Sadeeq Sherwani

"When did we become a joke?". Well, I guess when Mr. Taika Waititi was brought in to helm the project. The way Thor's character has been evolved for the worst in these last two entries, relegating him to nothing more than a comic relief is really disappointing and sometimes disturbing to watch. This movie builds on Thor's previous solo outing, with director Taika Waititi bringing his quirky interpretation of this character to life only to overdo it this time. Thor: Love and Thunder is everything Ragnarok was and then some but, in the negative sense. By the end of this movie it's Taika Waititi who turns out to be the god butcher with the way he butchers Thor's character arc. Maybe it would be best if Mr. Waititi sticks to the genre of comedy instead of experimenting and ruining other genres. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy Waititi's directorials, 'What we do in the Shadows' and 'Jojo Rabit' are examples of Mr. Waititi's great works. He can make a good comedy with a pinch of drama, adventure and action. But at their core these movies will always be comedies. And maybe a little bit of comedy would have worked for Thor: Love and Thunder too, like with Ragnarok, only it should have been tuned down a bit rather than cranked completely up. The overdose of comedy kills all the character arcs and costs the movie it's depth. With all the characters passing jokes and acting goofy all the time, even in sincere situations the intensity of any development in the story gets toned down to the point where it starts to feel redundant. The focus is mainly on jokes and punchlines, which should never have been the point of this movie, especially since Thor is probably one of, if not the most tragic character in the entire franchise. He is a god who has lost his parents, his brother, his friends, the love of his life and anything and everything that was ever dear to him, all to tragic circumstances. The way his character is portrayed in the infinity saga is a lot more closer to his depth and is more suited to him. But Waititi has turned him into a goofy idiot, who has no idea of what he is doing and is mostly just lucky. Thor: Love and Thunder is a huge waste of potential, with any of the characters barely getting their day in the sun. With decent ensemble of great actors like Chris Hemsworth, Christian Bale, Natalie Portman, Tessa Thompson, Russell Crowe and more, and brand new characters of gods from another realm like Zeus and an antagonist worthy of an epic, this movie could really have been an epic bookend for Thor's solo journey in the MCU. But it turns out to be another meaningless addition to a vast franchise. The movie feels too rushed up, being too busy with the punchlines and cringeworthy scenes of Thor with his weapon/jealous girlfriend and divine orgies. It has no depth and falls flat on most occassions. Although, there are 2 or 3 good action sequences in it but they are not good enough to drag it all the way and makeup for the lack of character arcs or a commitment to the storyline. The best character in the movie is that of Gorr the god butcher, portrayed beautifully by Christian Bale but with everything else being a disaster it just feels out of place. This movie is far from the even shadow of Marvel's peak and is a one-time watch at best and that too only if you have the urge to keep up with everything Marvel, at least until they crash the entire franchise with subpar content.

I love how creatively this movie puts across it's message. Some people hated it for not giving any explanation for the "loop" but I guess that was never the point, it's not a sci-fi movie to begin with. This is definitely not the first movie that shines a light on the issue of racial profiling but it certainly is a very creative take on the subject. It visualises some of the more popular incidents of atrocious acts of police brutality in a single storyline and kind of puts it on a single thread, as if saying that all such acts are ONE and gives a strong message that it was not the knee that killed George Floyd but it was the system that murdered him just like all those other black folk were not murdered by racist cops instead it was the system that murdered them and failed all the rest. For that I loved this movie and it did a fantastic job. With that said there were a few shortcomings to it too, like near the end it is shown that the cop was aware of the loop this whole time, implying that he was being racist conciously, which in my opinion was unnecessary and it goes a little too far with the whole blaming the police thing. Not all cops are bad or racist just as not all black folk are innocent. The movie where on one hand criticises the generalization of a community goes on to generalize an institution in juxtaposition. Further, in my opinion the movie felt a bit rushed, trying to pack such a big message in just half an hour was a bit unfair, it should have been allowed to breathe a little more.