There's a lot wrong with this film but it wasn't the car crash I was led to believe nor was it very long. It weighs in at under 2 hours and if anything it could have done with being longer...
Observations:
I forecast a couple of months ago that the trailers for this wouldn't reflect the film in the slightest and that some scenes wouldn't even be in the film and I was spot on about that. The thing is, some of those scenes in the trailers should have been in the film.
Was the decision to team Thor up with the Guardians of the Galaxy a mistake sorted out in the opening 25 minutes of this film? Why were they even there? It seems to me that 'Marvel' has ideas but soon realises that these ideas might not necessarily work.
I know this follow themes in the comic that I've not read but Jane Foster's [ambiguous] cancer and the really [ACK!!!] corny way in which she becomes Thor all seemed conveniently manufactured and leaves me with the question as to why didn't Steve Rogers turn into Captain AmericThor? Why has there never been a casual comment about the possible sentience of Thor's weapons? Oo-er, missus.
There's a remarkable amount of standing around talking, exposition and explanation and I'm sure a bunch of Easter Eggs - such as the Celestials appearance, Eternity and Hercules, but surely the most misguided decision was OmniCity and the inclusion of all those gods - great and small, all looking up to the massive cockwomble called Zeus. No wonder Asgardians act differently, because most of the other gods of the universe are a bit naff.
It doesn't feel like a complete film; it jumps about a lot and moves the Asgard story forward without really moving it forward at all and some of the early set pieces/scene setting looks fantastic and had no reason for being there and Gorr, while getting a fair bit of screen time, seems a wee bit superficial and rough-edged, like the best of him ended up on the cutting room floor or in the trailers that weren't used in the film. He definitely isn't Marvel's best supervillain; he's just a bitter and twisted zealot who has seen the errors of his ways and his denouement is just... a bit wrong.
The finale wasn't bad, I just felt that empowering all the kidnapped children with the power of Thor seemed a little more Deus Ex Machina than normal and pay-off felt, like much of the film, rushed and in need to be done quick enough so you don't spend time analysing it*.
It's not the worst Thor film, but it would fight Dark World to the death without a real winner if they were both boxers. However, whereas Dark World still feels largely like [enjoyable] filler - a non-plot episode in the season of MCU films - Love & Thunder feels almost more like a set up for other films that are coming.
It is sad, stupid and quite funny - not as funny as Ragnarok - but feels forced and like it desperately needs to go at a million miles an hour. There's a half decent film bookended between the opening 25 minutes which appears to be nothing more than an intro to Gorr and a recap of what's been happening since the end of Endgame. The closing scene, with Thor now the 'god' parent of Gorr's celestially reborn (with powers) daughter, felt as forced and tacked on as the final scene in the recent Dr Strange film - like an invitation to miss the next thrilling instalment.
In conclusion: I don't know if I enjoyed this more than almost every other MCU film since 2019 because of the familiarity with this sub-franchise or because it's the best of a generally bad lot of films. It does have two polar opposite end credits scenes. The first is a bit of a face palm moment because if one thing was clear about this film, Zeus is a twat (as are most Gods) and he should have been forgotten about, as quickly as possible and the final end credit scene was sort of lovely, fitting and nice.
This film missed Loki like a Star Trek film would miss Jim Kirk; despite Hemsworth's charms (and physique), Hiddlestone steals all the Thor films because his character, generally, is so good. This film could also have done with missing Korg...
* We watched the only older (pre 2020) MCU film we hadn't seen more than once the other day - Ant-Man & The Wasp - and pretty much realised that it feels like a movie script written by AI. It was like there was a check list of topics that needed to either be mentioned or explained that felt almost shoehorned into the story to give the impression of a flowing narrative and as an exercise in tying the film together, they would have done better using SuperGlue. Everything from Larry Fishbourne lecturing about the exact thing the film was dealing with to the heavy-handedness of the FBI. It's most definitely an MCU film, it's just not very good, possibly one of the worst in the entire franchise (although the beginning is ace).
No comments:
Post a Comment