Amph Thor: Love and Thunder

While I do agree that Thor: The Dark World certainly isn't at the level of the first Thor flick, there's a bunch of gold throughout the movie. That final sequence is pretty great and it has Thor losing his hammer and then having to take the freakin' subway! It's more unfocused but it's got pizzazz.

 

I will say I get much more worked up all emotional like in the closing 20ish minutes of the original Thor than I do with anything in The Dark World. Basically everything from the Destroyer attack onward is just really hitting some dramatic heartfelt payoffs. Dark World doesn't really hit me that hard in the gut, aside from maybe Loki's soundless reaction to when he finds out his mom is dead. But Freya's death always kind of felt to me like "Eh, we don't know what to do with Rene Russo in these movies so let's bump her off". Compare that to when Thor starts thrashing the Rainbow Bridge at the end and, oh gods, he's never going to see Jane Foster ever, EVER again, that really I think is a fantastic moment.

Which, y'know, they kind of glossed over in Avengers and Dark World as to HOW they got the trans-dimensional stuff working again, there's the line about "dark magic" in Avengers and by Dark World everything is working fine again.

 

The action in TDW was definitely much improved, I'll say that much.

 

I don't even understand the point of the first Thor movie. Yes, he was sent to Earth to "learn a lesson" but I don't see how he really did. He just sort of jacked around for a couple of days and then magically everything was forgiven. They didn't seem to have much in the way of plot or character arcs.

 

Specifically he was meant to learn humility and selflessness. Because as Odin said "you are an arrogant, greedy, cruel boy." So he goes down to Earth without his powers, befriends Jane and co, gets beaten up a lot, fails to lift the hammer (which, along with Loki lying to him about Odin and his banishment, basically causes him to accept being human for the rest of his days). Then he's willing to confront The Destroyer, despite having no powers and no chance of winning, and offer up his own life in exchange for Loki sparing his friends and the people of that town.

And that is ultimately made him worthy of wielding the hammer again, selflessness and self-sacrifice for the good of others. Now I do think that it should have been more gradual (IE not taking place over what was essentially a long weekend), but the arc was there and it was clear.

Loki also has an arc, and the final conflict between the two is actually really emotional.

With TDW however, Thor doesn't really get an arc. In fact nobody really does except for Loki. And the plot is paper-thin and basically just there as a way to string together a bunch of action scenes. The villain is beyond boring and generic (and how dare they make Chris Eccleston boring), a lot of the humor fell flat for me, Jane and co were annoying, the Asgardian cast is again underused and underdeveloped, etc. It was just a big disappointment, especially after they said some pretty cool things about it in the marketing that made me excited.

 

The problem is that it was so freaking obvious that she was being set up as the sacrificial lamb. "Hmm, they're giving Freya more screentime, so that we'll maybe care if she dies. Oh she gets a scene with Loki, and Jane, and she's a big enough character that they could sell her death as impacting the other characters yet her being gone wouldn't affect the main plot much in the grand scheme of things. Yep, she's so totally dead." They couldn't have telegraphed that anymore if they tried.

I also think that they didn't handle the aftermath particularly well. I also disagree that the character interactions are stronger/more complex. I found the ones in the first film to be much more so myself. Even the Thor/Jane dynamic was better in the first movie. And Sif/The Warriors Three get even LESS to do in the sequel, which was inexcusable imo.

 

Agree. TDW could have been better for sure, but I still enjoyed it immensely.

 

Why is Sam Neill also in this movie?

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/thor-ragnarok-who-is-sam-932640

Goldblum cackle gif time.

 

No Surtur?

 

Hot Diggity, I Like that a lot.

 

That Team Thor documentary grew on me and this will be a fun reason to eventually purchase Doctor Strange on blu (not for $39.99 Amazon - cripes Disney reign that price in).

 

That's rather disappointing. I was hoping that Neill would be the new Dr. Octopus now that Spidey is in the MCU.
I've heard he was originally in the running for Spider-Man 2 before Alfred Molina was cast. And while Molina really did well as the sympathetic "one bad day" Doc Ock, Neill could have really laid on the pure evil Sinister Six Ock.

 

I really wish they'd just stick to the non super new comics for a ragnarok plot :/ Otherwise just call it something else.

 

First Look At Thor, Hela, And Valkyrie In THOR: RAGNAROK Revealed On Entertainment Weekly Cover

 

Thor without Mjolnir? That just seems wrong.

The swords are not worthy.

 

Thor without long hair? That just seems wrong.

The hair gel is not worthy.

 

That's almost certainly a temporary measure...

Spoiler

When fighting with/against Hulk on World War Hulk planet in an arena...

 

What if the hair gel is on an elevator? Is the elevator worthy?

 

it will not go past the first floor.

 

I can't wait for this - it's been my most anticipated Marvel film outside of Infinity War since I left the theater I saw TDW in. Costumes look great!