Thor: Love and Thunder

It seems that with every Marvel Phase 4 film, the first thing to comment is always that Marvel have got to a stage where they can do quite literally anything they want. This was always used as an initial positive; praise given to the credit in the bank they’ve gained from the sheer level of consistency they’ve achieved with the MCU thus far.

Thor: Love and Thunder also needs to be prefaced with this same statement: Marvel can do anything they want. Whether that’s a positive on this particular occasion is bizarrely up for debate though.

First off, this is a gloriously entertaining film, taking the comedy from Ragnarok and multiplying it with a colourful, random and joyous blast of entertainment from the guarantee of quality that is the brain of Taika Waititi.

Had this arrived at an earlier stage of the MCU it would sit at the top table and it’s important to stress that this still comfortably puts rival superhero movies in the shade.

What’s hard to shirk though is the feeling that Phase 4 is just beginning to get away from Marvel at this point, drifting further away from a cohesive and unifying plot line or villain arc and introducing ever more complicated elements which are going to start leaving irreparable plot holes (in fact, even within this film itself there are a worrying amount of ‘huh, how can that happen’ moments.)

It felt like Doctor Strange was going to be that connective brick and, in its wake, this fourth Thor film should have taken that mantle, especially with the Guardians in play, but not only do the Guardians leave for their own adventure fairly early-doors (to be told in their forthcoming third film) but Love and Thunder becomes another ‘tales from the MCU’ style movie content to drop an extremely strong villain and new side characters but steering clear from any mention of its fellow Phase 4 films (except a cursory Eternals link.)

To criticise a film this fun for the flaws of its wider franchise feels unfair though and it’s always important to enjoy something made to be this funny and entertaining. Returning characters are particularly treated well here, not just Jane Foster but Valkyrie as well and Korg is surely becoming many fan’s MVP of the whole franchise.

Thor himself has deeper moments here and Christian Bale’s Gorr The God Butcher is another in a line of fascinating ‘moral’ villains and is quite refreshingly ‘new’, menacing and bizarre in equal measure. His arc is quite swift-moving, unfortunately, but that’s largely down to the relatively brief running time of the film which does feel lighter in amongst a few chunky superhero films of recent times.

To say more would drop too many spoilers but Love and Thunder fits with the rest of Phase 4 in being glorious fan bait but arguably producing slightly diminishing returns after the glory of the Infinity War/Endgame era.

4 stars ****