Close enough!

Rating: 6/10 (6 November 2017)

In roughly six months from the time of this review, Infinity War will drop in theaters. Take a moment to think about that; we've gotten to a point where this giant film is possible to make. Now there's only two movies in the way. A Black Panther movie (again, look how far we've come), and this one.
I guess I should digress for a minute. My favorite Marvel films (from the MCU) are Guardians of the Galaxy, Iron Man, Avengers, and Dr. Strange. My least favorites are the two Thor movies. And the only one I haven't seen yet is The Incredible Hulk, but they did write that movie out of existence in the Avengers so I doubt I'm missing much. So I heard this film which shares both Thor and The Hulk is somehow the highest rated Marvel movie of all time, and naturally I'm skeptical. Better than all the rest? Well after actually watching it, I can indeed confirm it is not. It's very fun and funny and completely blows the other Thor movies out of the water, but it's not the ultimate Marvel movie.
There are really good things about this one. There's no pointless Earth shenanigans with Natalie Portman and her friends. There's no more time spent with the extra sidekicks from the other films, they die in the first half-hour or so. There's no over-bloated plot or dumb setup for "something bigger" (there kinda is, but it's in an end credits scene, and that's par for the course). Heck, one of the best scenes in the film is when Hela goes into the Asgardian Treasury and inspects all the relics. She shoves over the Infinity Gauntlet people noticed from the first Thor movie and goes "Fake. Most of the stuff in here is fake anyway." That made me laugh out loud! And I usually don't do that in movies!
The characters are predictably the weakest element of the movie. Thor and Loki and Valkyrie and Hulk are fine. They're as fine as you can get for a movie like this. Hulk was funny, but you expect that from him by this point. When he's not smashing, he's making you laugh. Hela is a really cool villain in both lore and design, but she was kinda underplaying it. She does some cool things and has some of the best scenes in the movie, but she's still all serious in a sequel trying so hard to not be serious. Jeff Goldblum said about 7 billion less Uhs than I thought he would (he has about 15; I counted), but he plays as this weird Willy Wonka style guy that didn't sit well with me. They even use the "Pure Imagination" theme! And everything else in the movie is weak.
I think the real reason I didn't like this movie as much as everyone else clearly did is because I was expecting... something extra. I knew Dr. Strange was gonna be in the movie for a good while before I saw it, but he's in the movie for maybe 2 minutes. Then he's never seen again. And Matt Damon is in the movie! He plays an actor on Asgard portraying Loki's death scene from Thor 2. And that hit me the most, because I really wanted Marvel to put Ghost Rider in the MCU at some pint. And who would play him? None other than Jason Bourne himself. And he's in this movie as a minor character. Which unfortunately means he's not gonna be in the MCU anymore. That got me really sad. And when Thor and the gang go to stop Hela, they call themselves "The Revengers". Uhh... you're clearly DEFENDING Asgard here... maybe call yourself something a bit more accurate... like say THE DEFENDERS (cough cough Marvel start appealing to my wildest fantasies already cough). And then Dr. Strange COULD HAVE beamed himself up to help these Defenders! Wouldn't that have been cool? For Dr. Strange to be in the movie a bit more? Also why wasn't Thanos in the movie? They sort of tease him at the end, but I just needed his face and I would have been happy. Just sneak him in there as Hela's lover or something. Anything is better than nothing!
I enjoyed this movie quite a bit and I do suggest you go see it. I'm bummed at certain parts of it, but the good stuff is certainly enough. It's absolutely better than the other two Thor movies and I'm glad I saw it. But I just wish a bit more was done to make it that tiny bit better.