by Miller C. Lashbrook
Thor: Love and Thunder is a fun, hilarious, and heartwarming Thor adventure that is a wonderful follow-up to Thor: Ragnarök. This movie is another great entry in phase four that continues the trend of expanding this characters corner of the Marvel universe, while also redefining the character for this new era of the MCU. If you have not seen the movie, it is definitely worth your time and money to see in the theater.
SPOILERS AHEAD
Before I get into my spoiler thoughts I want to first address my five predictions that I posted last week. Read the post now here: Thor: Love and Thunder Predictions. I made five predictions for Thor: Love and Thunder:
- New Asgard is Established
- Hint at Gamora’s Location
- Roxxon
- Sif
- Hercules
Out of my five predictions, I got three correct! For my first time trying this idea of predictions, I am starting off great. We definitely get to see a lot of what New Asgard is like as a tourist attraction and a little of how the location is run politically by King Valkyrie (It still bothers me that we do not have a name for Valkyrie). We did not really get a hint at Gamora’s location and we did not get any hints at Roxxon. We did get Sif in the movie and in her red outfit like I wished for. And finally, we not only got a mention of Hercules in the movie, but we get to see him in the mid-credits scene, played by none other than Brett Goldstein from Ted Lasso. Saving Hercules for the credits scene really gives me hope for a wonderful Thor 5 where I can see the two heroes going head to head only to join together in the end to fight some bigger threat.
So, now for my other thoughts on the film. I will start will my more negative thoughts. I think that this movie needed to give more breathing room in the editing. It often felt like shots were not allowed to linger. There were times when I felt like I could not get a good look at something before we moved on to the next thing. I do also think that mixing the plots of Jane Foster as Thor with the God Butcher arc from the comics, forced these two stories to fight for attention. A longer runtime would have given these all more breathing room.
Overall though, I really enjoyed this movie. I think it will be a great Marvel movie for rewatching with plenty of laughs and details in the background for YouTube channels to make hour long videos breaking down.
My favorite parts of the film had to be the following things:
- Getting canon mentions of King Valkyrie and Korg’s queerness.
- Getting to see all of the different gods in Omnipotent City.
- Seeing a friendship grow between Val and Jane.
- The introduction of Axl Heimdalson
- Christian Bale as Gorr
- Making Thor the adoptive father of Eternity
I don’t know if this movie functions that well as its own standalone entry, but as a new beginning, a reset, for Thor as a character this movie functions so well. I think this movie, much like Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, will be seen in a similar light to Avengers: Age of Ultron. The more films and shows that build upon what this movie establishes, the more that people will appreciate it.
For more ramblings on this movie, check out Episode 5 of the Pop Culture Fae Podcast, wherever you like to Podcasts.
4/5 God Weapons ⚒️
Pop Culture Fae 