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| And look pretty he did. |
For Thor: Ragnarok,
Marvel made a promise. They guaranteed that Ragnarok
would do for Thor what The Winter
Soldier did for Captain America. While many believed this statement to mean
that Ragnarok would shake the foundations upon which the very MCU was formed, I always took it to mean that
Marvel would be able to take a less popular character and give them a movie
that people would be able to single out as the paragon of the franchise. I’ve
gotta say, it really is great to be this correct all of the time. News slowly
started trickling out that Marvel was recruiting oddball independent director
Taika Waititi to helm the blockbuster, the tone of the film was going to be
a cross between Planes, Trains, and
Automobiles and Big Trouble in Little
China, and the movie was finally going to tackle the Planet Hulk storyline that fans had been foaming at the mouth to
see on the big screen for years. When the trailer finally dropped, we all knew
that we were in for an entirely different kind of Thor film.
Still gives me chills.
By obliterating preconceived notions of what a Thor movie
should be, Thor: Ragnarok easily
takes its place as the best Thor film to date and stands as one of my
favorite films in the MCU.
What Works
The End of All Things
In approaching Thor:
Ragnarok, Waititi, Hemsworth, and the folks at Marvel wanted to wipe the
slate clean and do something new with the character. The team decided to
subvert the audience’s expectations of what a Thor movie should be by
destroying everything that previous movies had built up. And when I say everything,
I mean EVERYTHING. Act I saw the passing of Odin, the unceremonious deaths of
The Warriors Three, and the annihilation of everyone’s favorite hammer,
Mjolnir. In Act II, Thor loses his hair and Hela flippantly reveals the true
history of the ‘benevolent’ Asgard. By the end of the film, the Rainbow Bridge
is dismantled again, Thor’s missing an eye and ASGARD IS ANNIHILATED by the
most Metal looking world-ender we’ve seen thus far.
 |
| Ah-AH-aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa-AH! |
However, the dismantling doesn't stop at the objects in the world as ideas themselves are also brought to a close. The back-and-forth between Thor and Loki finally comes to a satisfying resolve as Thor calls his brother out on his stagnation and refusal to change, and essentially tells Loki that he’s at peace with the way things are but that he could be ‘so much more.’ Apparently, ‘more’ to Loki means showing up to save the citizens of Asgard in the most grandiose way possible. It leads to the brothers fighting side-by-side and a scene on the ship in which Loki and Thor non-verbally express that they are here for each other (awwwww). It’s going to make it that much sweeter when Thanos pulls out Loki’s still beating heart and shows it to Thor before he dies.
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| Though it will probably be a less painful moment than this. Incidentally, this is what a caffeine headache feels like. |
Lastly, we come to the God of Thunder himself. In Thor, our titular hero wants the throne but ultimately realizes that he is not mature enough to rule over the nine realms. Thor: The Dark World sees the Asgardian Avenger straight-up refuse his birthright to his father (who turns out to be Loki, but he doesn’t know that at the time). Thor’s basically been spending these movies, and even the Avengers films, running from his responsibilities as king, choosing instead to remain on the ground and fight with the commoners. Ragnarok forces Thor to run towards his problems, and not away from them, because that’s what heroes do. If this were the Thor we first met seven years ago, I could easily see him turning into Valkyrie on Sakaar; a drunk-yet-sexy junker aspiring to absolutely nothing and hiding in the butthole of the galaxy. Instead, Thor finally comes to the realization that one cannot escape destiny; all one can do is make the most of it. Thor fulfills the prophecy and causes Ragnarok, sure, but he saves his people and ends the movie taking his place as the rightful king of Asgard. I would like to see where his story goes next, how he plans to rebuild his home and find refuge for his people. But in the end, Thor's arc is over and it’s been fun to see him grow. If his head ends up getting crushed like a grape, at least we got some satisfying closure to the story of The Mighty Thor.
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| Revengers Assemble! |
Thor Supports
Part of the great thing about unceremoniously killing off
The Warriors Three (besides them being dead) is that it opened up a whole new
world of characters to explore. I would watch a stand-alone film starring
literally any one of the characters introduced in this movie. You tell me that
Marvel is pulling a Beyonce and is dropping a Valkyrie movie with absolutely no
warning tomorrow? Sorry work, I can’t come in because I have something more
important to do with my time. Netflix is producing a TV series featuring Jeff
Goldblum’s Grandmaster? Sorry work, you can’t expect me to wait until the
weekend to binge this one. There’s going to be a slew Burger King commercials
starring Korg and Miek over the next several years? Sorry work, I need to make
sure that I am always and forever home in order to watch these commercials air
live on TV… I’m starting to suspect that I am experiencing some dissatisfaction
with my job…
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| "Hello there! I'm Korg, this is Miek, And we're here to tell you about a new meat-based food sandwich!" |
Marvel is sitting on a veritable goldmine of obscure characters, and while you may not want to risk your jobs in the same way that I am wont to do, who of you out there wouldn’t be excited to see Tessa Thompson lead her own Marvel movie as Valkyrie? I’m just saying that if Hemsworth is done wielding the hammer, it would be very simple and outstanding to pass the mantle to a woman of color that most people fell in love with almost immediately.
