What would you do to protect the ones you love? Would you sacrifice everything for the chance to give them a few more precious moments on the earth? Would you give your everything to see them happy and healthy? And if you should fail, what lengths would you go to in order to protect their memory, avenge their hardships, and ultimately show that your love for them extends beyond them? How do you show someone you lost that you love them?
SPOILERS for Thor: Love and Thunder.
It was stated very early on, by director Taika Waititi, that Thor: Love and Thunder was a love story. And this is absolutely true. But it’s not a love story in the traditional sense of the word. While yes there are romantic moments between Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and Mighty Thor (Natalie Portman) those are not the only forms of love we see throughout the movie. At the heart of this movie is not a romance, it’s people doing whatever they can to save the people they love… until they can’t.
There is a parallel struggle between Thor and the villain of this movie Gorr the God-Butcher (Christian Bale). Both are faced with the death of their loved ones. Thor is about to lose Jane to cancer which is escalating rapidly. Gorr lost his daughter Love (India Rose Hemsworth) through his own stubborn devotion to a god who did not care for him or his struggles. And his vengeance quest is based solely on showing these gods how they need to support their followers or be cast out.
In this same vein Thor is forced to face the inevitable truth, Jane will die, and it is more than likely his fault. His love for her, and his selfish desire to keep her in his life led to her seeking him out to save herself, which in turn made her illness worse as a result. In essence, Thor inadvertently killed Jane by trying to protect her, just as Gorr inadvertently killed Love trying to protect her. They are two sides of the same story.
And this theme continues throughout the movie. Thor takes effort to protect those around him, putting himself into the fray to stop Gorr’s vengeance quest to ensure that “all gods will die”. In doing so he nearly loses everyone left in his life. Valkyrie and Korg both suffer near fatal blows during their quest, and his faith in the very gods themselves comes crashing down as he sees that Gorr is actually more right than he may have realized.
And so what Thor has to do is learn that he can’t save everyone, he can’t be this person who stops the villains every time, and instead of working to prevent loss, he needs to go forward and cherish the moments he has with those he loves. And as he finally sees this, he shows Gorr, who has been walking this same path, that vengeance is not the answer. Yes the grief hurts, yes the pain is valid, but at the end of the day, there is too little time left to waste on using that pain to add to the pain of others.
And so the question becomes, what would you do for the one you love? Would you fight for them, kill for them, die for them, or would you simply give them the time you can, and hope that is enough? I don’t know if there is a perfect answer, but it seems like Thor: Love and Thunder wants the last one to be true, at least in some sense. Cherish the time we have together, and lead that time with love.
Just a quick refresher of my MCU ranking criteria.
Cast and Performances
Story and Plot
Best Fight/Action Scene
Rewatchability
Cleverest Easter Egg
Each film will be judged solely by me and then placed against all the other films. And rated on a scale of 10 with a total possible score of 50.
So, here is the quick breakdown of Thor: Love and Thunder:
Cast and Performances: I think that this cast is really strong. Hemsworth keeps finding new aspects of Thor that remain true to the character while not letting it get stagnant. Christian Bale is scene stealing as Gorr, one of the most compelling villains out there. And Natalie Portman gets a chance to really be a character rather than just a love interest with minimal personality. Tessa Thompson, Russell Crowe, and Taika Waititi all have sensational moments, and overall the cast gets plenty of time to shine across the whole movie. (9/10)
Story and Plot: This movie needs more time. It is one of the shortest movies in the MCU and it rushes too fast through its plot points. Gorr doesn’t get enough time to really satisfy, and a lot of moments feel rushed from beat to beat without ever breathing, and so it has the feeling that something is missing. There is a lot of potential that gets glossed over. (4/10)
Best Fight/Action Scene: The whole fight in the Shadow Realm is incredible. I could have watched the stunning visuals of that space for hours. The way Gorr uses the environment and his powers to flash around the field of battle and out maneuver the heroes is so vile and never lets them breath. It’s a great fight scene that again could have hade more time. (8/10)
Rewatchability: I can see myself going back and watching scenes again, but not the movie as a whole. Yes the visuals work and make the whole process more appealing, but ultimately it’s not on the top of my rewatch list. (5/10)
Best Easter Egg: There aren’t actually many fun easter eggs in this one. The idea of Omipotence City has potential and there are some fun visual easter eggs for fans of mythology but by and large it just feels like other parts of this movie, just a little disappointing. But I will say Russell Crowe was very fun and I got pretty stoked to see Brett Goldstein has Hercules at the end. Can’t wait to see where that goes. (7/10)
Total Score: 33/50
Current Ranking:
The Avengers
Spider-man: No Way Home
Avengers: Endgame
Black Panther
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
Black Widow
Spider-man: Homecoming
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
Avengers: Infinity War
Guardians of the Galaxy
Captain America: The First Avenger
Iron Man
Captain Marvel
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
Thor: Ragnarok
Spider-man: Far From Home
Avengers: Age of Ultron
Captain America: Civil War
Ant-Man
Thor: Love and Thunder
Thor
Iron Man 3
The Eternals
The Incredible Hulk
Ant-Man and the Wasp
Doctor Strange
Thor: The Dark World
Iron Man 2
Now we wait… the next time we join the MCU movies it will be in Wakanda and it will be interesting to see the way the next Black Panther movie holds up compared to its predecessor, especially without T’challa… so that will be an interesting story for sure.
But until then, thanks for taking the time to get Ploominated!
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