Some glaring weaknesses, but still pointless fun as a whole

Rating: 6/10 (21 November 2017)

"Thor: Ragnarok" is the newest superhero movie from the Marvel universe and it is the third one starring Thor (not counting the Avengers films). It runs for easily over 2 hours and marks the arrival at Hollywood filmmaking for director Taiki Waititi (NZL), who is also a prolific actor himself and voice acts in here too. Apart from Chris Hemsworth, there are several other familiar faces in here like Hopkins, Hiddleston, Ruffalo, Elba and Cumberbatch reprising their roles while new additions like Blanchett, Goldblum, Thompson and Urban add their share too, sometimes for the good, at other times not so much. I'll get to that in detail soon. First of all, it needs to be said that this was certainly a solid watch. It is a film that will entertain you well if you want it to. However, the moment you take an in-depth look at it, you will find flaws, flaws that are frequent and flaws that are crucial. One example would be Tessa Thompson's character and performance which was extremely underwhelming as honestly there was nothing remotely interesting about her in here that justified her being built up as a love interest to Thor. Sure seems like they are really struggling with regard to those. At least Portman gets a mention. Blanchett made a pretty good villain to be honest thanks to costume mostly, but also thanks to the actress being almost too good for the part. Sadly her connection with Urban's character never really gains steam, her character feels like the exact opposite of somebody who would get herself an executioner and so the final twist in this relationship stays really underwhelming. Same can be said about the death of Hopkins' character that had zero emotional impact on me unfortunately.
The worst part of the film is probably the one in almost the entire second half of the movie where they are trying to make a reference to the refugee crisis. The intention is okay, even if the film really didn't need it, but the execution is extremely shoddy as these poor people running around in their torn clothes added absolutely nothing for me. The consequence is that an actor I appreciate a lot and think he is very talented, namely Idris Elba, was wasted completely in this film. Such a shame. And then there is the comedy of course. I think it needs a little while to become really funny at times as the jokes in the first hour or so are mostly try-hard sadly, but afterward there are more than just a few inclusions and I would say the writers did a decent job overall in that department. As for the characters, there is Banner's fear of not being able to turn back into his human form if he becomes Hulk again. And I thought that is really the best that could happen as Hulk is so much more interesting and funny than Ruffalo's performance. The talk about him being a bigger fire was pure comedy gold and it was one of these moments when "ego comedy" fully delivers, certainly much funnier than when it comes from Iron Man. I also quite liked the rock guy. I think he was the one voiced by Waititi. Almost all characters have some very funny moments, so comedy may actually be the area where the film delivered the best, even if there are moments too when it goes very wrong ("anus to hell").
But there are other departments too of course that make it an enjoyable watch. This film is really on a high level technically including sound, visual effects, but also sets etc. Definitely worth watching if these are the most important fields for you. And the bad guys make it worth seeing too, like Goldblum's absurd turn and Blanchett's scary turn, even if it is tough to believe she would be on par with Thor in the last fight with how she's been crushing all film long. Another thing I like here is that it is a brave film. A lot of stuff happens in these two hours that can't be taken back, the death of Odin, the destruction of Thor's hammer, the end of Asgard where it once was, the loss of Thor's eye etc. and that's pretty bold as they are not just going back to the situation as it was before the film. Okay completely on a side-note now, but where were the Avengers when Hulk ended up on that planet and was unable to turn into his human version? Aren't they supposed to help him as they are his friends. Oh well, on a more personal note, I still find it difficult to accept Loki as a helper in here which he was for the most part given how many times he has been a primary antagonist in these new Marvel superhero films. I think that is all I want to say for now about this film, it has its weak moments and its great moments, but most of the time the quality is somewhere in-between. I don't think I have to give you a recommendation here as I am sure you have seen enough other Marvel/Thor stuff to make up your mind for yourself. I personally give it a thumbs-up though, even if I would say it is slightly inferior to the very first Thor movie.