So I just came back from watching Thor: Ragnarok in dead-centre seats at an IMAX 3-D cinema (the ONLY way to watch superhero movies). Let me get it out of the way, it’s a good movie, highly enjoyable, loads of fun. And I’m not the only one who thinks so.
I think what makes it pleasing is that after 17 (!) movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe alone, not to mention the X-Men movies from Fox, the Spiderman movies from Sony and the D.C. movies, there’s a bit of superhero fatigue among cinema goers. So for a movie to stand out, it’s got to be fresh and different. Guardians of the Galaxy started it, with irreverent humour and off-beat music, and Deadpool showed just how far out you could go. But for Thor, a heavy-hitter (no pun intended) in the MCU to be given to a director with such comedic sensibilities as Taika Waititi, shows guts on the part of Marvel. The movie pokes fun at all sorts of things, even itself, and references funny moments from earlier MCU films.
But somehow, I feel, it misses the mark to be a truly greatmovie. A reviewer on Rotten Tomatoes, one of the 5% that gave the movie a poor rating, said it best:
As much fun as it is, Ragnarok, by treating everything as an opportunity for a goof, forfeits any chance of taking root in your imagination. Nothing matters here.
It’s like candy floss. Light, sweet, lots of fun, but not very filling. A bit more steak would have been welcome – heavy, something to chew on, richer flavours, makes you satisfied at the end. It’s not that humour isn’t welcome, it is. Nobody wants the pretentious, self-serious garbage served up by Batman v Superman. It’s just that, there should be a balance, with more serious moments. More parts where it gives you time to simply care about things. It almost feels like the director is afraid to let the movie settle into a “serious tone”, so he deliberately punctuates it with laugh-out-loud moments. They’re funny, definitely, but at some points I felt that they were inappropriate. Not “toilet-humour” inappropriate, but more like “laughing at your grandmother’s funeral” inappropriate.
It’s not impossible to find a balance – it’s been done before, in the very same movie universe. Doctor Strange was laugh-out-loud hilarious at moments too, but still retained the appropriate amount of seriousness during difficult scenes, like when Strange got into the car accident and had a painful recovery process. Or the entire third act where the fate of the entire planet hung in the balance and people were dying all over. It *is* possible to be funny and serious in the same movie, and when done right, makes a great movie, in my opinion.
Granted, my sensibilities lie towards superhero movies with a bit more emotional weight (bizarre as that concept may sound), where the stakes feel real and the characters look like they actually give a d*mn about things. Maybe because Thor is practically immortal, it is probably natural that he would not take things seriously, compared to the humans who populate the other slots in the Avengers’ lineup. Yet, it also makes us care less about the outcome of the movie because the protagonist himself is so flippant.
I personally would take a Captain America: Civil War over a Guardians of the Galaxy any day. It had everything – humour (though mainly in scenes involving Iron Man and Spiderman, and of course Ant-Man), action, tragedy, romance (kind of), betrayal (sort of). The movie really made you care. It made you feel like there really was enough difference of opinion that close friends could be torn apart. It made you sad at the end, and yet satisfied that there was a proper conclusion to this particular saga. A careful blend like that, in my opinion, led to the best MCU movie ever, and it remains hard to beat. I suspect, though, Avengers: Infinity War will surpass it, since the absolutely brilliant Russo brothers are directors for both films (as well as the pretty decent Captain America: Winter Soldier).
I guess at the end of it all, I’m probably nitpicking. It’s like saying I wish my Singapore Airlines business class seat was a bit more like a first class seat. It’s still an awesome movie, and highly recommended. And here’s hoping that this is Taika Waititi’s version of Winter Soldier – a good movie that helps him eventually make some mindblowingly awesome ones. In the meantime, I’ll continue to root for everybody’s favourite norse god and his (ex) hammer.