By: Daniel Kilgallon, Staff Writer
For better or worse, the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) has been continuously dominating the global box office and it doesn’t look like that is going to change anytime soon. With three feature films released this year and another three scheduled for next, the powerhouse franchise will contain a whopping twenty movies by the time that 2018 comes to a close. Thor: Ragnarok marks the seventeenth installment of the series and the third chapter of what has become the Thor trilogy. Despite exceptional performances by Chris Hemsworth, I believe that this particular character has suffered from some of the weakest standalone movies of the franchise. 2011’s Thor is an average origin story at best and 2014’s The Dark World is a forgettable film which I think stands out as one of the few bad movies that the series has to offer. Heading into the theater last weekend, I had high hopes that Ragnarok would function in providing a fresh story for the shared universe and much needed justice for “the God of Thunder.”
With the exception of a mid-credits appearance in last year’s Doctor Strange, Thor has not appeared in the MCU since Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015). He left Earth to search for Infinity Stones but has not been successful in his endeavors. At the beginning of this movie, we see Thor captured in the lair of a demon named Surtur, who threatens to destroy his home planet of Asgard in a catastrophic event known as “Ragnarok.” Managing to escape and take the crown that grants Sulfur power, Thor decides to return to his home planet. During his absence, Thor’s brother, Loki (Tom Hiddleston) has been ruling Asgard while assuming the appearance of their father, Odin (Anthony Hopkins), who has relocated to Earth.
With the throne of the Asgard vulnerable, a new threat emerges in the form of Hela (Cate Blanchett), the Asgardian goddess of death. As seen in the trailers, she ends up breaking Thor’s hammer, Mjolnir, and proceeds to send him and Loki through a wormhole. They find themselves on a planet called Sakaar, which is ruled by “the Grandmaster” (Jeff Goldblum). Thor becomes imprisoned here and is forced to partake in a gladiatorial contest in which he faces his former ally, the Hulk. With Hela poised to ruin Asgard forever, Thor must overcome the challenge of escaping Sakaar so he can return to his homeland and save his people.
I had a blast with Thor: Ragnarok from start to finish and the strong use of humor really stood out to me here. Up to this point, I would have considered Ant-Man (2015) to be the funniest movie in MCU, but I can confidently say that has changed. Ragnarok is practically a straight comedy, handling it’s ridiculous subject matter in a way that was quite self-detrimental. This is something that the first two Thor movies failed to do, taking the content way too seriously for it’s own good. Ragnarok avoids this completely, largely through the use of sarcastic dialogue from new and returning characters. For example, Thor explains the loss of his hammer to the rock warrior Korg, who responds by saying, “It sounds like you had a pretty special and intimate relationship with this hammer and that losing it was almost comparable to losing a loved one.” All of the characters play their part in successfully maintaining this tone throughout the entire film. In my opinion, this was completely necessary in accurately portraying the particularly obscure world of the titular comic book character.
Overall, I would say that Thor: Ragnarok was a home run for Marvel, as it was absolutely hilarious and full of fresh, exciting action sequences. This film understood what it’s universe has become; an episodic series of movies that exist to entertain. Ragnarok’s lighthearted approach really worked here and the result was one of, if not, MCU’s funniest movie to date. Fans of this series can’t miss out on this flick and I can happily say that Thor finally got the movie he has deserved for a long time.