Thor Ragnarok is Just What the Doctor Ordered For This Franchise

Rating: 9/10 (5 November 2017)

A lot of people act like Thor is one of Marvel's lesser properties. I actually have a soft spot for the first Thor. It was surprisingly funny, it translated some pretty out there ideas into being plausible and Chris Hemsworth made for a charismatic hero. That being said, Thor: The Dark World was disappointing and before any promotional material was released, I don't think anyone was expecting much from Thor 3. I have to credit Waititi and his team for bringing a different kind of style to this movie. We've seen the neon colour palette in other comic book movies (Guardians Vol. 2, and Suicide Squad come to mind) but this addition is welcome here. It brings life into the movie, the action scenes are well shot and they use the CGI to create some cool looking characters. This could have been treated as a minor project that didn't garner much attention from the studio but they didn't sell out and they put the effort into this to create something memorable.
The previous Thor movies have spent a large chunk of time on Earth, sometimes to the movies' detriment. They make a good decision to only spend a chunk on Midgard and take you to new places and introduce new characters. In fact, they dispatch of Thor's band of merry men so quickly I almost started laughing. Sakaar is so different and the hype around the gladiator games on it are a lot of fun. I also thought they created some interesting characters, Valkyrie, Grandmaster, Skurge and Korg all have their moments. There's a lot of funny dialogue and while the other entries in the Thor franchise dipped their toes in the comedic pool, Ragnarok dives in with mostly successful results. The friend I went to see this with said it was a little too goofy at times but I think they hit a nice balance.
Chris Hemsworth has everything you need to be a leading man, he just has a hard time getting good projects (Rush was awesome, Ghostbusters..... not so much). He slips into Thor like a glove and he carries this movie with ease. Tessa Thompson was the ace up this movie's sleeve. She's funny in her own right and she handles her supporting part easily. I would love to see her in another Marvel movie. Loki is probably Marvel's best villain and Hiddleston is a star for a reason. He always steals scenes as Loki and this movie is no exception. Idris Elbas is decent, Anthony Hopkins doesn't have to do too much, Goldblum is having fun as the Grandmaster, Karl Urban is funny and I enjoyed Waititi's voice performance as Korg. Mark Ruffalo has always been good as Banner/Hulk and one of the best parts of the movie is his confrontation with Thor. I also want to credit Cate Blanchett, I don't Hela is among Marvel's best written villains but it's her performance that makes Hela formidable. I'm not going to mention any of the cameos but I thought the one from another major Marvel franchise was pretty pointless and underwhelming.
I don't have many complaints about Ragnarok but there are a few. I thought the movie started pretty slowly, there are funny moments in Thor's early adventures but there is a ton of hype around this movie and I was questioning if this was going to meet those high expectations. The stuff surrounding Odin didn't pack the emotional punch I think they were going for. But I also think the movie picked up steam as it went along so that corrected the problem. Again, not all of the cameos are great, the movie is littered with Easter eggs so it was inevitable that some of them are hit or miss.
I think this movie delivered what you would want going into it. There's lots of fun and creative action scenes, plenty of hilarious jokes and some good characters to latch onto. Thor: Ragnarok is every bit a worthy entry into Marvel's canon and I think it will wash some of the disappointment away from the Thor franchise. Among the 3 Marvel releases I saw this year, I'd put it ahead of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 but behind Spiderman: Homecoming. If you're a dedicated Marvel fan this is an easy choice to see but I think the uninitiated will be charmed by this too.