Thor: Love & Thunder

The last “new” good movie I saw was Dune.

Most contemporary movies have otherwise become utterly forgettable as disposable product that is generically targeted to a global audience.

TV has become, by and large, where the best stories are happening now.
 
Was hoping to see at least some gods get butchered, but all we got was the 1,000+ distress signals and the footage from the trailers. If we saw Gorr kick some god butt, he woulda seemed more threatening, but thats my only gripe!

Phase 4 seems very disconnected and more solo stories (besides WandaVision, Spider-Man and Multiverse of Madness) Which is i think why everyone notices that its the weakest phase so far. We've seen world building and teamups and got spoiled, I wish it felt like this phase was actually going somewhere, but it feels like filler until they find a Thanos level threat who needs a team to take them down. Cant wait to see where they have Hercules pop up again!
 
I worked on the F/A18 E/F program for over 20 years. I still got chills from seeing them fly in the movie.
I was not military but my father was civil service at North Island and former Navy back in WWII. About '83 or so at Miramar, Tomcat broke the sound barrier accidentally on the high speed pass right in front of us. I read years later he blamed "atmospherics". Busted windows in nearby houses the Navy had to pay for. I watched the hair blowing back in the crowd coming like a wave at me, so I knew it was coming, it passed in silence which of course is so bizarre, and then a rush of hot summer air and my ears popped. LOL Rare for civilians to experience anything like that.
Got to spend time on the base as my father was able to get us in in those days, so Fightertown USA of the era was well known to me at an early age. Many years later I got to fly the Hornet sims as I had another connection after it went to the Marines. Second try I was able to land on the carrier, first try I ate the fantail. LOL Oops. Crooze would take me out of any moment. He's totally acid to me, just his voice sets me off. LOL I enjoyed Dunkirk's aviation content. I was thrilled to see him managing fuel burn, boring but piloty to me. Even more than Crooze setting me off is the local bubble headed newscasters getting rides when the airshow is on. They couldn't tell you the difference of an aileron from an elevator. But they get to ride because it's good PR. Wish they would offer charity raffles or something.
There is a "secret" airshow with a very unique experience possible during the Blue's practice period in El Centro. You could hit them with a rock if you wanted they are that close... Ear protection highly recommended.


Anyways too heavily digressing from Thor. Apologies.
 
Saw it a couple days ago, I enjoyed it overall. It did take a bit of time for me to get into it. Tonally, it jumps around a lot - which can be either a positive or a negative depending on your point of view - and I think once I realized that, I was onboard.
I thought we'd see more of the GOTG, and also thought there'd be more Marvel characters introduced into the MCU. I don't know if that was really a disappointment, just not what I anticipated.
 
I just saw it. Here are some notes off the top of my head.

The movie didn't work as well as it should have worked. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't as enjoyable as it should have been.

The central fatal problem is that Jane Foster is underwritten and has, literally, no personality. The corollary to that is Thor and Jane still have no natural chemistry on screen.

It doesn't take much to set up even basic character. In the first Thor movie Sif projected her strength but also her tender friendship to Thor. Remember the way she looked at him in the very beginning when they were talking at the banquet? It was palpable love that wasn't possessive. And it was touching.

In Ragnarok Valkyrie's backstory informed her bravado but also breathed meaning into the pathos of her current life. The moment that really touched me was after Thor gave her her old armour and she took a moment to say, "your highness,... don't die. You know what I mean."

These are characters. Yet I have no idea who Jane Foster is apart from her education and illness. The writer tried to make a character moment out of Jane trying to think of catchphrases, but Natalie didn't project it in any relatable way. Heck, it was hard to get the sense whether or not Jane even enjoyed having these powers. All we know was that Mjolnir "called to her". If Jane was actually relatable in some human way, or if she had any genuine chemistry with Thor, her death would have had a lot bigger impact than it did. I honestly didn't feel anything when she died because I never knew who Jane Foster was.

They squandered Eternity. Eternity is such a powerfully abstract entity who should have been part of a more profound and strange story, but he/it is written as just a generic "powerful being" and a plot device. And what the heck is this insipid notion of Eternity somehow being bound to a mortal character? That's just stupid. Stupid.

The fights had nothing new. Basic choreo punctuated with power blasts. You never got any clear sense of who might be winning or losing. I have to develop my thoughts on the matter but the fighting was uninspiring.

Thor being a clown in Ragnarok worked because, despite that, in crisis he could buckle down and be the leader that people needed. In this movie Thor spent most of the time just being a buffoon.

The ending of Endgame promised some great back and forth between Thor and the Guardians (particularly Quill), but in Love & Thunder Thor was mostly just a self-absorbed a-hole before they parted ways. It wasn't thst funny. It mostly just made me angry with what he was doing thoughtlessly to everybody else in the movie.

The children were terrible. They were just uninteresting - all of them. And it wasn't inspiring at all that they got to wield Thor's power. It was just contrived how convenient that was to pull off. You mean all this time he could have created legions of Thors to fight Thanos in Endgame? Give me a break.

The whole notion of the villain stealing children was off-putting. In the midst of a film that leaned so much on jokes about Thor's oafish nature, it seemed particularly out of place.

