Thor: Ragnarok – Spoiler Free Review

This is a great movie, but not the best MCU movie to ever hit the big screen. It is a very fun, colorful, funny movie with great characters and great interactions. However, this movie requires you to do homework. I went to this movie with a person who have never seen a Marvel movie before and they couldn’t understand or enjoy the movie. You need to watch at least the first Avengers movie before going in to this movie.

Now enough with the negative, this movie was spectacular. The character design and the world building were amazing! From Fire Lord Surtur to Hella herself the characters look spectacular. The old characters get a nice makeover, but we see that in trailer. Thor gets a haircut and Loki gets a new headpiece. The movie is so colorful that it makes Guardians of the Galaxy look dull. The worlds that this movie visits also look amazing and each one looks unique.

Even though this is a great looking movie, this movie is not so great in the action department. By that I mean, it lakes hand to hand fights. The action scenes are usually filmed from a distance and the choreography is not great. Also, most action sequences are too short for my taste and lake a sense of grandiose. However, they are really fun to watch. Everything around the fights and the characters are so great, that they manage to turn to the fight scenes into something spectacular. Also, it’s some of the best and funniest use of Mjölnir that I’ve seen.

It is a very funny movie. Too funny. Marvel now has the habit of undercutting emotional scenes, by putting jokes in places that are sometimes inappropriate. This movie has joke after joke in it, and yes it damages the more serious moments at times. Some of the jokes will make little kids laugh, some jokes will make older audiences laugh, and some jokes will make people that have watched all MCU movies laugh. I feel like most the humor lands and some of it was really unpredictable. You need to be ready for a light and funny movie, lighter than what the teaser trailer showed.

Ragnarok. For a movie called Ragnarok, it feels rather small in scale. You don’t feel that the entire universe is in danger. Sometimes the end of the world parts and the humor don’t blend well, but they mostly work well together. Also, don’t expect this movie to follow the mythological Ragnarok. But, the references that it does have to the mythology are really really cool.

Hella. The first female villain did not disappoint. She is extremely powerful, funny, witty, and does not consider herself to be evil. You know you are going to get something incredible when you cast someone like Cate Blanchett as the villain. I wish there was more of her in this movie. Also, I do feel like finally Marvel found a better villain than Loki. It’s about time.

Loki. What a disappointment. The god of mischief is not very mischievous in this movie. And if he is, then it is in a boring, predictable and not fun way. The relationship between the brothers was not explored enough and it was rather disappointing. It’s a good thing the movie gave him some good lines.

Valkyrie. I liked Tessa Thompson since I saw her in Creed and she did not disappoint with another great performance. Her character was not what I expected at all and it was great. She reminded me a bit of the Winchester brothers from Supernatural, someone who has been through so many bad things in life that they can barely function, but they keep going. You hardly see such female characters on screen, so it was great.

Grandmaster. Jeff Goldblum as Jeff Goldblum basically. He was fun and charismatic and acting like Jeff Goldblum as a tyrant in space.

Banner/Hulk. Mark Ruffalo did a great job. Talking Hulk was great for comedy, but also as a character. He delivered some excellent one liners, but he was also more than that. We get to see Hulk as a separate character from Banner and get to know him for the first time basically. Banner on the other hand was not very much needed. The relationship between Banner and Hulk was also an interesting one and we will probably continue to explore it in other movies in which they will appear in.

Thor. Meet funny Thor for the first time. Not Thor that funny things happen around him, or that the fact that he is a stranger in a strange land makes him do funny things. This Thor is just a really funny guy. He is a lot more similar to Chris Hemsworth himself, who is a really funny person as well. It’s a new take on Thor that work perfectly in my opinion. He is arrogant, because he has a reason to be. He is not reckless or foolish, but likeable, honorable, and a true leader.

Cameos. Keep your eyes open for two really funny and unexpected cameos in this movie.

The plot of this movie was pretty good. When this movie was announced I was worried about the combination of Planet Hulk and Ragnarok in the same movie, but the movie balanced it out perfectly in my opinion. There are some plot holes and a few illogical occurrences, but I only notice it after seeing what others thought of the movie. It did not bother me. I think that the general awesomeness of the movie covers such issues really well. You will never notice that this movie was mostly improvised, because everything works perfectly.

Also, the soundtrack is super fun and includes one special surprise for the really cool action scenes.

This movie also drops some details about the next Avengers movie, without actually setting up another movie, which was refreshing. Scenes that set up other movies usually feel forced, and this movie doesn’t have it.

Post Credit Scenes. There are two and they are not really exciting or worth the wait. You can easily skip the one at the end of all the credits.

I would caution against expecting the best MCU movie to date, that is still without a doubt Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Some people might even find Guardians of the Galaxy to be a funnier movie. Yet this movie is truly unique in its own way. It is a fun, funny, colorful movie that takes you on a fun ride with fun and great characters. There are some truly unexpected plot twists along the way. There is literally never a dull moment in this movie. So just enjoy the ride and hope that Taika Waititi will get to director Thor 4, or as he calls it: Ragnarok 2, as this movie truly does re-invents the character of Thor and franchise.

I give it 8.5/10

Image source: all pictures are taken from IMDB

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