It's Hammer Time! Is Thor: Ragnarok, worth watching? Yes, it is!

Rating: 8/10 (8 November 2017)

Unfortunately, it takes one of the most popular Hulk comic book stories ever, 'Planet Hulk', to make 'Thor: Ragnarok', the most entertaining 'Thor' movie yet. Honestly to tell you, the truth. It's a good thing. While, all three 'Thor' movies, have a similar generic premise, in which, an alien force is trying to conquer the Marvel Cinematic Universe with a super-weapon, with this one being Thor's lost-long sister, Hela (Cate Blachett), with Blachett doing a good job, playing sinister, sexy and deadly, even if her character come out of nowhere, unexplained. At least, this movie directed by Taika Waititi & written from a screenplay by Eric Pearson, Craig Kyle and Christopher Yost was a lot more memorable than its counterpart. I can hardly remember, 2011's 'Thor' & 2013's "Thor: the Dark World' in the years, after both movies came out, at all. This one, honestly stands out. First off, most of the action, takes place, off-world, outside of Earth & the Ninth Realms, giving a lot more, bright & crazy looking, sci-fi vibe, mixed with its fantasy elements. This allow us, to get away from the annoying, human characters such as Darcy Lewis (Kat Denning) & Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), whom in the last movie, pretty much, phone her performance, in. None of them, return. Sadly, this also eliminates, the Warrior Three such as Hogun (Tadanobu Asano), Volstagg (Ray Stevenson) and Fandral (Zachary Levi), but at least, they had cameos in this film, even if short. Still, it cools to see that Sif (Jaimie Alexander) is still around. However, Alexander's absence in the film, does beg the question. Why, wasn't Sif in Asgard!? Nevertheless, this change in direction, allows new likable supporting characters to emerge, such as Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson), who does a pretty good job & Grandmaster (Jeff Goldblum) to shine. While, director, Waititi did an alright motion-capture performance for Krog, a gladiator that Thor befriends. His soft-spoken, Australian accent was a bit jarring for something that came from Norse mythology. The same goes, with Karl Urban as Skruge, whom machine gun mow down scene was really bizarre. Nevertheless, I love how the film is not so bog down with complex, confusing Norse mythology, as the other movies; giving more room for simpler story lines like a prison escape subplot to breathe. While, yes, the whole gladiator fight/revolution plot for the most part, doesn't mesh well, with the main 'Ragnarok' story, in which the movie is title, from. It's still entertaining even with big plot-holes like how the wormholes honestly works, why nobody use the tesseract to get anywhere and how Hulk got to Sakaar, in the first place. Nevertheless, it's cool, that Thor (Chris Hemsworth) is still the title character, not Hulk/Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo), throughout this, even if it came from a Hulk comic book. The direction for this film, could easily be, misguide with Hulk getting revenge on the Avengers, but they stay focus on Thor trying to get back on his home world. I also enjoy, how the movie took more risk, with the title character. Seeing Thor, have short hair & without his trademark hammer Mjolnir was really shocking. Lucky for the writers & Hemsworth. Most of the risk paid off. Nevertheless, I can still do, without the badly gone, CGI eye injury. It was so fake-looking. It kinda distract me from enjoying the climax. The other special effects were good, but not great. While, none of the CGI in the film, look, deeply realistic. At least, it's beautiful to look at. It match well with the deliberately '80s space opera aesthetic and synth score, composed by new wave band, Devo's bandleader, Mark Mothersbaugh. Additional music featured in the film include "Immigrant Song" by Led Zeppelin and "Pure Imagination" from the 1971's film 'Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory' was also a nice tough. Another highlight from 'Thor: Ragnarok" is the humor. It was really cheeky & funny, as it really was going for that, 2014's Marvel film, 'Guardian of the Galaxy', sci-fi comedy vibe. Hemsworth really look like, he was enjoying, playing Thor, this time. His performance really made the film, very fun to watch. I glad, he didn't get bored. Tom Hiddleston as Loki, was also nice to see, however, I really getting tired, of the heel/baby-face, working, together, vibe. It was cool in 'Thor: the Dark World'. Here, not so much. I really was, hoping for something new. Still, I did like the cameo of Matt Damon, Sam Neill & Luke Helmsworth, stage-acting out the climax of the last movie, to Thor & Loki. It was a unique touch. It's also cool to see, that Stan Lee is still around, at his age, doing Marvel cameos, as well. I hope that day, where he can't, never comes. Furthermore, along with the Easter eggs, film references, it was also cool to see, characters performers like Benedict Cumberbatch & Scarlett Johansson reprises their roles as Stephen Strange from the film 2016's 'Doctor Strange' & 2015's 'Avengers: Age of Ultron'. This includes, the mid-credit scenes. Without spoiling it, they really do help set up, 2018's 'Avengers: Infinity War', big time. Can't wait for that movie to come out! Overall: This movie deserves a thunderous applause. While, deeply cartoonish & somewhat childish. 'Thor: Ragnorok" was a feel good fun romp fantasy escape movie. Highly watchable. Highly recommended.