Thor: Love and Thunder (2022) Movie Review

Writer and director Taika Waititi comes back to the Marvel universe to follow up Thor: Ragnarok with Thor: Love and Thunder. Waititi is admittedly one of the more fascinating directors in the last few years. He’s famously off the wall, often acts in the movies he makes, and provides an interesting brand of comedy to his movies. Thor: Ragnarok was a refreshing addition to the MCU providing a bit more comedy than usual and giving Hulk the opportunity to shine in a way we hadn’t seen before. Unfortunately, Waititi isn’t quite able to recapture that magic with Thor: Love and Thunder.

The villain in Love and Thunder is Gorr (Christian Bale) who vows to kill all Gods when his daughter dies. This brings Thor (Chris Hemsworth) out of retirement as he tries to prevent Gorr from his God murder spree. Dr. Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) makes her return to the MCU but she has stage IV cancer. The disease is held at bay when she assumes God-like powers from Thor’s hammer. The reunion of Jane and Thor was long awaited but takes on more of a joke vibe than a serious reconnection. In fact, the entire movie is tinged with bad jokes and a light-heartedness that sometimes seems out of place. Not to mention there are two goats that scream throughout the movie and instead of being funny it’s just annoying and unnecessary.

The actors do their best and Hemsworth and Portman give admirable performances. But it feels like Thor is more of a joke than a superhero and it’s hard to imagine being able to really take him seriously when he makes his next appearance in the MCU. The best part of Love and Thunder is Christian Bale who quickly became one of my favorite villains. He is genuinely scary and Bale outperforms everyone in the movie. We get to see more mythical lore when Thor visits Zeus (Russell Crowe), who is of course a sleazy leader and can’t be trusted. Those scenes were interesting and the world building on display in Omnipotence City was magnificent. However, it wasn’t enough to save a disappointing follow up to Thor: Ragnarok. 

You’ll like this movie if:
1. You like superheroes to be more silly than serious
2. You want to see Thor and Jane Foster reunited
3. You like Waititi’s comedy