Clumsy jokes and an overloaded plot: why the new Marvel film “Thor: Love and Thunder” is scolded

Thor: Love and Thunder, the new Marvel Cinematic Universe movie, is released in July in several countries.

The director was Oscar-winning New Zealand director Taika Waititi, known for the films Jojo Rabbit and Real Ghouls.

He also directed Thor: Ragnarok. 

The new film about the Thunder God Thor was coolly received by foreign film critics.

On the Rotten Tomatoes portal, the film has a 71% rating, while the average rating of the previous superhero project, Thor: Ragnarok, is 93%.

Thus, "Thor: Love and Thunder" became one of the lowest rated Marvel films - even weaker results for the films "The Eternals" (47%), "Thor 2: The Dark World" (66%) and "The Incredible Hulk" (67 %).

In the story, Gorr (Christian Bale), sworn to kill all the gods after the loss of loved ones, kidnaps children from New Asgard in order to trap his next target - Thor (Chris Hemsworth).

Thunderbolt in the company of Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson), warrior Korg (Taika Waititi) and ex-lover Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) goes to save the children.

At the same time, Thor suffers from personal problems: he hopes to be reunited with Jane, whom, according to his calculations, they have not seen for eight years, seven months and six days, but she is ill with stage four cancer.

• © Shot from the film "Thor: Love and Thunder"

The image of Foster in the film has changed: in addition to her outstanding intellectual abilities (she is an astrophysicist and a candidate for the Nobel Prize), superpowers have been added in the new film: now the heroine is the Mighty Thor.

Gathering the broken remains of Mjolnir's hammer together, Jane becomes his mistress.

The hammer bestows Thor's superpowers on Jane, and Thor-Hemsworth returns to his Thunderbolt axe.

The changes also affected the appearance of Jane, who changed her hair color to blond.

“Having mastered the mystical power of this hammer, she became the Mighty Thor.

Not just a superhero like Thor.

Now she is Thor, which, as you might guess, is not very pleasant to the Thunderer himself.

Lacking a hammer, he wields an enchanted ax called Thunderbolt, but, alas, that's not it at all, ”explains Owen Gleiberman in Variety.

The fact that Jane wielded not only Thor's hammer but also his name leads to "a few witty exchanges of barbs," writes Gleiberman.

However, according to him, the characters “are filled with energy, sexuality and enthusiasm.

There is no impression that they are opponents of each other.” 

• © Shot from the film "Thor: Love and Thunder"

Several film critics immediately note the abundance of low-grade humor in the film.

Nick Schager, a reviewer for The Daily Beast, writes that the dramatic plot is diluted with awkward jokes that only spoil the impression of the film.

Inserted out of place, they can be tiring at times, and Waititi's efforts to make "everything cool" tend to oversaturate the plot and leave no room for pause for viewers to experience the fun or excitement of what's happening on screen.

Reviewers note that the film was made primarily to meet market demand.

According to Scott Tobias, critic of The Reveal, Waititi's attempt to return to the daring humor of Thor: Ragnarok was not successful.

"Taika Waititi tries to replicate the gritty humor that Thor: Ragnarok was known for, but that casualness comes off as more indifference," the critic writes.

“Now he (Thor. -

) has turned into a deity focused purely on the market.”

According to the expert, the audience did not need another "Thor", what was shown in previous projects was enough.

The critic believes that most films, including "Thor: Love and Thunder", lack elements that will prove that the people involved in the process of their creation are not indifferent to the story they tell.

According to the expert, Waititi considers it enough to bring together many genres to captivate the viewer.

“Love and Thunder” should not feel like a two-hour episode of some non-existent comedy action show,” Tobias concluded.

By the way, in an interview with Rolling Stone, Taika Waititi admitted that he would like Ragnarok not to be so successful: having set a high bar, it’s hard to meet this level again.

For the second Thor project, the director said he wanted to take the story in a different direction and focus on romance.

According to Waititi, the last thing fans expected was to see Thor in love.

• © Shot from the film "Thor: Love and Thunder"

Scott Tobias agrees that the main couple's chemistry was one of the best aspects of the original Thor, but despite Waititi's efforts to keep the love lyrics alive, Jane's illness and new superpowers are ruining the romantic relationship between them.

According to the expert, with this alignment, the film is only suitable for killing time.

In addition, he did not like the visual solutions of the project.

“Love and Thunder” looks disgusting - the brightness of the image is such that it is more suitable for TVs for sale in a hardware store than for a movie theater,” Tobias said.

David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter also noted that the visual design of the film also lacks flaws: in his opinion, New Asgard with Viking boat rides is similar to Disneyland, and an overabundance of CGI makes the film almost animated.

However, some experts highlight the positive features of the new Thor.

Charlotte O'Sullivan of Evening Standard writes that "Love and Thunder" is not as good as "Ragnarok" and clearly inferior to it in many respects, but if you do not compare these two projects, then the latter as a whole turned out to be quite good and funny.

According to The Times writer Ed Potton, "The New Zealand-based writer-director's sequel may not have the brash spark that the previous film had, but it's still teeming with surreal spectacle, Monty Python-esque goofiness and disarming emotionality."

Ann Hornaday of The Washington Post noted that Waititi infused the film with the same cheap aesthetic that gave his previous works an understated charm.

The film critic added that the jokes, the fighting and the supernatural rainbow bridges may seem hackneyed to some, but in this case they are quite organic.

Gleiberman, too, rather liked Waititi's latest film, precisely because of the frivolity and unexpected, sometimes eccentric plot.

“Like Ragnarok, it (“Love and Thunder” -

) is distinguished by its extraordinary earthiness, which justifies buffoonery.

Waititi understands that if you're not making fun of a Marvel movie in the process of making it, then you're probably taking it more seriously than the audience."

Thor: Love and Thunder premiered on June 23 and is released in wide release in July in many countries.

Russian viewers will not be able to watch the film in cinemas due to the refusal of major Hollywood studios to show their new projects in the country.

For the same reason, the previous Marvel movie Doctor Strange: Into the Multiverse of Madness was also not released on big screens in Russia, but is currently available for viewing on Zetflix and LordFilm.