A lot of gags were milked a little too long - e.g. screaming goats, Thor's relationship talks with his weapons, the Matt Damon character, etc.

The notion of the team going to kill Zeus just to steal his thunderbolt wasn't heroic at all - especially since they started off by killing guards.
 
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The more I think about it the worse this film gets. I'm not even sure if I liked anything about it anymore. L&T seemed more like just a pile of Hail Mary gags sutured together to make a movie.

The director tried to repeat his formula for Ragnarok but only comes across as a unoriginal and unsurprising. Everything about L&T is inferior to Ragnarok. The villain is not as good, and certainly not as well acted. Magnificent Hela was an impossible act to follow.

There were no surprises at all in this movie. None. We already knew Jane was going to inherit Mjolnir so the instant you see her in the hospital you know exactly what's going to happen. Even the celebrity cameos here got old real fast.

Korg's retelling of Thor's story only ridiculed his tragedies and was completely unnecessary. In fact, Korg was getting annoying.

Welcome to the Jungle? It is already overused and even has a movie named after it. I couldnt be more "meh" about a song for this movie it was so clichéd. How could you possibly follow up Immigrant Song with that? What were you thinking, Taika?
 
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You guys save me so much money, you and my ghost grandfather, ; ) I can wait till these things are on Prime or Disney and they don't cost extra. And I avoid all the seat kicking and other distractions. Thanks,

Joe
 
I'll be interested to see how I feel about this on a rewatch. The more I think about it, the more I compare it to Ragnarok, which I really liked not only the first time I saw it, but also on subsequent re-viewings. I actually wasn't looking forward to Ragnarok - the trailers seemed too cartoony and goofy, and looked like it was trying to be the Flash Gordon movie of the 80s (and also seemed to be influenced by Guardians of the Galaxy) - but I ended up really enjoying the esthetic, the characters and the story.

Love & Thunder seemed promising, but I think it switched tone a bit too much, going from serious to goofy and back. And not enough character development. My favorite part was the shadow realm, the cinematography and visual choices were the most interesting - it made me think of Ingmar Bergman's work (though I'm not really versed in his films enough to compare).
 
I know a lot of people I've talked to thought it was just too silly, but I'd heard that beforehand, so I tried to mentally prepare myself for it. When I got there however, I realized that the bookends were basically Korg retelling the story to the kids/audience, so with that in mind, I didn't mind the over-the-top nature at all.

It just fit with the way Korg would've told it.
 
I enjoyed the silliness, but I can understand if long time Thor/Marvel fans feel their cherished universe is being belittled. If he does this with Star Wars, there will be a problem.
 
I enjoyed the silliness, but I can understand if long time Thor/Marvel fans feel their cherished universe is being belittled. If he does this with Star Wars, there will be a problem.
I'm of the latter. I prefer the Thor from the first movie & Avengers. I'm aware a lot of folks like the parody approach of this and Ragnarok but it's not my cup of tea. It's just too silly and Thor is too buffoonish. If I could divorce this iteration of Thor from the phase 1 Thor, maybe I could enjoy it as a parody.

Thor 1 is one of my favorite Marvel films. I'm not sure why it's not more well-regarded. Thor 2 I understand (and even it isn't as bad as it's made out to be) but Thor 1 gave him a fitting character arc, Loki was formidable and not the comic relief that he eventually became as well, the family drama was compelling, Asgard felt like an ethereal place, the acting was superb, the costumes weren't so gawdy, and it still remains one of the better shot Marvel films. It's crazy to watch Thor 1 now, or any of phase 1 really, and feel as though it's the same continuity as the current phase.

As far as what he's going to do with Star Wars, expect parody. It'll be like the Mando season 1 ep he directed that could've been ripped from Space Balls where stormtroopers are shooting and missing a target that's within a few meters of them. Yeah, no meta humor for me in Star Wars, thanks.

If you hadn't guessed, I'm not a Taika fan lol. He should stick to indie films.
 
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I didn't have problems with his Mandalorian, except the R2 droid sprouting arms and legs and such. That was just silly. I don't know if that was his idea, though.
 
I just watched this finally on D+ last night. Oddly enough I think that's the grade I would give it, too.

I love the humor and definitely succeeded there, but at the same time also had this odd secondary thought going on where I was also thinking, "Geeze... this kinda sucks, too." Usually NOT funny and bad story go hand-in-hand, but at least in this case I was laughing for a lot of it.

As a Marvel film I don't think it was treated very well, and Thor has become far less serious over time than he used to be. I absolutely loved the humor of the original Thor and his awkwardness of getting used to Earth for several films, but even after Ragnarok (which I very much enjoyed) this one went pretty ballistic on the goofy, almost parodying itself.

I was EXTREMELY surprised how abrupt the moment Foster went from scientist to Thor with absolutely nothing transitioning between that point (later explained of course). The film as a whole was extremely disjointed and felt like I was watching snippets of things with very little character/plot development. It seemed like a waste of good characters overall as much as I enjoyed the humor. I'm not sure I could watch it again to be honest.
 

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