Thor: Ragnarok (2017) – Movie Review

Alright superfans, it’s time to review another Marvel movie! This time around we’re covering Thor: Raganork, which marks the seventeenth film in the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) and the third Thor movie. For those that haven’t kept up, you have Thor (2011), Thor: The Dark World (2013) and Thor: Ragnarok (2017). Now, the MCU was created to introduce comic characters to non-comic book fans. They released individual movies (Captain America, Iron Man and Thor) to introduce moviegoers to the comic world of heroes. Eventually, the individual characters were brought together in a movie and formed a team called the Avengers. So far, the MCU movies have been pretty good to amazing, but there have been some not so great ones along the way. Personally, I’ve not been a big Thor fan when it came to the movies. It just felt like they were never able to get a good feel for the character in his individual films. However, I have to say, Thor: Ragnarok was, by far, the best of the three films.

Thor: Ragnarok was directed by Taika Waititi and written by Eric Pearson. The Thor character is based on the comics by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and Larry Lieber. Thor: Ragnarok is an action/adventure/comedy with a one hundred and thirty-minute runtime and is rated PG-13 for violence. Here’s what the story is about. Thor finds himself imprisoned on a planet and forced to fight for his life while trying to find a way back to Asgard. The upside to Thor being on this strange planet is he’s bumped into his friend and fellow Avenger the Hulk. The downside, while Thor is gone, his sister Hela has come back and wants to see Asgard and everyone in it destroyed…

The storyline was really good and this time around they added some more comedy, which did help improve the overall feel of the movie. When compared to the previous movies, Thor: Ragnarok was way better, but I have to admit even though I liked the added comedy it was also a bit of a downside to the film. Something else that we got this time was some needed character growth for Thor. The story takes him from the fun loving guy that’s always looking for a fight to the guy that has to step up carry the weight that sat on his father’s shoulders for so long. Since we’re are working our way to the end of the big build up that all of the Marvel phases have been working towards (Infinity Wars), we are seeing characters meet their fateful end as storylines are being wrapped up. Watching some of those characters go was sad, but eventually, the end comes for everyone, right? Instead of shedding tears over the loss of some great characters, I keep reminding myself… it’ll all be worth it when the star-filled Avengers: Infinity Wars (2018) movie comes out.

I liked the playthrough and with everything going on the movie had no problem keeping my attention. There were a few drag spots, but that was due to the added comedy side of the movie. It felt like some of the jokes or gag ran longer than they should have and at times scenes ended up going from funny to borderline annoying. I think the comedy could’ve been dialed back a notch and it still been just as funny of a movie. As always, the fight scenes looked amazing, especially the big boss battle at the end of the movie!

Some of the cast is Chris Hemsworth (Thor), Tom Hiddleston (The Night Manager), Tessa Thompson (Creed), Mark Ruffalo (The Avengers), Idris Elba (Pacific Rim), Jeff Goldblum (The Fly), Karl Urban (Doom), Anthony Hopkins (The Silence of the Lambs) and Cate Blanchett (Blue Jasmine). I think Goldblum is a cool actor and I always like seeing him pop up in movies, but I wasn’t really digging him as The Grandmaster. Part of that comes from knowing what the character is like from the comics and the other part of it comes from expectations. I expected someone that runs a slave-based fight club to be more… bad guy-ish. Instead, we got a character that comes off kind of nice, for the most part. Also, Goldblum didn’t really add anything to the character, it was just Goldblum being Goldblum. Now, Blanchett was a great choice for Hela and she does a kickass job as the villain. Even though she’s evil and wants to see Asgard fall, there are times during her arguments that you can’t help but feel bad for her and see why she is the way she is. I have to throw out there that the character Korg, played by director Taika Waititi, was seriously disappointing to me. Again, it comes from the comic book side of things for me because Korg has a solid backstory and is a good character. In Ragnarok, Korg comes off a bit dim-witted and is more of a comical aid. It’s something that won’t affect the movie for you in any way, but might strike a nerve with the comic fans, like me.

The special effects were really cool and the fight scenes looked amazing. One of my favorite parts was getting to see the Hulk in his gladiator armor throwing down against Thor. Yeah, it’s a quick scene, but so awesome. Something else that was eye-catching was the sets they came up with on both the slave planet and on Asgard.

Sidenote for the non-comic fans. There’s a comic book storyline called Planet Hulk (2006) that is about the Hulk and how he gets launched off of planet Earth because he’s too dangerous to have around. The Hulk winds up on an alien planet where slaves are forced to fight gladiator style. Great read by the way! Since the “powers that be” have decided that the Hulk is not worth another stand alone, which after the last two… I can’t really blame them. They decided to throw a solid nod to Planet Hulk in the storyline of Thor: Ragnarok by having Thor and Hulk crash land on a gladiator style planet. The gladiator part is the only thing to come over from the comic book storyline, but as a fan, it’s was pretty cool to see.

Overall, I’ve not been really impressed with the Thor movies, but this one was definitely worth the watch.