Joyous escapism

Rating: 10/10 (25 October 2017)

In this Taika Waititi (Boy, What we do in the Shadows) directed film, written by Eric Pearson (Marvel One Shot: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Thor's Hammer, Marvel One Shot: The Consultant), Craig Kyle (Ultimate Avengers, Hulk Vs.), Christopher Yost (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Star Wars: Rebels), based on comics by Stan Lee (Iron Man, Thor), Larry Lieber (Iron Man, Thor) and Jack Kirby (Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Avengers: Age of Ultron) and starring Chris Hemsworth (Rush, Ghostbusters) as Thor.
After taking the crown from Surtur (Clancy Brown: The Shawshank Redemption, TVs Daredevil), he returns it to his homeland where Thor finds that his devious brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston: Thor, TVs The Night Manager) has taken over Asgard and hidden Odin (Anthony Hopkins: Silence of the Lambs, Thor) on Earth, but upon his death, Hela (Cate Blanchett: The Lord of the Rings, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) God of Death and their powerful sister, comes to take the throne for herself. Thrown across the Universe, Thor is first captured by Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson: Selma, TVs Westworld), sold to Grandmaster (Jeff Goldblum: Jurassic Park, Independence Day) and held captive on the planet Sakaar where he and other warriors, including Korg (an inspired turn by director Taiki Waititi), are forced to fight for his entertainment. Ultimately Thor is pitted against The Incredible Hulk (Mark Ruffalo: Avengers Assemble, Now You See Me), but without his hammer, can Thor not only win his gladiatorial duel against his former Avenger friend but also convince and assemble a team (Hulk, Valkyrie and his untrustworthy brother) to stop Hela and prevent Ragnarok, the doom of the Asgarian civilisation? This action, adventure, comedy film hit all the right notes for me. The humour was spot on, right up my street (think Deadpool), and this and the action never felt forced. All the actors were on their A game and for me, a huge Loki fan, I have to admit that in his own small way, Korg stole the movie like Loki did in Thor. Not even the turn from Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch: The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, TVs Sherlock) could beat it.
I was pleased that Hela, the main villain, got her character arc as this has been lacking in some previous Marvel films and has for me left the baddies flat, and this time the epic fight scenes bookend the serious moments well. As perturbing as it was for a fan of the mythology for Hela and Fenrir to be used not as Loki's children, it worked for the film and Goldblum's wackiness gelled as well as Samuel L Jackson's bad guy Valentine in Kingsman. Yes it is awful when they summarily kill off some favourite characters, in some cases notably without even giving them a line, and concentrate more on Skurge (Karl Urban: Star Trek, The Bourne Supremacy) but here too they give him a meaningful character arc, he wants to be worthy and he gets his chance. Heimdall (Idris Elba: Prometheus, Pacific Rim) is busy trying to hide and save as many innocent Asgardians as he can while Hela searches for the sword that will help her start the apocalypse for other worlds. And though Banner worries that allowing himself to turn back into the Hulk may leave him that way forever, he too gets his emotional scenes when we see the cameo of Black Widow (Scarlet Johansson: We Bought a Zoo, Lucy) and his chance to shine against the terrifying Fenrir.
The soundtrack is epic in its own right, up there with GOTG1, and the film does not feel like more of the same (as some of the superhero movies have sadly started feeling), it feels back to its best. If this is to be the last Thor movie, then they gave him a great one to bow out.
Yes the movie had a few flaws (e.g. Thor has never wanted the power of ruling, Banner may stay as the Hulk), but as the best way to describe the film is pure fun, I am going to give it 10/10 despite these because that is just what most people need at the moment, joyous escapism.