Destruction and creation, building up and undermining

Rating: 8/10 (29 October 2017)

When the long-banished, not-known-to-exist first-born of Odin(Hopkins, whose parody of himself, as well as his somber take, are both great), his daughter Hela(Blanchett, delicious, loving every moment, and making for another one of the few and far between deeply memorable villains of the franchise) returns to Asgard, her tremendous powers and thirst for conquest mean Thor(Hemsworth going for dry, sarcastic wit, and it works) and Loki(yet again in a new personal situation with his family, albeit overall, he does little to affect what happens) have to stop her. However, they're stuck in Sakaar, prisoners of the dictator The Grandmaster(Goldblum, with his charm turning threatening from one second to the next). And then our titular hero is made to fight the gladiatorial champion – The Hulk(Ruffalo getting to expand the role's vocabulary, personality, and tragedy/pathos – albeit not far enough. It doesn't extend to properly exploring what he's been doing, fighting beings no match for him, previously invariably to the death, despite him leaving Earth was literally specifically to flee this exact thing. They stopped short of where the comic went with it, sadly. The supporting players are appreciated, though).
This trilogy has gotten a lot of criticism from the onset, some of it deserved, a lot of it borne out of the natural difficulties with making this kind of world work, especially within the gritty, realistic one Iron Man set up. In this entry, Earth is nearly completely absent, and certainly the only human who has screen-time is Dr. Strange, who is also "beyond". Yes, Jane Foster, Darcy and Erik Selvig are gone. Broken up off-screen. I hate that. However, with this newfound freedom, this goes full cosmic. The tone approaches Guardians of the Galaxy. It's superior to Vol. 2, but not up to the level of the original. Honestly, a few minor things seem to be there specifically to redo that, and they'd be better left on the cutting room floor. The jokey subversion/drama mix is not as strong as that, nor of the third Robert Downey Jr. solo picture. With that said, relatively little of the actual weight is lost to laughs. This still has gravity and tension. The action is fast, frequent and enjoyable, if also by far the most MCU aspect of this. Many will find this to be bland, not fun, a corporate product. Certainly, there's still a lot of room for diversity and flavor. Fingers crossed that Black Panther will push the envelope there.
I recommend this to anyone who finds the trailers appealing. You can go into this completely blind. Stay through the credits. 8/10