It's a pretty impressive feat within this franchise to get a fourth film and that is what Thor has got.
It began with a solid introduction that certainly gained a lot of new fans that only really knew the character by name alone.
While it's sequels is universally seen as one of the weaker MCU films, it remains to be a perfectly fine watch. Then after a couple of appearances in 'The Avengers' films, director Taika Waititi came along to give the Thor films a new dimension. This saw the creation of the third installment 'Ragnarok', which is seen by virtually everyone as the best Thor film in the series. With its vintage Waititi tropes and Flash Gordon-esque vibes to it, this became a very enjoyable viewing experience for many.
Now with the Infinity Saga all sewn up, this current phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe may not be giving us a clear idea where we are heading next. But it is still introducing us to new and interesting characters as well as new worlds and civilisations whilst still developing some of the returning members.
This latest venture felt heavier on the comedy and almost like a parody of MCU films which I'm not sure totally worked.
It did begin with a lot of interesting content both with emotional heart and that vintage Waititi comedy style. However, some decisions made and the speed it was moving at felt confusing as to what the story is trying to say and what genre it's trying to be. But the longer the film went, the more coherent it was getting.
By the end, it is where the story as well as the visuals were at its strongest.
The cast are pretty good on the whole. Chris Hemsworth still does his thing as the titular character. His natural charisma and amazing physique is still great value and I liked some of the sub-plots he was given which I was not expecting.
Natalie Portman does a great job for the most part. I have always been a fan of hers and was pleased to see her cope with the physical duties her character needed to perform in this one. But I have still always struggled to see her as a comedic actor and it still didn't work for me in this one. Thankfully, her bad ass execution to the action sequences made up for it.
I liked what Christian Bale did as the main antagonist. He is known for method approach to his roles and so I was highly intrigued to see how he would do within this franchise and I liked what he did overall. He utilised the material and development he was given and gave us a villain with depth that we could sympathise with at the right times. I was grateful for his character as that is where we got the drama aspects of the story to somewhat balance out the comedy.
Apart from one sequence that was too dark to even see anything, the rest of the imagery was very pleasing and eye-catching.
The visual effects as usual are pretty impressive. It gives the film great spectacle and showcases some brand new worlds really well. There are more funky costume designs like we saw in Ragnarok to admire.
As mentioned before I did have issues. While I do appreciate Waititi's style of comedy, this one felt a bit too silly for its own good at times. It felt unsettling and sort of took over the main plot and themes.
It was almost as if they were trying to be too many things which effected the message of the film. If it disregarded a few aspects, I felt we would have cared more emotionally to the final act.
In the end, this was a decent watch. The action is cool, the comedy is silly but enough of it worked for me. The silliness and dumb tone of the comedy does get in the way of the story and makes the overall pacing and tonal shifts a bit messy and incoherent. But there remained plenty to enjoy and made this a solid entry within the franchise.
There is the usual mid and post credit scenes. The mid scene sets up for something potentially interesting, while the post scene gives a perfectly satisfying ending to one characters journey.
Rating: 7/10
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