An Entertaining Identity Crisis

Rating: 5/10 (15 November 2017)

Thor: Ragnarok is a perfect example of a sad trend I'm seeing in the film industry; it's a movie that shoots for strictly what will sell, which are cheap laughs, quick one-liners, overly simplistic plots and characters, and a refusal to allow for serious moments in any character story or just in general.
The story is decent enough, bursting with potential, as it deals with the destruction of Thor's world. This might have worked had the film been made in the vein of the past two Thor movies, but alas, it was not to be. Thor's character is not the warrior we've seen him grow into, but rather a happy go lucky wise cracker. It's disappointing that marvel decided to throw all the work they'd done on creating a strong warrior king character, whom they don't have anywhere else in their cinematic universe, simply to attempt to make a funnier movie. Thor still manages to have his moment of growth at the end of the film, but it's hardly believable after the hour and a half of him cracking jokes and trying to be a comedian.
The film, as much as the character of Thor, has an identity crisis. It appears that marvel is trying to strike with the Guardians of the Galaxy lightning a second time, never mind that it didn't even work out that well for GotG vol 2. As I said, if the film had been made in the vein of first two films, it really could have worked out well. But instead, it tries to cover almost every serious moment with humor - apart from Odin's death, and Thor's realization of who he is and the hero he's capable of being. But even those are sandwiched between attempted jokes, and feel extremely out of place.
The villain, Hela, has potential but between her idiotic wisecracking (why would the goddess of death make such funny comments?) and her rather lame fighting scenes cuts down the impact she could have had. Usually it's the heroes beating a bunch of CGI enemies to a pulp, but this time it's the villain beating a bunch of CGI good guys to a pulp. Same lame effect. She meets a predictable demise, and is likely going to become a villain who is forgotten by the next marvel flick.
Side characters do their best to try to save the movie, especially Loki. He seems to be the one character who hasn't lost his identity. He's still the God of mischief, but he continues the arc that he started in the first one of being a tortured soul who longs for that which he knows he cannot have - the throne of Asgard. He's always tried come off as not caring about anyone but himself, and while that's still true to some extent, he has moments where he chooses to risk his life for others rather than just himself, and when he chooses to be the hero, it comes off far more convincing than Thor's own hero moment. He provides some of the best laughs in the film, as well as some of the strongest serious moments.
Jeff Goldblum's Grandmaster is ridiculous, but is probably the only character who actually fits in the movie, and he's another character who manages to provide some genuine humor. Hulk has apparently turned into a rock star, able to control his moods as Hulk, never mind what we've seen in every other marvel movie he's been in. Bruce Banner is out of place in the movie, and he knows it. Valkyrie has a compelling story, but it's drowned in more forced humor, and when she decides out of the blue to make the heroic choice, it was expected because it made since to push the story along to its inevitable climax, but there was nothing earlier in the movie to justify it. She's a pathetic substitute for the Warriors 3 and Lady Sif, the former who are all killed in extremely unnecessary and idiotic fashion, and the latter whom is absent altogether. It's sad to see them wasted after building the characters over the last two Thor movies.
Even something as simple as the them song in the movie - The Immigrant Song by Led Zeppelin - feels out of place, an attempt to be another Guardians of the Galaxy. This is another movie that will undoubtedly be a huge success for marvel, both financially and somehow critically, and will give them even more reason to make another half ass-ed movie that gets cheap laughs and hits all of the notes required to make a blockbuster hit, but manages to avoid doing anything that's actually meaningful to the film industry.