Monday, October 30, 2017

Thor: Ragnarok (2017) - Spoiler Review

Picture from: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3501632/mediaviewer/rm1413491712

Date Watched: October 27, 2017

Synopsis: Thor is haunted by dreams of Asgard in ruins. In his search for answers and a way to stop this from happening, he unearths far more than what he expected: about himself, his family, and their dynasty.

Overall Review: This was thoroughly entertaining! Chris Hemsworth can definitely carve out a niche for himself playing variations of the 'hilariously dumb jock/hunk.' For cross-reference, see Thor (2011) and Ghostbusters (2016).

Things I liked in no particular order:

1. Cate Blanchett as Hela. I love Cate. Don't you love Cate? I loved her facial expressions, the way she walked, the way she squinted and enlarged her eyes to emphasize a particular point. Cate never phones it in. She was deliciously evil as Hela. No remorse.

And no delving into her psyche and motivations either. I don't think there was any need to. Why do people always think that there needs to be a reason for why bad guys are bad? Hela wanted to expand Asgardian domination through war even though Odin had come to his senses and seen the error of their ways. She viewed expansionist conquest as a glorious pursuit regardless of the suffering it caused because it consolidated the power and grandeur of Asgard. What's more to know beyond that? Do we really need an in-depth study of megalomania and psychosis? Wouldn't that just be disturbing? Guys, sometimes there is no reason for greed. Greed is the reason. People can get used to what they have and just want... more.

2.  Jeff Goldblum as The Grandmaster. Jeff's overacting finally works to great effect in this role. He totally worked as a ruthless, maybe a little sadistic, gamemaster coated with a veneer of false gentility.

3. Super slow motion tableau. I usually hate this Zack Snyder-inspired effect where action shots are slowed/frozen so the viewer can better appreciate the actors' action poses. But this time around I thought it was very appropriate. It was mostly used for flashback scenes, which have attained mythic status, so it seemed fitting that they would be recalled like paintings in a museum. It was pretty. Therefore I can only accept this slow motion nonsense if it involves winged horses. Or graceful Cates.

4. Humor. There were a lot of jokes in this movie. Mostly involving Thor himself. Chris is quite good at dumb-dumb jock / physical comedies. Talking Hulk was funny too.

5. Thor is not a Dweller. I'm glad that we have a few heroes that are not dwellers and stewers in their own misery. They are sad; and then they pick themselves up and go fix things. So Thor finds out his father lied about their family history. He doesn't spend an enormous amount of time being angry/resentful about this. Mostly he is quietly sad. But he still loves his father. I think that's kind of rare in Western fiction. That children forgive and accept that their parents can be flawed too. And still love them inspite of it. But learn the right lessons from their mistakes.

6. Thor and Loki's sibling relationship. We get to see a little more of their love-hate relationship in this movie in a way that reveals both what binds them together and what drives them apart. The 'Get Help' routine is definitely one of those things that I can imagine made Loki hate his big brother when they were younger -- the perception that he was always making himself look good but at his younger brother's expense. And yet when Thor tells him, "I know you can be better," you can see also why Loki will never really be able to make himself totally hate Thor. Even more than Odin, and more vocally than Freya, Thor is the one family member who keeps believing that there is a hero inside Loki. And in that unguarded moment, when Thor gets his second wind fighting Hela, didn't Loki have an "oh, you're getting it now" expression, anticipation, that his big brother was about to seriously kick ass? And so reveals that, inspite of himself, Loki has that same faith in his brother too.

7. Simple, straightforward storyline. I'm an old mammal and have old mammal problems - poorer digestion, trouble sleeping, longer recovery after exhaustion, and...  less ability to follow overly complicated storylines. These days moviemakers seem convinced that the more subplots and story forks a movie has, the better it is. Despite the detour this movie makes to a gladiator planet, I didn't feel the movie to be schizophrenic or confusing. Maybe it goes back to point #1? Since I don't feel like the villain needs further explaining, I was quite fine just following Thor's and Loki's story. And I feel like that was a good story decision, to just focus the story on a few key characters.

And here the list abruptly ends.

Rating: (G) G for Good. You will definitely have a good time with this one!

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