17 May 2018

A Brunch Movie Review: Thor: Ragnarok



Thor: Ragnarok is a very liberal adaptation of a lot of great Marvel source material, spanning two titles, The Incredible Hulk, and, of course, Thor, and probably decades worth of story. The film doesn’t exactly draw a lot of story elements from this source material so much as it grabs evocative images, and some loose ideas from them. It then knits these together, rather brilliantly, to continue the story of Thor, Loki, Odin, Hulk and the other Asgardians that began in 2011’s Thor.  If you are a comic book fan who read Walt Simonson’s epic and character defining run on Thor, you will be happy to see his designs still rule the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s interpretation of Asgard. And if you recognize Simonson’s hand, you also recognize the ghost of Jack Kirby. I think the Simonson dominates the art direction and story design of all the Thor films. Thor:Ragnarok is no different. If you read Planet Hulk, you may have thought from Hulk’s out fit and gladiatorial digs that a great deal from that story would be on the screen. It isn’t the case. There are some elements of the story here, and some characters (written in wholly different ways) but the long sweep of Planet Hulk and its sadness are not really in evidence here. Someone might say that Thor: Ragnarok is the cliffs notes version of stories featured in the comics. That someone would not be me. It is just different from that source material even as it draws a lot of inspiration from it. That is okay. The MCU isn’t its print antecedents. If I want the Simonson material, I can look no further than my comic book boxes.



Thor: Ragnarok is a delightful blaze of color, action and adventure. It has a large cast of characters but manages its ensemble well. Watching the trailers one might come away thinking that it was going to be a simple buddy picture that sent Thor, Hulk and Valkyrie on a grand cosmic adventure, and the other characters being minimally developed, and holding places as mere window dressing. Taika Waititi does something much different. His film is interested in the greater Asgardian drama and he gave us a film that evolved the family dynamics. He didn’t have to do this. Waititi could have been content with the well worn sibling rivalry between Thor and Loki, but he and his script writers decided that would not do. The family dynamics evolved. For me, the film’s treatment of Loki and Thor’s relationship is one of its many triumphs.



What is the film about? Ultimately it is about family, the occasional failures of family, and history, and homeland. It is packaged in a rather glorious action adventure film. Thor is tracking rumors of Surtur’s rising and growing power (this is bad news for anyone familiar with Ragnarok), and looking for his father. The MCU gives us a Thor that isn’t necessarily mentally one of quickest heroes in the galaxy, but nor is he stupid. Thor is dogged and that tenacity is largely how he solves a lot our galaxy’s mysteries. The search for Surtur leads to Loki, and ultimately his father, and from his brother and father to greater troubles still.That trouble comes first in the form of an angry heretofore unknown sister, which then leads to unexpected exile on the world of a sadistic if superficially charming being known as the Grandmaster. His world is, in the comics, called BattleWorld. For people like Thor that means gladiatorial arenas and fights to the death. For the rest it means being as subservient as possible to Grandmaster, as pleasing him seems to be the only way to move up in the world if you aren’t a successful gladiator.




This is a grand movie. It begins in the Asgardian realms, travels through many other place and ends in space, on an unknown but hopeful future.

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