Unless he was so caught up in the wackiness that he became indirectable, he gets a pass in my opinion. If that’s not the tone Waititi wanted, he would have been asked to be an actor and change the performance. Chris, you’re good. Keep on keepin’ on.
The script failures aren’t Chis’ fault.
That comic story works because Thor Odinson isn’t really in it, at all. The entire premise is a perspective shift - how it feels to be a frail human burdened with godhood.
I almost understand how (if not why) the studios didn’t approve risking a huge budget film by putting all the weight on many-award-winning actress, Natalie Portman.
But adapting comic books is about taking risks. Thor: Love and Thunder needed to be entirely centered on Natalie Portman, and Chris should have been free to act goofy while Natalie delivered the heartbreaking cancer stuff.
But the script was too chicken to make that leap of faith, and the movie is worse for it.
They didnt want to be called woke, but they did anyway. For some people, even thought of a woman getting into some man’s space is woke, let alone her being as strong if not stronger than him.
The problems with L&T have nothing to do with Hemsworth’s choices. He was hilarious and one of the high points of the film. The two biggest issues were with the writing/direction:
-
We didn’t see the villain earn their nickname
-
We didn’t see the villain learn about the Maguffin
These two issues could have been handled with a 1 minute rampage where he slays a few gods, and the last one chides him with “you know this will all be undone, right? One of us will just go to such-and-such-place, wish to undo your work, and it’ll never have happened.”
“So there’s a place that grants wishes?”
Shocked pikachu face
“… interesting.”
Kills them
Yeah, I agree that the villain needed more development. I enjoyed the movie overall because I’ve become ok with filling in blanks like that, but the villain’s arc was very disjointed, including the part about needing to be told… well, if you’ve seen it, you know what he needed to be told, so I’ll leave it at that to avoid spoiling.
And I agree that Hemsworth did great in the movie. And even if he was goofing around too much during filming, that would still be more on the director, editor, and producer for deciding what went into the final cut.
But yeah, the worst part IMO was having one guy go from dying in a desert to finding a magic sword and suddenly he’s one of the most powerful beings in existence. Did he have skills from before he was stuck in the desert? Did the sword give him knowledge? Does it steal powers/experiences from the gods it slays?
There’s other problems with it, mostly in the same vein.
Thor’s lines about how they don’t eat children anymore, and later when he scolds Love for ruining a brand-new skillet are possibly the two best lines in the movie
-
deleted by creator
This is really all there is to it. Taika let them jump the shark instead of keep some semblance of balance especially for such a dark story line.
I thought it was fantastic.
I was honestly onboard right up to the point that Thor cracked jokes immediately after learning that his people’s children had been kidnapped. That should have been the moment we pivoted back to Thor the hero. For Thor to be that unserious in that moment just felt really out of character, even for wacky/funny Thor, which is a character I love personally.
I think Ragnarok struck a much better balance between funny Thor and hero Thor.
I liked it too! The Greek gods part wasn’t my favorite, but loved the rest of it.
There is a time and place to play a wacky self-parody for laughs (for example, on an obscure Internet technology forum), but an adaptation of one of the darkest storyline in Marvel comics involving Gorr the God Butcher sure isn’t it.
Gorr was an effective character because 1. he was extremely successful in accomplishing his goal and 2. he was right (partially, at least) about the nature of gods being selfish and indifferent which caused the self doubts in Thor, and the key point of the storyline was that in accomplishing his goal, Gorr became a hypocrite who embodies the very traits he used as reasons for his god-butchering. Neither of these ideas were effectively adapted for this movie, so what’s the point of using Gorr the God Butcher.
The actors’ individual performance really isn’t the issue, because even the best performance from the best actors can’t save a flawed script, critics will just call it a wasted performance.
I’ve decided - in my head canon you are the real Margot Robbie - it’s much more fun imagining her nerding out about a MCU film…
deleted by creator
I think there’s more mixed bag since Endgane. Shang-Chi, Spider-Man NWH, Doctor Strange MoM, and GOTG vol. 3 were all great imo. While Black Widow, Thor 4, and Ant-Man 3 were horrible. And the rest have been somewhere in between.
Taking the fall for Disney, I see.
Heh I actually liked that one.
I’ve been a huge Taiki Waititi fan since his work with Flight of the Conchords and Boy. But this movie… One of the few movies I’ve turned off halfway through. The decision to bring back Natalie Portmans character was… just so stupid. They didn’t have chemistry in the first movie, why force a second?
