BY ADAM MIKLAS
Staff Writer
The Marvel Cinematic Universe has been going strong since “Iron Man” in 2008 and now comes the seventeenth movie in this franchise, “Thor Ragnarok.”
Spoiler Alert: The movie starts off with Thor captured, but managing to escape and seemingly prevent Ragnarok, or the end of Asgard. Through some events, Thor manages to reunite with Loki and face off with Hela, the goddess of death, who destroys Mjolnir, Thor’s hammer. Thor and Loki end up being sent to another world and now must find a way back to Asgard before Hela destroys it and Ragnarok commences.
This movie looks remarkable. Whether it be the costumes, sets, imagery, CGI, the action scenes, this movie is stunning.
“Thor Raganrok” fully embraces an 80s theme. It is colorful, goofy, and does not take itself that seriously. The characters also embrace this theme, with over the top acting and very vibrant costumes and, as mentioned before, plenty of references. You can tell the actors playing these characters were having a lot of fun.
In this regard, the movie is hilarious. Plenty of lines are delivered well and have you giggling through the whole movie. There are even some superb easter eggs in here if you pay close enough attention, from previous marvel films, to videogames, and even an odd musical cameo placed in there.
The actions scenes are impressive as well. From Thor fighting off a demon horde or Hela taking down the warriors of Asgard, or my favorite action scene, the coliseum fight, they are all entertaining and incredibly fun. The choreography and speed of the fights are really cool and flashy. It is guaranteed to get the blood pumping, especially when Led Zeppelin plays in the background of a couple of the fight scenes.
Even with the beautiful set and themes, the film is not perfect.
The pacing is all over the place. The film cuts constantly between the perspectives of Thor on the alien planet and Hela on Asgard is nice in seeing what they are up to, but they interject at weird points. Sometimes they could be back to back, sometimes one might be on screen so long the other plot thread is forgotten until it pops back in out of nowhere, which does not help when a third plot thread is introduced halfway through the film.
The film may be goofy, but the way scenes play out do not need to be.
Hela herself is a bit of a bland villain. She does get a couple funny lines here or there, but she is just your run of the mill tragic villain who wants to kill everyone and rule everything. There is no personality or charm to her, which is something most MCU villains suffer from.
While the film is funny, there are times where the drama should outweigh the humor, but it doesn’t. Something incredibly serious could happen, and there will be a character that cracks a joke. The movie does great as a goofy film, but the audience still needs to believe what is happening is a real threat, which is hard when everyone cracks jokes constantly.
It might be used to give some levity, but when the whole film is full of levity to begin with, a serious moment occasionally would not hurt.
The film is definitely entertaining and a fun ride, but it is not a game changer in any way. It is just much more goofy and humorous than other comic book films of today.
Email Adam at:
amiklas@live.esu.edu