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| ...For some reason... |
The repercussions reach far beyond the realm of this movie. We’re already getting to see Kraglin as Youndu, hopefully Luis becomes Ant-Man one day, and I pray to any god that will listen that I will get to see Ned dawn some sort of costume before I die (please be Kraven, please be Kraven). As we get ever closer to the end of the current iteration of the MCU and shift our gaze to the distant horizon of Phase 4, I’m comforted in knowing the Marvel has taken the time to craft and explore these supporting characters in ways that make them feel whole. I can’t wait to see what surprises await once the dust settles.
No Banner, Only Hulk!
Marvel finally cracked the Hulk code. The hardest tightrope
to walk with a Hulk-centric movie is that the audience is waiting for Banner to
do the one thing that he is actively trying to avoid. Ragnarok circumvents this by giving us a fully-formed, slightly
more intelligent Hulk from the jump. Hulk isn’t just a destruction set-piece
waiting to happen; thanks to Ruffalo’s performance, Hulk is a fleshed out
character with feelings and emotions other than
anger. It makes me so sad when Thor tells Hulk that Earth hates him and he
storms away like a toddler. It’s the closest Hulk has come to being human.
Then, we get the exact opposite of what we’re used to and see Hulk
physically fight himself from turning into Banner, which has to be one of the
most emotionally painful transformations I’ve witnessed on screen.
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| That's real fear. Like 'walking in on your parents having sex' fear. |
Thus, Banner is brought back to us and is slowly catching up to the fact that he’s been a murdering Hulk for two years. Ruffalo’s neurotic take on Banner as he tries not to have a panic attack and keep Hulk at bay makes for some great moments between the scientist and the God, and Ruffalo himself is able to shine doing what he does best: bringing sincerity to the character. It’s made apparent that Banner may not come back if he turns into the Hulk again, and argues with Thor about not wanting to intervene in his ‘family thing.’ Yet, Banner seems to sacrifice that side of himself in order to help save the Asgardians on the bridge. That’s huge to me. In the past, there has always been an unspoken guarantee that Hulk will revert to Banner eventually. This time, Banner has no idea if he’ll ever come back, but elects to do what is right anyway, because it is right (sensing a theme here?). The rumor is that Ragnarok is Part I of Banner’s three-movie arc, and I cannot wait to see where the Russo’s take him next.
Kirby’s Dreamland
In describing the visuals of this Ragnarok, I feel as though the guys over at Honest Trailers said it
the best: “Thor’s a cosmic Viking created by nerds on acid in the 60s. It
SHOULD look crazy.”
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| I mean come on! Jetpack Dragon! |
A lot of comic book movies from several different studios (this one included) seem like they’re afraid to lean too heavily into the actual source material for fear of alienating the common movie goer. The problem with this fear is that everything ends up looking the same. I’ve described before how fucking ugly Captain America: Civil War is and if anything is going to kill comic book movies, it’s going to be this ‘lowest common denominator’ filmmaking that the studios seem content with exploiting.
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| Might as well be watching it through a coffee filter. |
Then suddenly, a hero emerges! Thor took a look around at the competition, handed his stein to the nearest bar wench, proclaimed ‘Hold my mead!’ and went streaking across the battlefield in the zaniest way possible.
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| I'm picturing cartwheels. |
Sakaar looks like it was taken directly from the pages of a Jack Kirby illustrated book, from the characters to the set design to the alien graffiti on the walls, and feels like a fantastical, real planet as a result.
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| Power Ranger villains or Sakaarian Guards. You decide! |
I know that there has been some comparison between this and Guardians of the Galaxy, but I don’t think that this comparison is a bad thing. I go to the movies to be transported to different worlds, universes, realms, whatever you want to call them. Ragnarok is a movie that is not ashamed of where it came from, and in the face of gritty realism, has chosen to live its life out loud. I hope that future films from any studio can arrive to theaters with the same in-your-face confidence that Ragnarok came to us with.
What Doesn’t
The Action
If you take out Led Zeppelin’s Immigrant Song, there is nothing special about the way the action
is presented in this film. Look, the action in Ragnarok is generally fine, I’m just bummed out that we’ve seen it
all before. We’ve seen Hulk fight Thor. We’ve seen Thor fight a horned sibling
with a staff. We’ve seen superheroes take down vehicles with their bare hands.
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| SSSSSOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNN |
Like I said in my Spider-Man: Homecoming retrospective, it’s difficult to find new ways to present action when the physicality of the hero is so specific. I’m not saying that the action wasn’t fun to watch, but I was disappointed that they couldn’t deliver an interesting, new piece of meat for us to chew on. Based on the movies directly before and after Ragnarok it seems like Marvel has fallen into a bit of an action rut, and after 18 movies it’s kinda hard to blame them. However, Marvel needs to refocus developing their set pieces into moments that are emotionally relevant and visually interesting, otherwise why even bother with action at all? Then again, there seems to be an awful lot of of our heroes screaming in that Infinity War trailer and the Russo’s are notorious in the MCU for the brutality of their fights, so what do I know from emotionally relevant?
