explanations. You don’t need to have seen the Marvel Cinematic Universe to enjoy this film but to be fair, who hasn’t at this point. The script feels logical and brings lighthearted fun to what could be a very dark depressing movie. It’s great that Marvel seems to be opening up to unique styles for their movies, instead of Zack Snyder’s DC darkness.
The cast feels like they are having fun with apparently much of the dialogue being improvised on set, which might explain the hilarious double entendres. Cate Blanchett as newcomer and long-lost sister Hela steals the show as über baddy, with the most cliché role going to Karl Urban, who still plays it well. Tessa Thompson also steals the show and is another welcome addition to the team. Of course, senior Marvel actors like Mark Ruffalo, Idris Elba, Anthony Hopkins and even Benedict Cumberbatch’s Doctor Strange do their thing, making it a great mix.
If you like comics, you should already have tickets. If you don’t, you should too. Go!
