Review of Thor: Ragnarok (2017) by Kyle L — 14 Jul 2018

Thor: Ragnarok is the big surprise of the Phase Three Marvel Cinematic Universe since Spider-Man Homecoming and Black Panther, this is the golden coin of the MCU due to its major changes that kept everyone entertained and surprised at the same time.

In Thor: Ragnarok, the God Of Thunder has been living his life as the hero of Asgard, but after his father dies. His long dead sister Hela has returned from the grave to take back the throne from him as he ends up in a planet called Sakaar where the Grandmaster hosts a gladiator fight against the toughest warriors he recruits and Thor teams up with his long lost friend and Avenger Hulk to stop the Goddess of death from killing everyone he cared about.

While the first two Thor movies were forgettable but entertaining in its own right, this third entry in the Thor trilogy sets the stepping stones in the right directions by fixing the damages that made the last two movies the weakest entries in the long running Marvel Cinematic Universe.

If there were a couple of films that acts as the weaker spots of the MCU, my answer is the first two Thor and Iron Man films because they suffered from a problematic execution that falls flat despite how entertaining they are in their own right.

But with Iron Man 3 and now with Thor: Ragnarok; things have reached full potential for these movies. Between both films though, Thor: Ragnarok is the most enjoyable one for me and my personal favorite entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe to date since Spider-Man: Homecoming and Black Panther.

These three films hold a special place in my mind and heart for all the best reasons. To differentiate Thor: Ragnarok from its two predecessors, this film amplifies every major aspect that were missing from the last two films.

It placed the series in new and surprising directions that really jumbles and sets the tone in place while telling a good story. This movie is easily comparable to Guardians Of The Galaxy due to its use of a wacky tone, pure gold humor and colorful visuals, giving it the look of an actual Thor comic book that was made by nerds.

The things that surprised me is how Marvel made Thor likable in the best way without overdoing it for the wrong reasons while also stripping off the faulty issues that scarred this series (No Natalie Portman and Chris Hemsworth moments, removing the Warriors Three who have been considered the weaker moments of any Marvel movie and changing the characters' personalities for the returnees).

This film has stripped nearly everything down for the right reasons like making it more humorous rather than doing the serious tone again while introducing new characters who have more personality than the past characters from its two predecessors.

There are so many scenes that are both memorable and action packed (The opening sequence with Thor fighting a fiery demon combined with good humor, Thor vs Hulk in the arena, the spaceship chase sequence, Thor vs Hela in the throne, Loki and Thor shooting laser guns and the mesmerizing bridge fight scene where Thor shows his true power) while there are also a bunch of other scenes that are filled with the best humor in any Marvel film to date (Thor getting electrocuted seven times to show how stubborn he is, Thor screaming like a girl, scenes with the Grandmaster, the hilarious moment in the Grandmaster's spaceship with the "It's my Birthday!" song that became my ringtone on my phone for a short period of time and the bratty Hulk moments along with Thor getting scared with having a haircut from a Stan Lee cameo) and it's understandable that they overdo it in the preceding Marvel films, but in this case it suits the film's execution for the better.

But of course, one of the main highlights of the Phase Three Marvel films is the main antagonist as always, this time we got Hela the Goddess of Death who is well portrayed and a big threat to Thor himself thanks to her intimidating personality and cold blooded, ruthless behavior plus she is by far one of the most in tense villains in the Marvel Cinematic Universe since Thanos and his minions.

Now the acting is the best in here, nearly all the new cast have delivered fresh performances for this latest entry in the Thor trilogy. Tessa Thompson is great as Valkyrie who combines charm and brute that stays in line with Thor's dilemma and charisma, Karl Urban was a fun addition to the cast, while its great to see a few returnees like Idris Elba as Heimdall who is more interesting here than in the first two films as he is no longer portrayed as a guard dog but more of the fourth hero of the story, Tom Hiddleston is at his best as Thor's adopted brother Loki plus he has the same charisma that can rival Thor's own charm in the most fun way, Mark Ruffalo is also a great but super fun addition to the cast as Hulk while I love the short cameo of Benedict Cumberbatch as Doctor Strange in here which was teased first as a mid-credits scene in his own solo outing.

But the ones who delivers an applause the most are the performances of Chris Hemsworth, Cate Blanchett as Thor and Hela respectively and finally the biggest star of them all, the mighty and funny Jeff Goldblum as the hilarious Grandmaster.

Chris Hemsworth was the stand-out for his role in this film as Thor as he did such a fantastic job showing that Thor is interesting in one of his solo outings when done right in the best way not only in his team up with the Avengers by delivering his best comedic performance yet since the good but box office bomb Ghostbusters reboot.

I just enjoyed Cate Blanchett as Hela since she made the character come to life thanks to her striking performance that is filled with intimidation and sense. But Jeff Goldblum has raised the stakes even further with his most fun performance to date since Ian Malcolm from the Jurassic Park franchise, because when you add Goldblums in your movie it makes you want to watch it more than ten times than before and the actor is still delivering the same charm that we love since 1993 in the original Jurassic Park who still made us laugh today.

Director Taika Waititi has delivered a super fun and laugh out loud entry in the Thor trilogy that kept us entertained and excited in every direction. He handled things well from the acting to the story and it also taught Marvel a lesson, never fire the weirdos and embrace it instead to see how it plays out because weirdos can make the movie more fun than before.

Overall, Thor: Ragnarok is a fun, colorful and wacky action film that makes us laugh and entertained from start to finish, being the best Thor film to date. This movie gets an 11/10.