Thor: Love and Thunder (Waititi) 2022

Thor is back and I wish I could say better than ever, but unfortunately Love and Thunder leaves a bit to be desired.

Much was made of the return of Natalie Portman to the Thor franchise, and it was great to see her back on screen, and even better to see her don the Thor armor and wield Thor’s legendary hammer Mjolnir. But the truth of this film is that it feels like an awkward follow-up to what was an excellent previous installment in Thor: Ragnarok.

The film picks up with Thor as he tries to figure out what to do with his life after Avengers: Endgame where he left with the remaining Guardians of the Galaxy and while they figured prominently in the trailers promoting the film, I’ll disappoint any Guardians fans by letting you know they disappear about 15 minutes into the film. Don’t worry, they will be back with their holiday special on Disney+ and another theatrical film in the works, but Chris Pratt has been busy with Amazon lately, so the Guardians scenes in this film are pretty limited.

​The other high point of the film is Christian Bale’s Gorr the God Butcher. The film actually opens with his backstory and I wish we’d gotten more about his character. We quickly understand his motivations from the opening scenes of the film, but there was so much more they could have done with the character. His lines are sparse and Bale delivers them with his typical dedication to the material, but I couldn’t help hearing Bruce Wayne/Batman in some of his scenes.

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The last elephant in the room has to be the Thor/Jane Foster relationship. In some ways, it’s perfectly awkward that they are working together after spending years apart. The film drops in a short flashback sequence that shows how they grew apart as each was more dedicated to their work, saving the world with science and saving the universe with a hammer. I love both Portman and Hemsworth as actors and think they are both better than some of the material they were given here, but it feels like the awkward relationship factor was turned up to 11 and quite overdone.

Thor: Love and Thunder is still a fun film. There are plenty of new characters introduced and we may look back in five years’ time with a different lens after seeing what else has transpired in the MCU, but for now this film didn’t quite reach its full potential.

6 out of 10