"Thor: Love and Thunder" review — silly superhero adventure is underwhelming and disappointing

“This is my vow: all gods will die.”

Thor’s been through a lot recently. In the last eleven or so years, the near-immortal god of thunder has lost and regained his powers multiple times, watched his brother die three times, lost his mother and his father, had his home planet destroyed, had his heartbroken by ex-girlfriend Dr. Jane Foster, accidentally caused the deaths of half the universe, and journeyed through time to save the universe from Thanos the Mad Titan. He’s reached his highest possible victories and experienced his most awful tragedies. Now, for the first time in a very long time, Thor finds himself without much to do. Without his home, family, or friends, does Thor have a place in the universe anymore?

That’s the question that Thor: Love and Thunder asks itself in its opening minutes. Love and Thunder, the fourth but assuredly not final solo outing for Thor in the MCU, picks up after the events of Avengers: Endgame (2019). Thor (Chris Hemsworth) is back in shape and is having a great time roving the cosmos with the Guardians of the Galaxy. Deep down, he can’t escape his sense of purposelessness. Perhaps we can draw parallels between Thor and the current state of the MCU here. But then, on a side mission to a war-torn planet with the Guardians, Thor hears tell of a madman tearing through space killing every god he can find. He’s found his next mission. Thor returns to New Asgard, the tiny Nordic that the last Asgardians have set up shop in after the catastrophic events of Thor: Ragnarok (2017), where he encounters a pack of roving shadow monsters and a woman wielding his old hammer Mjölnir.

Love and Thunder is primarily adapted from two separate stories from writer Jason Aaron’s acclaimed seven-year run on the Thor comic books — the “Saga of Gorr the God Butcher” and the “Saga of the Mighty Thor” — which puts Natalie Portman’s Dr. Jane Foster and Christian Bale’s Gorr front-and-centre. The film opens with a rather harrowing image: Gorr holding his dying daughter in his arms somewhere in an inhospitable wasteland. Moments after he buries his daughter, Gorr finds the home of his god and, to his dismay, finds a man uncaring of Gorr’s plight. In a moment of rage, Gorr takes hold of the magical necrosword and slays his god. Meanwhile, Jane Foster, returning to the MCU for the first time since Thor: The Dark World (2013) isn’t doing much better either. In her first moment on screen, she’s diagnosed with stage 4 cancer but struggles to accept the implications this has for her. She travels to New Asgard where she finds the shards of Mjölnir and takes on a new role as the Mighty Thor.

Christian Bale as Gorr. Photo: Marvel Studios.

Accompanied by King Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson) and Korg (writer/director Taika Waititi), both reprising their roles from Ragnarok, Thor and Jane set out on a quest to defeat Gorr, who has now declared his intentions to kill every god. New Zealander Taika Waititi is back at the helm of this adventure. After the much beloved Ragnarok proved to be the shot-in-the-arm the Thor series needed to give itself a new lease on life, Waititi doubles down on the goofiness and comedic sensibilities of that film to mixed results here. Unfortunately, Love and Thunder, for all its creative potential, never feels like anything more than a first draft. There are a few too many gaps in the story’s logic and the film struggles to take itself seriously enough to find any sort of genuine emotion. 

The film’s leading performances are a real mixed bag. Hemsworth is so relentlessly dedicated to his newfound himbo iteration of Thor which shows off his strong comedic sensibilities and his love for the part. All the while, I can’t help but sense a “Flanderization” of the character starting to occur. While I don’t miss the dull leading man of the first two Thor films, I do wish that the character acted a little more mature than how he’s portrayed here. Portman runs into this problem a few times as well where Jane behaves more like an overeager eight-year-old desperate to show off than an accomplished astrophysicist. Bale, on the other hand, is terrifying as Gorr and easily places himself as one of the MCU’s better main antagonists. The second act confrontation between Gorr and Thor is a dazzling set piece and Bale shines through it. Russell Crowe has a small but mighty role as the Greek god Zeus. Waititi and Thompson are really stellar while Jamie Alexander’s Sif goes tragically underutilized.

Although Waititi’s filmography has proved him a master of mixing comedy with heartfelt drama — Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016), Boy (2010), and Jojo Rabbit serve as prime examples — Love and Thunder struggles to find this balance. It overemphasizes the comedy of Ragnarok making its characters feel foolish all the while contrasting that with a fight against a frightening, unstoppable mass murder. And it just doesn’t work. The second half definitely finds itself a little more, the ending is particularly stellar, but so many moments of genuine pathos are foolishly undercut with jokes. If the film doesn’t take its stakes seriously, why should its audience? The film doesn’t seem to understand the difference between humour and jokes and it suffers for it. 

Chris Hemsworth as Thor. Photo: Marvel Studios.

There’s also a lot to love about the film. Bale is, as mentioned, incredible. Hemsworth and Portman have character moments that work quite well. For the most part, the movie looks pretty great. There are some stellar digital and practical effects and design work, the sequence set in Omnipotence City is a real highlight here, and some great act-ending battle scenes. The finale, which I will not give away, is pretty spectacular. The film digs into one of the comics’ oldest and weirdest cosmic ideas which totally took me by surprise and works as a really weird addition to the ever weirder world of the cosmic MCU. Toothgnasher and Toothgrinder, Thor’s new pet goats, are so much fun.

In the end, Love and Thunder feels emblematic of the strange purgatory that is Phase 4. Without Thanos, the MCU struggles to find a consistent identity. The vast universe grows unending but it doesn’t seem to have a purpose. After three solo films and four Avengers appearances, it’s hard not to ask “Do we really need Thor 4: More Thor?” The film can’t really answer that question because it’s not even sure why it’s here. Love and Thunder is fun if ultimately weightless and too unambitious for its own good. The highs it reaches are spectacular, but the lows it crashes to are truly tragic. It’s disappointing to see a film with this much potential not live up to what it’s capable of. I’m left with a feeling of “It’s fine” and, to me, that seems like the worst possible fate.

Thor: Love and Thunder is now playing in theatres.

Thor: Love and Thunder information
Directed by Taika Waititi
Written by Taika Waititi and Jennifer Kaytin Robinson
Starring Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tessa Thompson, Taika Waititi, Jamie Alexander, with Russell Crowe, and Christian Bale
Released 8 July 2022
119 minutes