Review of Thor: Ragnarok (2017) by Ben C — 23 Jan 2018

Thor: Ragnarok feels like it's trying too hard to be the next Guardians of the Galaxy but it narrowly misses the mark. It may boast the zaniness of Guardians but forgot to bring the heart or the stakes.

At no point does it feel like any of the characters take their situations seriously, even when there are supposedly dire circumstances. Of course, Marvel films have always had an underlying sense of humor pervasive throughout, but usually at the core of every plot is a human story with some kind of relatable struggle against adversity.

Not so with this film. It's just one giant string of middling quality jokes interspersed between heaps of action set pieces. Ragnarok also struggles with severe pacing issues, cramming in way too much for it to reasonably juggle.

If the plot isn't teleporting Thor around from one random location to the next, it's instead jumping back and forth between Sakaar and Asgard trying to keep Hela relevant as the central villain, all the while never taking time to slow down and fully appreciate any given scene.

For a film so overstuffed with content and prophecies of doom, it's odd how inconsequential it all feels by the end. Despite all of these glaring issues, the characters all manage to remain likeable, and each get to have their fun little moments.

The action choreography was incredibly on-point too. The movie just needed to slow the hell down and take a moment to do some actual buildup. The whole film is stuck on a constant crescendo. As entertaining as Cate Blanchett's performance was, this really would have been a stronger film if it cut some of the fat and did away with her character, instead choosing to focus strictly on Thor and Hulk's prison break from the Grandmaster's clutches.

Then maybe it could have found more time to offer some depth and rein in its excesses.