Brief Thoughts about Thor: Love and Thunder

I'm trying to pin down what it is I don't like about Thor: Love and Thunder.

SPOILERS do follow...

I enjoyed Thor: Ragnarok quite a bit; I've tried other works by director Taika Waititi and enjoyed them as well. While watching Thor: Love and Thunder I kept recognizing the same type of humour which I'd found amusing in Waititi's other works. I was interested in the film. I didn't dislike the film. But I never connected emotionally to the film - that is, I never found it funny.

The thing about Thor: Love and Thunder is that it is a comedy film; there's only a little bit of drama - most of the picture is founded on jokes. The majority of scenes are set-ups for jokes. Maybe I'm too old for the film - it did seem like very juvenile humour to me, so perhaps I've outgrown Waititi's type of humour.

However, Thor: Love and Thunder is a contrast to how humour is used in other Marvel films. In other pictures, humour is used primarily to keep the story going; the directors get to a point where they don't know how to end a scene, so a character will crack a lame joke --> scene transition. The humour beats in a Marvel film are predictable but not offensive.

In Thor: Love and Thunder rather than the humour forcing itself into dramatic situations, the drama has to force itself into humourous situations. There is such a sense of ironic detachment throughout the film. Everything is a joke, a one-liner. Thor is frequently just childish - which makes one wonder how they'll adapt Hercules to the films, given that in the comics Herc's personality is normally more childish than Thor's. Very few dramatic moments land; the villain, Gorr, is treated seriously; Jane's cancer is mostly dealt with seriously (except for the scene which introduces it, strangely); Jane's death is treated as a serious moment. But the rest of the film so light-hearted, so weightless. What Gene Siskel called, "much of a muchness."

I think what I wanted from a film that puts Love right in its title is a little more emotion - that is, vulnerability. To let a few more dramatic moments land.

The very premise of Gorr the God Butcher seems like a good one for the picture - a worshiper of gods who is incensed at the lack of love shown by his gods, which turns him into a killer of gods. But that's really only covered in the opening scene. Ultimately, this version of Gorr is a distraught father who wants his little girl back - he blames the gods, but he's not particularly philosophical about it. His presence hints to some headier ideas, but the movie isn't interested in expounding on his philosophy or prompting Thor to offer a counterpoint. That would've intruded on one of those 80s hair metal ballads, I guess.

I don't dislike Thor: Love and Thunder but I'm very dissatisified with it. There's more going on in it than, say, Thor: The Dark World but it feels hollow; a series of comedy sketches instead of a journey.

(A list of creator credits for Thor: Love and Thunder will follow soon)