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| Just... FOR WHAT POSSIBLE REASON?! |
The CGI
Let me start by saying that not all of the CGI is bad. Shit,
that Hulk I posted above looks like a living, breathing creature. More than
that, the jiggle-physics on Hulk’s bare ass are extraordinary, and it really
illustrates how far we’ve come as a society that the naughty-bits of a CGI
creature are paramount to the general enjoyment of a movie. Having said that, I
thought most special-effects teams had reached a point in movies where
backgrounds were generally figured out, yet some of the scenes in Ragnarok look like the characters were
photo-shopped into a Windows screensaver. This is the most apparent during the
scene in Norway. Initially meant to take place in an ally in New York (based on
the director’s commentary, behind-the-scenes footage, and the trailer posted
above), the emotional resonance of the scene is undercut by the lack of polish
on the special effects. It’s hard to take Odin seriously when he points and
says “look at that” when we as the audience know that they’re on a backlot in
Atlanta.
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| In a world of magic hammers and sexy Cate Blanchetts, The scenery is what's most unrealistic. |
Then there’s Asgard: a city that looked more believable seven years ago. It’s painful to see some of the sharp contrasts between practical sets and computer generated backgrounds, and succeeds in completely pulling me out of the moment. Why does it seem like CGI is not as convincing as it was in the past? Am I just getting old? I feel like I’m having Revenge of the Sith flashbacks.
 |
| FOR WHAT POSSIBLE REASON?! |
I understand that this is a made-up world with made up characters within a made-up universe, and normally I let things like this slide, but when CGI is this shoddy I feel insulted. I mean, I’ve seen the movie twice in theaters and bought the Blu-Ray, guys. You can afford to spend a couple extra bucks on rendering.
Final Thoughts
I’ve noticed that some people complain that this movie isn’t
heavier, and that the very idea of Ragnarok, literally the death of the gods,
should have been handled with more weight and less jokes about The Devil’s
Anus. To those people, I say I don’t disagree. I know that this is a dramatic
departure from the round-about insults I tend to hurl your way in moments such
as these, but I genuinely think you have a leg to stand on this time. To me, the
enjoyment one will have watching this movie depends on the type of experience one
is looking for. If you wanted a Shakespearian meditation on the fall of Asgard
similar to the tone of the original Thor
or even something a bit darker like The
Winter Soldier, I can understand how you were disappointed. That’s not what
I was looking for. When I went to see Thor:
Ragnarok, I wanted a movie in which I could see Hemsworth finally utilize
his comedic timing and charisma to its full potential. I wanted to see an
irreverent Marvel movie with jokes that hit 99% of the time. I wanted to see
Hulk body-slam a zombie wolf on the Rainbow Bridge (admittedly, I did not know
that I wanted this when I walked into the theater). But really, I wanted to
finally have a reason to like and care about a character that was introduced to
me on the big screen nearly a decade ago. Sure it’ll make Thor's inevitable death
in Infinity War (calling it!) that
much harder to swallow, but it’s worth it. Thor:
Ragnarok delivered everything that I’ve wanted from a Thor movie since
2011, and if this is the last solo Thor film we get starring Hemsworth, at
least I can be grateful in the fact that they hammered (GET IT?!?) this movie
out of the park.
So where does Thor:
Ragnarok rank on my list of Marvel Films?
1. Captain America: The Winter Soldier
2. The Avengers
3. Thor:
Ragnarok
4. Captain America: Civil
War
5. Iron Man 3
6. Iron Man
7.
Spider-Man: Homecoming
8. Guardians of the Galaxy
9. Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 2
10. Captain America: The First Avenger
11. Avengers: Age of Ultron
12. Thor
13. Thor: The Dark World
14. Doctor Strange
15. Ant-Man
16. Iron Man 2
17. The Incredible Hulk
END
Only one movie left, folks, and it’s the big one! Tune in next
week for a look at Black Panther! I’ll do my best not to botch it. In
the meantime, if you like what I’m writing, please like, comment, and share
these lil’ guys. They love to be read! I’m on the tweeties @TheJamesBrock and
on Instagram… also thejamesbrock. Still no idea of how these things work and it
makes me sad to think that I’ll have to figure these out one day.
Ladies and gentlemen, every once in a while, you have the
pleasure of meeting someone truly spectacular; spectacular because their heart,
mind, body, and soul are so in-sync that they are only capable of doing good in
this world. My friend Kono is one such person. He is trying to participate in
the AIDS Lifecycle: a 545 mile bike ride over seven days from Northern to
Southern California in order to raise money and awareness for the fight against
AIDS and HIV. Sadly, my friend is still about $1500 away from his goal. This is
where you come in. Should you have the money and the inclination, please click
here to read his bio and donate. If you can’t donate, please share his
page and pass the message along.
Until next time...
Be kind to each other.
-James
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