Review of Thor: Love and Thunder (2022) by Kopykat — 01 Aug 2022

Utterly disappointed. A waste of time and money. If you only care about dumb fun, special effects, and jokes, you will probably love this movie. However, if you're a Marvel fan who is truly invested in these characters, their arcs, and their legacy, then this film is a complete slap in the face. This film felt more like a bad rom-com fanfiction rather than a quality, A-List Marvel film. Taiki takes characters with complex, deep arcs throughout the MCU timeline and treats them as nothing more than a laughingstock. This film revolves around the love of Thor's life slowly killing herself just to be with him one last time all while being hunted by a man who wants to kill Gods out of revenge for his dead daughter. The film's plot is incredibly dark and sad, yet we're expected to laugh at it. The opportunity for deep, developing moments for the characters and the villain in this story are thrown away for cheap gags.

The Guardians, Valkyrie, and Korg are completely useless to the storyline that it begs the question of whether they should even be in the film at all. Not only are they useless- the writers make them look completely pathetic and laughable as well. While the whole story is all about Thor and Jane, Taiki completely wasted the other characters and hurt their overall reputation and development. He turned them into characters they were never meant to be.

Taiki failed with this film. He does not manage to hold up to the bar that Ragnarok set whatsoever. There is no divide between serious plot progression and comedy and the writers show a complete lack of respect for the characters and their arcs. While there are some genuinely funny moments and entertaining scenes, the lack of effort put into the characters and their development is inexcusable.