Taika Waititi restored the MCU’s Thor Odinson strand in 2017 with Thor: Ragnarok by leaning into the heretical comedy, reflecting the pop-cultural playfulness that had worked for the Guardians of the Galaxy films. Dipping less rewardingly from the same well in Thor: Love and Thunder, Waititi pushes the wisecracking to tiresome extremes, snuffing out any excitement, mythic grandeur or sense of danger that the God of Thunder’s latest round of rote challenges might hope to generate. Chris Hemsworth continues to give great musclebound himbo, but the stakes never acquire much quickness in a movie too busy being jokey and juvenile to tell a gripping story.
This is a film full of choppy shifts, both in the narrative and the visuals. The CG environments are so expansive, and so garishly colourful, that it almost looks animated, and then jumping to the green fields of Asgard or the sterile rooms of the hospital where Jane is being treated gives the impression of being dropped into a different movie.
Release date: Friday, July 8
Cast: Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Christian Bale, Tessa Thompson, Taika Waititi, Russell Crowe
Director: Taika Waititi
Screenwriters: Taika Waititi, Jennifer Kaytin Robinson, based on the Marvel Comics
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