Latest ‘ Thor’ doesn’t bludgeon the fun out of big film.
3rd ‘ Thor’ doesn’t bludgeon all the fun out of a big film
So the first “Thor” was rather small- scale and charming. It didn’t take itself seriously. Then the second “Thor” came along with a bad case of blockbuster- itis, which obliterated most ( but not all) of the appeal of the first movie. And now we get “Thor: Ragnarok,” which, aside from having one of the world’s worst titles, combines aspects of both its predecessors and in the best possible way. It’s a big movie. That was foreordained — there’s no going back from big. The rule with action series is that they must get bigger and bigger until they actually explode. But this time it’s not too big. “Thor: Ragnarok”
has a lot of human appeal and a spirit of silliness that it never loses and yet always carefully manages, so that the silliness remains an ongoing source of delight without ever undercutting the impact of the action.
The movie begins with an absurd situation, in which Thor is the chained captive of a creature that seems to be made of fire. The fire man is enormous and has a body that’s like a thin layer over an inferno, a look that is intentionally borderline ridiculous. ( Much of this movie resides in that discrete zone of intentional borderline ridiculousness.) After making some wisecracks, Thor ( Chris Hemsworth) finds a free hand to reach for his hammer, and what follows is an action sequence that’s rousing, tongue- in- cheek and resolved in a slapstick sight gag.
So the tone is set within five minutes: This is going to be fun.
“Thor: Ragnarok” lives up to that promise, despite a more than two- hour running time. It sustains its energy, keeps its sense of humor and succeeds in coming up with yet another variation on the old evil- abouttodestroy- the- entire- universe plot. Strange how in recent years these stories have become such a mainstay. People must be very worried about the universe.
This time the existential threat comes from within Thor’s own family. King Odin — that is, Anthony Hopkins, who has apparently reached the stage in his career where it’s mandatory that he die in every single movie — feels his strength waning and informs his two sons, the earnest Thor and the scheming but sometimes OK Loki ( Tom Hiddleston), that he can no longer hold their sister in captivity. The two didn’t know they had a sister, but oh, boy, do they ever have a sister, an older one, and she is not in a good mood.
Cate Blanchett plays the returning sibling, Hela, and you can almost feel Blanchett’s pleasure in this role flowing out in waves from the screen. She looks great, dressed in skintight black and a black wig, exuding power and attitude and announcing herself as the “goddess of death.” It’s fun to watch her, and it’s surely fun for Blanchett, too — like getting to act and taking a vacation from acting at the same time.
Hela wants to claim the throne of her father and use that as a launching pad, basically, so as to bring death and chaos to the rest of the galaxy. And no one can stop her.
Now if this were a linear, typical action movie, the rest of “Thor: Ragnarok” would consist of a series of boring skirmishes between Thor and Hela, each noisy but inconclusive, until finally the movie reached feature length, just in time for the climax. But this movie doesn’t do that. It has confidence in its characters and in its own invention, and so it avoids repetition and stays fresh.
Jeff Goldblum shows up in a thoroughly amusing feature role as the preoccupied, halfmad ruler of a planet devoted to nothing but entertainment. Benedict Cumberbatch pays an enjoyable visit as Dr. Strange, and Mark Ruffalo has some funny moments as Bruce Banner, the scientist who must not get excited lest he turn into the Hulk.
All of them benefit from playing off of Hemsworth. For all his gifts as an action star, Hemsworth is a nimble comic actor — a straight man to other people’s antics in one scene, and then a skillful buffoon opposite Tessa Thompson, as the hard- drinking Valkyrie. He knows exactly what he’s doing and is easily half of this series’ appeal.