Good Fun, But Is That Enough? (SPOILERS)

Rating: 7/10 (31 October 2017)

Thor hasn't had a great track record in terms of films. I get the feeling the first film is met with a strange contention, some think it's a good time, others thin it's okay, I personally really like it, I like it's Shakespeare-esque qualities and I'm a sucked for inner family conflicts, the like of Thor and Loki. The second film, Thor: The Dark World, is generally seen as being pretty 'meh' and understandably, it's pretty lifeless and without any real interesting plot points at all, it's a totally missable movie. Now comes Thor: Ragnarok, a pretty serious storyline in the comics but played a bit more for comedic effect here.
Ragnarok is a good time, of that I won't contest. You'll get a feel early on the film has been 'Guardian of the Galaxy-ised', that is to say it's approaching the film with a more comedic and tongue-and-cheek attitude rather than serious and Shakespearean vibe of the first film. The comedy, for the most part, works well in the film. It doesn't always land perfectly, and especially in the first act I felt it felt a little off, but once you really get into the swing of it it works well and lands well and the actors land their lines well.
But I can't fully endorse Ragnarok, and it's annoying, because despite how the comedic tone works I'm not sure it really aids the movie or the story it's trying to tell. At the beginning of this film Odin meets his end, with Loki having been sat in Odin's place for far too long it is now Odin's time to pass, and he does, but now Hela, Odin's firstborn daughter, returns to take the throne and lead Asgard to war and domination, a conquest Thor must avert, but Thor is weaker than Hela and is thrown from Asgard so now he must pull together a team to thwart the new evil. It sounds fairly Shakespearean-esque, and if you watched only the scenes in Asgard with Hela you might think that's the way it's going to spin. Hela's scenes are dark and brooding, serious, whilst Thor on Sicar (I think I spelt it wrong?) are light hearted and carefree. It's a feel I think clashes harshly because there's some real stuff Thor has to deal with here.
Firstly, Odin is dead, and secondly, Loki is essentially to blame for said death. I was expecting some kind of serious confrontation here. Everything that Hela is doing in this film is nothing Loki hasn't already done - Loki did try (did?) blow up an entire one of the nine realms in Thor 1. Thor also though Loki was dead whilst Loki instead just sat on Odin's throne and sat about. I think the film may have benefited if had worked more towards what Hela's character seems to push towards. Hela speak of the lies of Odin, of how Odin was no 'great and honest' king but also a tyrant. It would have been interesting to have a three way struggle between the siblings of Odin about the treatment they were given under their father, the sins of the father, if you would, that would make for some very interesting a deep conflict.
It's problems like this that prevent me from really liking Thor: Ragnarok, in many cases the motivations and characterisation of characters makes no sense in context to their actual character. The Valkyrie decides to help Thor, for no reason I can discern, I completely get why she wouldn't help him. Loki seemingly decides to ally himself and stand by his brother by the end, despite the massive discussion they probably still have to have. It doesn't add up to me. In a medium that I love due to its story and character I think there's much wasted here, much that could have been developed into an insightful, more character fuelled film.
On a side note, I am worried about Marvel's dramatic swerve towards humour as of late, I get that the company wants their films to be light hearted and fun, which is completely fine, but Captain America: The Winter Soldier pulled off a really good story whilst incorporating comedic elements and still told a good character driven story, I was hoping the same for Thor and I hope to see more stuff along those lines from Marvel soon.