Film Review: Thor: Ragnarok (2017)

The end is nigh . . .

Thor: Ragnarok (12A)

Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Cate Blanchett, Mark Ruffalo

Director: Taika Waititi

The Plot: After spending two years travelling the Nine Realms in search of infinity stones, Thor (Hemsworth) returns to Asgard to find his brother Loki (Hiddleston) masquerading as their father Odin. They find the real Odin on Earth, and he's dying - but not before he reveals that they have a sister, Hela (Blanchett), the Goddess of Death. Imprisoned by him centuries ago for being too bloodthirsty, Odin's death releases her and she immediately attacks, destroying Thor's hammer Mjolnir and knocking them out of the Bifrost. As Hela conquers Asgard, Thor and Loki crash-land on the planet Sakaar and are captured by the celestial being The Grandmaster, who runs a gladiatorial "Contest of Champions" with slave fighters. To win his freedom and get back to Asgard to confront Hela, Thor must defeat The Grandmaster's champion - none other than the Incredible Hulk (Ruffalo) . . .

Review: It's quite remarkable to think that in just under ten years we've now reached the seventeenth film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Marvel Studios has come a long way since they rolled the dice with Iron Man in 2008, and arguably one of the biggest reasons for their continued theatrical success is the sheer variety of what they offer. Yes these are all superhero films, but Marvel haven't been afraid to try out different genres and themes, or to balance darker plot lines with lightness and humour. After the general bleakness affecting the main Avengers storyline following Civil War, some laughs are just what the doctor ordered, and by God does Thor: Ragnarok deliver in that regard.

The standalone Thor films have always been funny, largely driven by the titular character's unfamiliarity with modern Earth society. This new film is not only the funniest Thor film to date, but is quite possibly the funniest MCU film that Marvel have ever brought us, even beating out Ant-Man or this summer's Spider-Man: Homecoming. It helps that director Taika Waititi comes from a comedy background, having helmed the hilarious What We Do In The Shadows, and his influence is clearly felt throughout.

I really can't do justice in words to just how funny this film is. There was rarely a moment that I wasn't laughing, and those rare moments were usually filled by gaping at the tremendous action going on. Thor himself is funnier than ever, getting lots of quips and banter with his interactions with Loki and the other characters. His scenes with the Hulk are particularly good, as the two have a odd-couple vibe going on, and these feature of a lot of physical comedy as well. And it's not just Thor and Hulk - the whole cast are funny, playing off of each other really well. There are too many funny moments for me to mention (I'd be here typing for hours) but among my favourites were any scene involving Korg, the soft-spoken slave warrior played be director Waititi (via CGI) to great effect; the play being put on for Loki's amusement in Asgard featuring some very famous faces portraying Thor, Loki and Odin; Valkyrie falling drunkenly off her ship during her dramatic entrance; Loki's 30-minute fall courtesy of one Stephen Strange, and The Grandmaster (played hilariously by Jeff Goldblum) randomly launching into a keyboard solo for no apparent reason.

Now despite the film's great humour and general light tone, it's not without its darkness. The film has the suffix of Ragnarok for a reason - the Asgardian prophecy about the end of days plays an important role in the story, and there's death and destruction aplenty throughout. Hela is a murderous whirlwind of destruction and there are casualties. What this means though is we're treated to some of the best visual effects and action sequences that I've seen so far in any Marvel film: there is some incredible cinematography going in in key battle scenes, none so more than the flashback sequence to Hela wiping out the Valkyries, which are coupled with moments of slow-motion and the film's synth-rock score to incredible effect. The arena battle between Thor and Hulk is a particular high-point of the film and outstanding in its physicality and excitement.

Even with all of the laughs and terrific action, I'm pleased to report that the film also has a good story arc for Thor himself. Over the course of Thor's appearances we've seen him go from arrogantly believing he knows best and the throne of Asgard belongs to him, to a humble hero who believes he still has much to learn before he can assume the throne. In Ragnarok he now finds the responsibility thrust upon him without choice: Odin is gone and Hela means to enslave not only the people of Asgard but the other realms as well, and he faces tough questions: without his hammer, is he still Thor? Does he have the strength to defeat his seemingly unstoppable sister? And if he does, does he have what it takes to take on the responsibility of being King? For all the comedic chops that Hemsworth gets to display in this film he also has these dramatic story threads to work with and he does them well.

It's not just Hemsworth that's on top form here. As Hela, Cate Blanchett is deliciously evil and clearly having a great time. "Oh, I've missed this" she declares after singlehandedly wiping out the Asgardian army in a beautifully choreographed sequence of flying blades. The look of the character is brilliant, managing to be deadly, crazy and still rather sexy while doing it and is a believable threat. She crushes Mjolnir with one hand. Badass. Mark Ruffalo offers another fantastic double-turn as the Hulk/Bruce Banner, now given more dialogue to play with when in Hulk mode. This Hulk, champion of the arena, has found people who adore him and doesn't want to return to Earth where people hate him; Banner, on the other hand, doesn't want to turn back into Hulk for fear that Hulk will take control permanently. Ruffalo plays both sides well and is funny throughout, especially in a sequence where he puts on a set of Tony Stark's clothes and signature shades. Hiddleston is on his usual top form as Loki, riffing well again with Hemsworth and continuing their ongoing storyline that leaves the audience guessing as to where his allegiances really lie. And finally I was really impressed by Tessa Thompson as Valkyrie, the hard-drinking, exiled Asgardian turned bounty hunter who captures Thor on his arrival to Sakaar. There's depth to her character, still dealing with the memories of her fellow Valkyries being slaughtered by Hela, and she proves to be a match (and sometimes superior) not only in wits but in physicality to Thor as well. There are seeds being sown here for her to be a potential love interest for Thor and I'm looking forward to seeing more of her in future films.

There are some minor gripes to be found with the film. As excellent as Hela is, I found her to be under-used and I would liked to have seen more scenes involving her. Heimdall (played again by the terrific Idris Elba) also suffers in this regard and is only given a few short scenes to try and flesh out his character's transformation from stoic gatekeeper to renegade liberator of the people. The Warriors Three are rather unceremoniously killed off, and there was no sign or mention of Lady Sif, which I found odd. And finally, Jane Foster's absence is explained in a somewhat throwaway reference when a character commiserates Thor for being dumped by her. When did this happen? It's a rather poor way of writing her character out after establishing her firmly as Thor's love interest in the previous films and I hope this will be addressed again at some point.

So where does Ragnarok fit in, in the grand scheme of things? Well, it acts as more of a stand-alone story rather than a bridge to the upcoming Infinity War, although there are some effective links to the previous films: we see the Tesseract in the Asgardian vaults, which Hela comments upon as being interesting; the Hulk reverts to Bruce Banner after seeing footage of the Black Widow's final transmission to him in Age of Ultron and is unaware of what's happened, asking if Sokovia is safe and Ultron defeated, and Thor rather hilariously has to refer to himself as "Point Break" to activate the systems of Hulk's crashed Quinjet. While the conclusion of the story sees Thor heading back to Earth, and the first post-credits sting offers a tantalising link to Infinity War, this is very much a tale of Thor and Asgard rather than the Avengers, and after the somewhat disappointing second outing of The Dark World this is a fantastic return to form for the character.

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
A hilarious, action-packed, visually stunning return for Marvel's thunder god. I don't know how they keep doing it, but every MCU film seems to be better than the last one and Thor: Ragnarok is no different. Incredibly funny, an effective story arc for the main character and great performances make this a winner. Go and watch it right now!