Here’s Everything The Critics Are Saying About ‘Thor: Ragnarok’
'Thor: Ragnarok' is officially a critical success.
It’s looking more and more like New Zealand will be the saviour of us all. Not only does it have Jacinda Ardern as PM (jellllllyyyyyyy), and Lorde as anointed pop princess, the shaky isles also happen to be the homeland of one Taika Waititi, the indie director who has steered Thor: Ragnarok into Major Critical Success territory.
Yes folks, the reviews are in and people are loving the new Thor film! Phew! No need to worry that Taika’s idiosyncratic, inventive directorial style would be swallowed up in the Marvel machine; it seems that T:R is exactly the wildcard, deadpan comedic treasure the waning MCU franchise needed.
People are nuts for Waititi’s deadpan antipodean wit, Chris Hemsworth’s surprising comedy chops and the general daggy campness of Thor‘s world — though slightly tempered by everyone’s increasing fatigue with all things Marvel. Not convinced? Read for yourself!
“Thor: Ragnarok may be the most fun you’ll ever have at a Marvel movie”
Rolling Stone‘s Peter Travers called Thor: Ragnarok “a springboard for nonstop action and laughs”. Full of praise for Chris Hemsworth’s comedic turn, Travers commends the filmmakers’ decision to “give the star every chance to romp around like he’s in comic heaven,”. “The feeling is contagious,” Travers reckons.
“As you’ve probably gathered by now, the whole movie is a grab-bag of insanity so off-the-chain hilarious that you stick with it even when the convoluted plot goes haywire. Good times,” Travers writes.
“This latest comic-book outing bestows upon Thor an even super-er superpower: a sense of humour”
Hot damn. The Guardian‘s Steve Rose is equally impressed with Hemsworth’s new, improved, comedic Thor. He writes that, “the general register of this entertaining but frankly inconsequential Marvel movie” is “what you’d call a ‘romp'”, with “lurid 1980s-retro stylings” evoking He-Man, Flash Gordon and Red Dwarf.
Though Rose points out the film suffers from that same Marvel fatigue of paper-thin plots, confused motivations and hideous CGI settings, “Thor: Ragnarok gets away with all of this because it’s so winningly, unpretentiously funny. It basically throws up its hands at its own ridiculousness and plays it all for laughs – and it gets them.”
“Not a patch on Taika Waititi’s earlier successes”
The Sydney Morning Herald‘s Jake Wilson takes umbridge with the fact that “taken on its own patchwork terms, Thor: Ragnarok is mostly diverting entertainment, though no match for what Waititi can achieve on his own with a fraction of the budget”.
Much of his review is spent complaining that T:R has only touches of the signature Waititi wit (which Wilson calls his “daggy sense of humour”) — which, duh, dude. I mean, I love Taika but this is still a Marvel movie! Not so much of a fan as everyone else, Wilson does admit that “Waititi succeeds in putting his stamp on the Marvel material roughly half the time.”
“Ragnarok features what looks a little bit like revolution”
I like Richard Lawson’s take on the numbing Marvel machine for Vanity Fair. He muses, “I was struck by the assimilating, Borg-esque aspect of this whole Marvel enterprise—the way it absorbs filmmakers’ talents, compacting them all into the house style. It’s almost aggressive from that angle, how they seek out interesting directors and make them bend to their will.”
It certainly is odd how Marvel handpicks and processes interesting independent directors into the Hollywood cookie mould, but Lawson feels certain (thankfully) that Waititi is a strong enough director to resist this. He calls T:R “silly and fun and zippy,” where “Waititi shows enough moxie and goofy wit throughout”. He also calls it “a great showcase for star Chris Hemsworth’s increasingly reliable humor”.
But, like many others, he is less than impressed by Cate Blanchett’s villainous turn. “Sigh,” he writes. “I can’t believe I’m saying that the Cate Blanchett-as-villain parts were my least favourite parts of a movie, but there it is.”
Still, the “the movie has gleeful bounce,” according to Lawson, and reads like “an arch and winking cousin, or companion piece, to Guardians of the Galaxy, with a tone and verve all its own.” Fun!
“Some of the most casually funny clowning since the Hope and Crosby road comedies of the 1940s”
Vulture’s David Edelstein was intensely diverted by Thor: Ragnarok, but perhaps it’s because he’s bored by Marvel’s tired and tested antics. “There were moments in the newest Marvel extravaganza, Thor: Ragnarok,” he writes, “when I was having so fantastic a time that I resented the interruption of yet another brainless, weightless action sequence featuring a little computer-generated man throwing around and zapping other little computer-generated men.” And fair enough.
He is full of praise for Waititi’s idiosyncratic style, which he describes as “camp that elevates Thor: Ragnarok into the stratosphere”. As for Hemsworth, he’s as impressed as everybody else. “Though musclebound,” he writes, Hemsworth “can seem agile, floppy, buffeted by large forces but able to right himself, good-naturedly, and proceed in the direction he was previously heading. He patters with the aplomb of Bill Murray.” High praise, indeed.
In the end, Edelstein just appears glad that T:R isn’t completely swallowed by the Marvel nonesense. He wagers that “Comic-Con nerds might well find the movie too un-self-serious to get behind, preferring the deep ethical musings of Captain America: Civil War. This one is probably my favorite, being the most unlike the others.”
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Thor: Ragnarok is in cinemas everywhere now.