Latest sequel goes for laughs

As part of its generally welcome comic strategy, “Thor: Ragnarok” heckles itself for two hours and 10 minutes and lets Jeff Goldblum, skittering around as master of the death-match revels on the planet Sakaar, get away with murder.

Nobody else in the known universe works on Goldblum’s wavelength. The deadpan verbal shtick he’s relying on in this inventive if increasingly duty-bound sequel will be royally amusing to 20 percent of the opening-weekend multiplex audience, and “Huh? Wha?” to the rest.

Speaking of 20 percent: I’d say roughly 20 percent of “Thor: Ragnarok” is terrific and 20 percent is a drag, leaving 60 percent in the comfortable, predictable middle. A lot of these Marvel movies have a way of flattening out your responses, but director Taika Waititi’s frisky “Thor” outing is not one of them.

I loved the mere fact of a seriously inspired comic sensibility getting hired to direct a Marvel movie. Waititi, lately of “Hunt for the Wilderpeople” and the fantastic vampire parody “What We Do in the Shadows,” has no discernible interest in delivering the usual CGI action blowouts. He’s jazzed, rather, by repartee among tetchy, vain, insecure superheroes, and in finding the right medium shot for slapstick dependent on Thor throwing something against a glass wall and then getting clocked via rebound.

My favorite 10 minutes in “Thor: Ragnarok” combine all the film’s strengths. Around the midpoint, a most welcome new character, Tessa Thompson’s Valkyrie, engages in superfast martial-arts combat with Tom Hiddleston’s ever-sly Asgardian weasel, Loki. They’re wonderfully matched, and when Waititi flashes back to a purely visual explication of Valkyrie’s battles of old, it’s stirring and beautiful.

Not that I cared about the plot ... but the plot: Written by Eric Pearson, Craig Kyle and Christopher Yost, “Thor: Ragnarok” begins with Thor breaking free from the clutches of fire demon Surtur. Thor’s home planet, Asgard, is due to be zeroed out in Ragnarok, which is the apocalypse with one fewer syllable. Cate Blanchett, with sleek antlers of doom and the witty air of a bored runway model, plays Hela, Thor’s hella fierce sister and the unruly daughter of Odin (Anthony Hopkins) and self-proclaimed leader of Asgard.

So it’s uneven, but the good stuff’s unusually lively and buoyant. The Marvel Fatigue factor continues, to be sure. But hiring Waititi, and letting the right actors lean into the comedy, constitutes not a marvel, but a qualified victory.

MARVEL STUDIOS The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), from left, Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson) and Loki (Tom Hiddleston) come together for battle in a scene from “Thor: Ragnarok.”