Guardians of the Galaxy was a ground breaking film not only for Marvel but for the entire Hollywood superhero genre. Featuring a group of misfits, without any remarkable superpowers, it took the superhero genre and turned it on its head. Who would have imagined supporting characters like a raccoon and a tree man becoming the most talked about characters of a superhero film! Breaking the mold, it introduced comedy, cheekiness and cool music into superhero films at a time when superhero movies were all about saving the world and taking themselves too seriously.
Two minutes into Thor Ragnarok and it is obvious how heavily it is influenced by Guardians of the galaxy. The Thunder god is chained, in a cage hanging out of nowhere and he is hardly concerned. He is directly speaking to the camera making fun of his state and goes on to have a cheeky banter with his formidable captor. All this is very funny and draws many laughs but it is also extremely out of character for Thor, who has been shown as the angry, moody God of Thunder in earlier films. Come Loki, as the master of disguise and guess what- he is now a good guy. We all remember the shocking post credit scene of Thor 2, where Loki disguises himself as his father Oden, to rule Asgard. That scene was meant to have serious implications in the later movies, but Thor 3 conveniently ends that conflict in a second, playing it for laughs. For film after film, Loki has been a major villain of the Thor and Avengers franchise, but here he has had a change of heart all to get some laughs. Soon we are introduced to Hela, the Goddess of Death, who is much more powerful than Thor and smashes his hammer in pieces. When Hela captures Asgard and sends Thor and Loki to an alien planet, it is upon Thor to find a way to save his people from the wrath of Hela.
Director Taika waititi has thrown some interesting bits making it one of the funniest films of Marvel Universe. The banter between supporting characters like the stone man, having a cartoonish villain in the form of Jeff Goldblum, themes though borrowed from the Guardians franchise, evoke much laughter. The bromance between Thor and Hulk is endearing and it is refreshing to see Bruce banner in a lighter form. The best part of the movie is when it mirrors the comics it originates from. Combining comic book art into cinema, there is one spectacular flashback scene where the Valkyries attack Hela. It is artsy, beautiful and gave the essential back story of Valkryies in less than 2 minutes, and I would love to watch an entire movie based out of the scene. Whoever casted Cate Blanchett as Hela, is a genius. From her elegant walk to her evil hand gestures, she combines grace and class to fear and menace in a way never seen before. It says a great deal about her craft that she is sassy, cracks jokes, and mocks people, yet does not come across as a comical villain. For an actress almost 50 years old and still kicking butts on screen, she is the single best thing about the film and you wonder why she was not there for a longer time on screen.
In addition to the character inconsistency and the convenient explanations to the twist in Thor 2, the climax to Thor Ragnarok is easy to spot from a mile with the weapon sitting there all the time as if waiting to make its entry. Thor Ragnarok is a good attempt at making a funny superhero film, but it is far from perfect. The movie works as a stand-alone film but in the larger scheme of the Avengers film, it hardly matters- even the two post credits scene don’t do justice. At the end, Thor Ragnarok is just like junk food. It’s enjoyable while it lasts, but there is no nutritional value.
The Commentator 