There is a moment in which Thor and Korg are looking at Jane Foster -fully transformed into Mighty Thor-, and they both discuss how she is the one that got away – and how his hammer, Mjolnir, is now her weapon of choice. Thor then tries to get Mjolnir back, but suddenly his axe appears out of the blue, perhaps jealous, perhaps feeling it is not getting the attention it deserves.

This little comedic moment -which I hope you find funny, as it is exploited a few times more during Thor: Love and Thunder- is indicative that, despite having Thor as the first superhero to get a fourth picture on his own, neither he, nor Marvel know what they are supposed to do – if they have to move forward and forget the past… or not. They just know that they are there and they have to do something, so they better be entertaining.

I am not saying anything new by stating that the MCU -Marvel Cinematic Universe- has been tremendously puzzling as of late. Since Thanos’ death, timelines have been altered, and multiverses have been discovered. All of this means that old characters have reappeared; new characters have been introduced… new TV shows have been created to give more time to some fan favourite characters like Loki, and expand on the stories of others like Wanda and Vision. At the same time, their audience has done their best to keep up with all the twists and turns, going through an increasingly convoluted maze of narratives, getting progressively lost and, perhaps, losing interest as a result.

So, considering that this is the current state of the MCU, there is something refreshing about Thor: Love and Thunder, as Taika Waititi’s latest film is a superhero film that does not take itself too seriously to begin with, as if it knows that it does not have a place in a world it does not seem to understand, marching at the beat of its own drum, exactly in the same way that Thor does.  

It is interesting to see how a character that first appeared as if he belonged in a Shakespeare-like universe (in part thanks to Kenneth Branagh’s influence as a director of the first entry on the saga), has been transformed to a self-aware comic relief that stumbles around, prevailing thanks to the power of his muscles, axe, and a sense of humour that makes us unable to dislike him. Seeing Chris Hemsworth gleefully playing the sillier side of Thor not only makes up for the price of admission, but also made me think that he wanted to channel the goofiness of Kurt Russell in John Carpenter’s Big Trouble in Little China.

There is no doubt that one of the people responsible of this change in Thor is Waititi, as he has imbued the saga -and indeed the character- with his particular sense of humour. However, here he has failed to replicate what he achieved in Thor: Ragnarok, where we had a jolly good time watching Thor, together with Tom Hiddleston’s Loki, and Mark Ruffalo’s Hulk trying to beat Cate Blanchett’s magnificent and maleficent Hela. Whereas now, in Love and Thunder, we constantly feel as stakes are low; we do not fear Christian Bale’s Gorr (despite him looking like a terrifying mix between Gandhi and Voldemort); we do not feel as if we are going somewhere meaningful. Instead, we just follow Thor and his gang casually getting on some misadventures until they reach a -too melodramatic, yet not very moving- ending.  

Unlike what happened in Ragnarok, Love and Thunder does not work as well as a cohesive film. Perhaps victim of its own idiosyncrasies, it appears that by trying to be quirky, funny, and tongue in cheek, it forgets about everything else, ending up being somewhat annoying… like that friend who keeps telling you jokes, winking, and hitting you with the elbow… or like the screaming goats that are funny the first time they appear on screen – but just the first time. If Ragnarok succeeded, it was not only because it was funny, it was because it also had a heart and a good story to tell – Love and Thunder has such a strong focus on being humorous that it leaves everything else behind. An example of this is the fact that, by the end of the film, we might remember more Russell Crowe’s turn as Zeus -with his over-the-top acting, and a strange accent that appears to be a distant relative to the one Jared Leto did in House of Gucci– than Natalie Portman’s Jane Foster/Mighty Thor.  

It is a shame that Portman’s return to the saga (after two not very memorable appearances) has not been used to flesh out her character more. Here, she is just a heroine because she happens to be one, and her transformation into Mighty Thor is not used as part of her journey of self-discovery, but as extra motivation to further develop Thor’s personality – and perhaps, in the process, sell more merchandise, and more tickets-.   

It is sad to see how after what he did in JoJo Rabbit, Waititi fails at his own game in Thor: Love and Thunder, missing completely the idea that being funny for the sake of being funny is not what makes a film good. By over indulging in comedy and tossing everything else aside, Thor: Love and Thunder wastes an opportunity to take the franchise into a new direction (or simply put a definitive end to it, just saying), and it does not move the MCU, neither forward nor backwards – but in circles, because it is wacky!  

Nevertheless, despite the film not being very good, all of it was eclipsed by the audience I shared the film with.

Please fellow cinemagoers, stop shovelling pop-corn, crisps, and crunchy crap alike in your mouths from the moment you sit down in your seats until the credits end, the lights turn on, and you have to use your hands, arms, and sleeves to shamefully clean the leftovers of food from your faces. Please, if you find solace by munching in the darkness, and slurping your beverages from a container as big as a medium size zeppelin, do it in the comfort of your home -where I will not be present-, because watching Thor: Love and Thunder I felt as if I was in the audience of an extreme eating competition which happened to have a film playing in the background.

Please, stop.