Thor: Ragnarok
Director: Taika Waititi
Writer: Eric Pearson, Craig Kyle, Christopher L. Yost
Based on: Stan Lee‘s, Larry Lieber‘s and Jack Kirby‘s comic character
Sequel to: Thor, Thor: The Dark World
Cast: Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Mark Ruffalo, Cate Blanchett, Idris Elba, Jeff Goldblum, Tessa Thompson, Karl Urban, Anthony Hopkins, Benedict Cumberbatch, Taika Waititi, Rachel House, Clancy Brown, Tadanobu Asano, Ray Stevenson, Zachary Levi, Luke Hemsworth, Sam Neill, Matt Damon, Ken Watanabe
Part of: Marvel movies
Seen on: 4.11.2017
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Plot:
Thor (Chris Hemsworth) is fighting to prevent Ragnarok – the end of the world. Having successfully defeated the demon Surtur, he returns to Asgard, only to find Loki (Tom Hiddleston) posing as their father Odin (Anthony Hopkins). After having located the real Odin, he tells Thor and Loki that Ragnarok is still coming: the real threat is their sister Hela (Cate Blanchett). It doesn’t take long for Hela to appear and show how much of a threat she really is.

Thor: Ragnarok is probably the best Marvel film to date. It’s entertaining, full of queer (and also straight) aesthetics and had me in literal tears it’s so funny. It’s absolutely lovely.

With everything I saw about the film before it started, plus with Waititi’s sense of humor, my expectations for Thor: Ragnarok were very high (although I tried to keep them low). Happily, they were completely fulfilled. It’s not only the funniest film in the MCU, it’s generally one of the funniest films I’ve seen in a while.

And it’s not just that the film is entertaining as hell, it actually does a whole lot of character work – something the Marvel movies like to forego a bit too much in favor of the action. It really works on Thor, of course, and his motivations and place in the world, but it also delves into the supporting cast and develops them nicely. This is not only good writing and good for the audience, it also gives the – absolutely amazing – cast a lot to work with and that pays off absolutely. Maybe also because it doesn’t waste time on unneeded  romance and rather spends it on the colorful supporting cast.

It’s also visually very striking and uses queer coded images quite a bit, which personally I like a lot. (Unfortunately the studio made the decision to not make Valkyrie explicitely bi – that would have been the icing on the cake.)

There were a couple of things that were not entirely perfect (the editing of the fight on the Bifrost was a little messy and left me a little confused; and there was way too little Heimdall), but put altogether, it was everything that one could hope a superhero movie to be: fun entertainment with great characters and an absolutely serious political core.

Summarizing: As good as perfect.