a director totally in sync with his cast - one of the funniest movies of the YEAR, nevermind MCU

Rating: 8/10 (2 November 2017)

In brief: this was a damn space craft full of fun. Thor Ragnarok is Douglas Adams by way of Jack "King" Kirby, both from his Thor run and other (MANY) space fantasy comics in look and brawny, iconic feel (and this time, maybe the first time, Larry Lieber gets a screen credit!) Waititi is stupendous with his actors and they give back in kind.
If only the action wasn't so been-there-done-that (or maybe it's the CGI being so overwhelming that it consumed the actors in some shots). That said, this continues the goofy-but-serious space-operatic look from the Guardians movies, and it ups the stakes from the previous Thor movies - it's *easily* the superior of the three, the most human and with a more interesting villain(ess), though I wish Blanchett were in it a wee bit more, not to mention Waititi himself playing a rock monster with a droll sensibility - so it stands out from the pack very easily. Even Thor gets an arc this time, which was fairly typical if there at all, and I don't even know if there was one in The Dark World (that movie was so forgettable I didn't recall what happened to Odin at the end of that story.
Ruffalo as Hulk/Banner gets fun stuff to do throughout (he gets to talk, a lot, this Hulk, so take that what you will), and everyone gets a moment to shine, from Tessa Thompson to Karl Urban (mostly his arc is serious, but he starts off the movie with a terrific jokey scene), to even the whoever-she-is that has to work as the Grandmaster's secretary. It's not as emotionally full of depth as the Guardians series, but I did also appreciate where the movie ends up as far as the fate of Asgard; even if it's a small way, it felt like Marvel taking a real chance - the first time they did something like that since Iron Man 3 with the Mandarin, and like that it works - and while, again I must stress, much of the action doesn't carry much consequence, as a comedy with that spirit of Adams (from Hitchhiker's Guide AND Long Dark Teatime of the Soul, I almost forgot till a friend reminded me Odin and Thor and Loki were in that), it's firing on as many cylinders as the other MCU movies this year.
It's a breezy, wild space adventure. It knows its audience, and it gives winks and nods to how silly it all may be, but when it needs to be serious it can do that too (or at the least, Cate Blanchett gets to chew on some scenery, but not all of it, if you catch my drift - she knows what she's in and is having the time of her life in a way I haven't seen since Crystal Skull).