Thor: Ragnorak
Nov. 21st, 2017 08:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
osprey_archerI saw Thor: Ragnarok last night! And I enjoyed it, in a fun popcorn movie kind of way, although at the same time I felt that it lacked a certain emotional resonance or depth. I felt that, for instance, Guardians of the Galaxy 2 had an emotional core in Peter's daddy issues, which Thor: Ragnarok ultimately lacked.
This is especially sad because the movie is just brimming over with the stuff of good family drama. Odin used to have a daughter whom he then banished and imprisoned and never even mentioned to his sons! Obviously her "I will rule all of Asgard! By destroying it if necessary!" method of dealing with this is awful, but I can also understand why Hela is pissed that her father got rid of her and then literally frescoed over the records of her achievements.
Also, Odin is now two out of three for "children who try to cope with their daddy issues by conquering a planet." Which Loki tried to do twice. This made the parts where he's portrayed as more of a wise parent figure fall rather flat for me. Do you really want to listen to his advice, Thor? Are you sure that this won't end with you, too, deciding that you have to conquer a planet?
Actually, now that he's got all the remaining Asgardians traveling through space on a gigantic ship, planet conquering almost has to be next on Thor's agenda. They've gotta live somewhere! Although of course the end credits scene suggests that they are all about to be taken captive by Thanos, so this potential planet-conquering may be a moot point.
Anyway, the thing that really killed it for me is the bit where Loki tries to betray Thor by turning him into the Grandmaster, even though that means abandoning Thor to die and, with him, abandoning all of Asgard to Hela. Loki's interesting to me insofar as he does care about his family/Asgard - albeit in really twisted, messed up, "Dad, you just banished Thor for attacking Jotunheim, but I'm going to try to win your approval by doing exactly the same thing! Only with more genocidal double-crossing!" kind of way. But if he's just a psychopath who is looking out for number one and ready to betray his brother to a terrible death - eh.
And then of course the filmmakers walk it back by having Loki show up in Asgard to fight by Thor's side after all. But that felt like inconsistent character work rather than complexity.
Other things I didn't like: Dr. Strange. (It felt like he was there mostly for the sake of a cameo, and took up running time that would have been better devoted to anything else, really.) Skurge. Just - Skurge. And the way the movie dispatched the Warriors Three: they've only ever been bit players but they deserved better than that. At very least a scene where Thor finds out they're dead and vows vengeance and possibly quaffs a horn of ale because they died valiant warriors' deaths.
Things I did like: Valkyrie. The Grandmaster. The whole arena sequence was pretty spectacular. The Hulk/Bruce Banner!
This is probably the first time that I have felt a Marvel movie was truly improved by having the Hulk in it. I particularly liked the friendship between Valkyrie and the Hulk: you totally get the idea that for each of them, the other is the only person they actually like, and it's kind of great. Also, the bit where the recording of Natasha's call to Bruce helps him de-Hulk is probably the first and only moment I kind of bought their romance, so kudos for that.
I also liked Thor trying to de-Hulk him in the arena by doing the whole "Sun's getting low" routine, and Age of Ultron would have been 100% improved if Thor had been the one who got the responsibility rather than Natasha: it would have revealed a new facet of his character while also, IMO, fitting with what we already know about him (I could see Thor taking this on in a way I wouldn't really buy for, say, Tony), and also meant that Natasha didn't get slotted in that Girl and Therefore Emotional Support role.
I'm kind of meh about Hela, but Marvel movies are almost always terrible at villains anyway so I wasn't really expecting much there. Loki & Bucky are the only compelling antagonists they've managed, and in both cases its because they have a prior emotional bond to the heroes that makes things personal (and Bucky isn't even a villain - an antagonist, yes, but that's not his fault).
...So basically we should probably hope that T'Challa is betrayed by his brother or childhood friend in Black Panther.
This is especially sad because the movie is just brimming over with the stuff of good family drama. Odin used to have a daughter whom he then banished and imprisoned and never even mentioned to his sons! Obviously her "I will rule all of Asgard! By destroying it if necessary!" method of dealing with this is awful, but I can also understand why Hela is pissed that her father got rid of her and then literally frescoed over the records of her achievements.
Also, Odin is now two out of three for "children who try to cope with their daddy issues by conquering a planet." Which Loki tried to do twice. This made the parts where he's portrayed as more of a wise parent figure fall rather flat for me. Do you really want to listen to his advice, Thor? Are you sure that this won't end with you, too, deciding that you have to conquer a planet?
Actually, now that he's got all the remaining Asgardians traveling through space on a gigantic ship, planet conquering almost has to be next on Thor's agenda. They've gotta live somewhere! Although of course the end credits scene suggests that they are all about to be taken captive by Thanos, so this potential planet-conquering may be a moot point.
Anyway, the thing that really killed it for me is the bit where Loki tries to betray Thor by turning him into the Grandmaster, even though that means abandoning Thor to die and, with him, abandoning all of Asgard to Hela. Loki's interesting to me insofar as he does care about his family/Asgard - albeit in really twisted, messed up, "Dad, you just banished Thor for attacking Jotunheim, but I'm going to try to win your approval by doing exactly the same thing! Only with more genocidal double-crossing!" kind of way. But if he's just a psychopath who is looking out for number one and ready to betray his brother to a terrible death - eh.
And then of course the filmmakers walk it back by having Loki show up in Asgard to fight by Thor's side after all. But that felt like inconsistent character work rather than complexity.
Other things I didn't like: Dr. Strange. (It felt like he was there mostly for the sake of a cameo, and took up running time that would have been better devoted to anything else, really.) Skurge. Just - Skurge. And the way the movie dispatched the Warriors Three: they've only ever been bit players but they deserved better than that. At very least a scene where Thor finds out they're dead and vows vengeance and possibly quaffs a horn of ale because they died valiant warriors' deaths.
Things I did like: Valkyrie. The Grandmaster. The whole arena sequence was pretty spectacular. The Hulk/Bruce Banner!
This is probably the first time that I have felt a Marvel movie was truly improved by having the Hulk in it. I particularly liked the friendship between Valkyrie and the Hulk: you totally get the idea that for each of them, the other is the only person they actually like, and it's kind of great. Also, the bit where the recording of Natasha's call to Bruce helps him de-Hulk is probably the first and only moment I kind of bought their romance, so kudos for that.
I also liked Thor trying to de-Hulk him in the arena by doing the whole "Sun's getting low" routine, and Age of Ultron would have been 100% improved if Thor had been the one who got the responsibility rather than Natasha: it would have revealed a new facet of his character while also, IMO, fitting with what we already know about him (I could see Thor taking this on in a way I wouldn't really buy for, say, Tony), and also meant that Natasha didn't get slotted in that Girl and Therefore Emotional Support role.
I'm kind of meh about Hela, but Marvel movies are almost always terrible at villains anyway so I wasn't really expecting much there. Loki & Bucky are the only compelling antagonists they've managed, and in both cases its because they have a prior emotional bond to the heroes that makes things personal (and Bucky isn't even a villain - an antagonist, yes, but that's not his fault).
...So basically we should probably hope that T'Challa is betrayed by his brother or childhood friend in Black Panther.
