“Thor: Love and Thunder” is the third Marvel movie to hit theaters this year, and the fourth “Thor” movie in 11 years. It takes us on a journey of loss and love, prevailing with love in the midst of life’s thunder. A self-parody with lots of jokes and nostalgia, including the music of Guns N’ Roses, “Welcome to the Jungle,” “Paradise City,” and “Sweet Child O’ Mine” we are given consistent self-reflection among its characters.
It combines action, wit, laughter and tears (love and loss, and loss and love again). We follow the journey of Thor (Chris Hemsworth) who is searching for peace, but his ‘supposed’ journey gets interrupted by Gorr the God Butcher (Christian Bale), who is on a mission to eradicate all gods and deities. Now in an existential crisis, with the help of friends King Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson), Korg (Taika Waititi) and ex-girlfriend Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), they are on a mission to stop Gorr. This then unravels Thor’s real journey, the meaning of his life.
Our 11 year old guest laughed throughout, clinching our arms at the jokes, and said, it was “the perfect mix of action, comedy and romance. All bundled up, it was a great plot, with interesting little details, and super fun music parents can enjoy too.”
This is the second “Thor” movie Directed by New Zealand Filmmaker, Taika Waititi, following “Thor: Ragnarok.”
With Shakespearean undercurrents, it also includes a pair of giant screaming goats galloping along parallel realms, and Russell Crowe as Zeus, the god of gods, who represents a life of pleasure and play over morals and values. Gorr is committed to destroying Zeus and all deities due to his tragic loss, and denouncing all gods, but he chooses love at the end.
Thor, the hammer-wielding Asgardian with an accent, and his almost crippling love life with astrophysicist Jane Foster, hits us at the end with love and sacrifice, with love prevailing in the midst of thunder.
Movie Times: click here for showtimes
Genre: Action, Adventure
Director: Taika Waititi
Actors: Chris Hemsworth, Christian Bale, Natalie Portman, Tessa Thompson, and Taika Waititi
Run Time: 1hr 59m
Rating: PG-13 for sci-fi violence, language, some suggestive material and partial nudity