Great Movie but for ...

Rating: 7/10 (28 October 2017)

If I had just gone by the previews, and not been so caught up in the Marvel storyline, I probably would have given this movie a miss. Well, it turned out that it was just Cate Blaunchett's really bad acting (or overacting). It seemed as if she really couldn't play a superhero bad guy, or even sit well in a superhero movie. Sure, she may have won and Oscar or two, but this role was certainly not Oscar worthy (not that any of the Marvel films ever make it into the Oscar fields as it is). In fact her portrayal of Hella was so bad that I literally cringed whenever she opened her mouth.
Anyway, the film begins with Thor in a cage. He has been travelling the galaxy looking for the infinity stones, with little to no luck, and is now a prisoner of Surtur, one of the Asgardian bad guys. Anyway, to cut a long story short, and after an awesome rendition of The Immigrant Song by Led Zepplin, he defeats Surtur and finally returns to Asgard to discover that Loki is up to his old tricks again. Unfortunately this latest trick has resulted in Odin's death, and their sister Hella being set free to rampage over Asgard. Meanwhile Thor and Loki are banished to a trash world where they (or at least Thor) needs to escape. Along the way he also discovers that The Hulk has also landed up here.
This isn't a new story, if fact it is one that I have seen time and time again. The hero is banished from his home and a malevolent force takes over. The Hero must escape the prison, return to his home, and defeat the bad guy. Sounds simple, well not quite, because this is Ragnarok, which basically signals the end of Asgard. While the story was old hat, and Blaunchett horrible, the execution was near perfect. Interestingly the director was born in New Zealand, and when he appeared in a pre-opening scene, I suddenly discovered that he played a minor role in the film (the South Pacific accent stands out a mile, at least where I'm concerned).
Oh, I should also mention the jokes. As one reviewer pointed out these later Marvel Movies seem to be really ramping up on the humour, and in part it is starting to ruin them. Some of them are really good, but others of them are forced and unnecessary. In fact a part of it seems to be turning into something like Galaxy Quest than a serious science-fantasy superhero movie, which is actually a little disturbing. For instance the name of the singularity that they used to escape from the garbage world was quite unnecessary. Still, it is a pretty good movie, but I do feel that they need to start toning down on the humour a little.