Rating of
2/4
Thor 4 - Review
Matthew Brady - wrote on 07/15/22
It is never a good sign when I am rooting for the main villain to kill all the heroes.
It is also not a good sign that freaking Deadpool did a better cancer story than this.
One of the most irritating movies I have seen in a while. Annoying in terms of how every character (except Gorr) is a comedian and annoying how much potential is wasted.
The movie felt like Saturday Night Live sketch stretched out to two hours.
The movie could have been a dark finale to the character of Thor. I mean, this is the same god who lost his mother, father, brother three times, his home, and lived with guilt for five years after failing to kill Thanos the first time. If that wasn't bad enough, his ex-girlfriend Jane Foster is dying from cancer, and on top of that, there is a new villain who seeks to kill gods. Again, this could have been a dark finale, as he is the most tragic character in the MCU, but here he's just a goofy idiot. Chris Hemsworth has comedic chops, but they did this character dirty. They turned Thor from "Thor making jokes" to "Thor is the joke".
Christian Bale always delivers, and he was creepy and campy as Gorr the God Butcher. His storyline is the only serious part of the movie that unfortunately gets undeveloped with very little screen time. His character work was rushed because at the start he worth ships the gods, but as quick as a light switch, he wants to kill every god possible. Since he is called The God Butcher, you don't see a lot of God killing. The ones he does kill in the movie were an afterthought.
Natalie Portman was good, but sadly the dramatic elements of her character didn’t pull on my heartstrings. On the other hand, there are some cool action scenes with her, even though it’s strange how fully experienced she is in fighting with these powers despite how recent she got it.
The whole movie is one big joke, with no clear focus on what storyline it wants to go. The short runtime does not help either, as it needed more breathing room for development like character work and story.
I could talk about the visual effects, but I will not since the visual effect artists have been through enough already. Seriously Marvel, treat your employees with respect.
The Guardians of the Galaxy team are there with no purpose than to help Thor lose weight, and then they leave.
Director Taika Waititi went way over his head with this one. One of the most unusual inclusions of these screaming goats in the movie for no reason and there keep repeating the joke of them screaming. Like, WHY????
Is it me, or do the recent Marvel movies feel like quantity over quality? There are like a factory machine, pumping out many movies and an endless line of TV shows. The runtime clocked in under two hours, with this movie and Doctor Strange 2, and yet I felt those movies needed more time to breathe and flesh out the characters because everything feels so rushed and, in a hurry, to end.
Balancing comedy and drama are a difficult task to get right. If a movie has a serious tone while not being a good movie itself, there is a potential for it to be funny and enjoyable. If a film has a comedic tone while not being funny, then the movie would get boring very quickly.
Overall rating: The movie has everything it needs to be fascinating, yet it still turned-out paper thin.
