Thor: Love and Thunder’s a scattershot fairy tale about being friends with your ex

Until one day, Taika Waititi's THOR: RAGNAROK rejuvenated the franchise with colorful whimsy and a hulking but lighter sense of humor, and once upon a time, it was overwrought slogs that only catered to the most diehard comic book fans. While reframing Thor as the god of jocularity was a solid way of renewing interest in the character, an overabundance of jokes and reliance on the Odinson's comedic chops are some of the big reasons why Waititi's THOR: LOVE AND THUD FEELS.

If you've seen any of the studio's other recent tentpole movies, you'll know that the story works best if you come to it with that knowledge. The ongoing story of how one of Earth's most legendary heroes became one of the most legendary heroes of all time is told in the movie.

Both because of the fact that the Avengers don't exist anymore as an organization and because of the fact that Korg is somewhere out in space with their newest member. They are only part of the film for a short amount of time, meant to show the aimlessness and codependence of the film.

Image: Marvel

Similar to Spider-Man: No Way Home and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness before it, THOR: Love andThunder is an excellent example of Marvel not knowing how to pick up ongoing narratives that get interrupted by massive events. The film wants to keep its focus on the man who hasn't starred in his own film in a year. Since then, there has been a lot of change within the MCU, which makes it hard for Love andThunder to create a cohesive and compelling sense of shared continuity with its predecessors.

The movie, which introduces you to a single father who becomes a butcher of the gods, feels almost as if it's clearing its throat as it's catching you up on the life of the god. After years of leading with the idea that all of its characters inspired by deities were actually different types of aliens, the return of Marvel framing them as supernatural beings whose powers aren't just highly advanced forms of technology.

It is interesting to see how he helps the movie work as a study of what kind of person Thor is because of his desire to rid the universe of gods. It hammers home how even though he is a god, he has never been the most attentive or responsible to the needs of the humans who love and worship him.

Image: Marvel

Jane Foster's feelings about at least one of the gods are complicated and deeply personal, but Love andThunder shows you how her world didn't end after she was ghosted by the divine. After he left, Dr. Jane Foster got back to what she was before he left, which was her entire life.

In addition to establishing Jane as a bestselling author, Love and Thunder complicates her story by introducing elements from writer and artist Russell Dauterman's Mighty THOR comics that transformed Jane into a new kind of THOR as she battled breast cancer, as well as elements from writer and artist JASON AA The movie approaches the character in a markedly different way that plays like a deliberate pivot away from Marvel's approach to rolling out big name female heroes in recent years.

It felt like Disney was trying to spotlight the project of revamping legacy characters to appeal to a new generation of readers when they teased out Jane'sThor turn. The groundwork for them to join the MCU was laid by comic books centering characters like Carol Danvers, and the financial success of films like CaptainMarvel spoke to how many of these all-new, all-different heroes were popular with audiences. Jane is left in the realm of jokey love interests, where she is robbed of some agency in a surprising way, because Love andThunder doesn't take into account what it means to be a hero.

Image: Marvel

The frequent detours into romcom territory in between action-heavy set pieces feels like a test of how much the THOR movies can be used to give viewers a taste of other genres. When the movie shows the emotional connection that first broughtThor and Jane together, it works well because of the lightheartedness of Portman and Hemsworth. The film struggles when it has to shift gears to focus on Gorr, a grieving zealot who Bale portrays with an intensity that is not frightening.

One imagines that Jane becoming a member of the Asgardian pantheon could make their confrontation against a god killer the sort of clash meant to crown a movie. Love and Thunder is a fairy tale for children about lovers who are afraid to tell one another how they feel because they are afraid of being killed.

Multiverse of Madness was not as bad as it could have been, but it was still not as good as the movies that followed it. The mid- and post-credits scenes are almost certain to satisfy those who are already certain they are in this for the long haul. The latest piece of lore defining the Odinson and his allies in the present is a clunky chapter in a franchise that is still figuring itself out.

The stars of the movie are Russell Crowe, Jaimie Alexander, and Mattamon. The movie is out on July 8.