An MCU Comedy... And That's OK

Rating: 9/10 (27 June 2020)

When I reviewed Guardians of the Galaxy earlier in my Marvel rewatch, I wrote that "one of its greatest strengths is also the humour : just enough to keep you entertained, not so much that the movie becomes a parody of itself like MCU films further down the line". I'm going to be honest here : I had Thor : Ragnarok in mind when writing this.
The first two times I watched this movie, that is exactly how I felt. I thought that they went way overboard with the humour, and that they sacrificed too much of what made Thor Thor in doing so. I never disliked the film entirely (it still was my favorite of the trilogy) and I had fun with it every time, but something was off. And, with my third watch tonight, I recognize that I was wrong.
Why do we watch Marvel films? Is it because they're great pieces of art? Because we want to explore profound themes through the filmmaker's vision? No. We watch Marvel films because a) they are impactful cultural events and b) they provide great sources of entertainment. Thor, the mighty God of Thunder is just "dumb" fantasy, and Taika Waititi understands that. He crafted a movie that is incredibly fun, occasionally laughing at the genre. No other filmmaker alive could have brought the same level of energy, and thus entertainment value, that he did.
My point is that Ragnarok is not to be taken too seriously. Because not all comic book films should. We would live in a very grim world if all we had were Logans and Jokers. The humour goes a bit overboard, sure, but I would be lying if I said that I didn't have an awesome time with this one. And you would too.