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A30 PEOPLE/ARTS
Thursday 2 November 2017
Review: ‘Thor: Ragnarok’

takes the god to funny heights

By LINDSEY BAHR deathly serious takeover, egregious tonal shifts.
AP Film Writer Thor gets to join an irrev- Some of the gags go on
In the stand-alone films of erent comedy sideshow too long with the Hulk with
the Marvel Cinematic Uni- on the planet Sakaar — a too little payoff and some-
verse Thor always seemed sort of wasteland at the times it seems as though
to get the short end of end of the universe run by there’s a mandate that ev-
the stick. The Thor films a Grade-A weirdo who ery 25 minutes there will be
were never as popular as calls himself Grandmaster, a big fight no matter what.
Iron Man, and didn’t gain played, fittingly, by Jeff One particular army of the
steam like Captain Ameri- Goldblum. dead sequence seemed
ca. They were perhaps a It’s this section that is pretty like it could have been
This image released by Marvel Studios shows Mark Ruffalo and
Chris Hemsworth in a scene from, “Thor: Ragnarok.” little too serious and a little amusing and where Waiti- lifted from a “Pirates of
Associated Press too dull — none of which ti’s irreverence really gets the Caribbean” movie —
was the fault of star Chris to shine with pratfalls and which is not the most flat-
Hemsworth, whose perfor- witty writing. It’s no surprise tering comparison.
mances in the role have that this is right up Gold- While Waititi’s energy and
been so seamless and blum’s alley, but the real wit is apparent in the film, it
charming that he almost delight is Hemsworth who still feels as though he had
doesn’t get enough credit. knows just how to subvert to operate from the same
But “Thor: Ragnarok” has the Thor character with- Marvel “base flavor” and
been touted as a different out turning him into a total was allowed on occasion
take on the God of Thun- mockery. He’s a real co- to sprinkle a few of his own
der. Marvel Studios and medic talent, which au- original toppings on.
The Walt Disney Co. signed diences got a taste of in “Thor: Ragnarok” is the
up a voice-y director in “Ghostbusters.” most fun of the Thor movies
New Zealand’s Taika Wait- And Tessa Thompson is fan- by a long shot, but it is still
iti, whose riotous vampire tastic as Valkyrie, a hard very much a Thor movie for
mockumentary “What We drinkin’ fighter with a secret better or worse.
Do In The Shadows” dis- past she’d rather forget. “Thor,” a Walt Disney Stu-
played a unique comedic I imagine “Thor: Ragnarok” dios release, is rated PG-
sensibility. is one that might improve 13 by the Motion Picture
They took away Thor’s on subsequent viewings, Association of America for
hammer, gave him a hair- when you have a chance “intense sequences of sci-fi
cut, added some Led to relax with the jokes di- violence and action, and
Zeppelin and told the set vorced from the pressure brief suggestive material.”
designer the more neon of juggling the silly/serious Running time: 130 minutes.
rainbows the better. plot. But it’s a fairly flawed Two and a half stars out of
The results are pretty de- movie on the whole with four.q
cent, though perhaps not
the total departure that
had been hyped.
The bones of the story are
preposterous as ever. It
turns out Thor has a long
lost older sister, Hela (Cate
Blanchett), who his father
Odin (Anthony Hopkins,
who appears to have
shot for about two hours)
locked away because
she was so dangerous. An
event happens that releas-
es Hela to the world. She’s
really strong, like stronger
than Thor strong, and re-
ally angry and basically
punches Thor into another
dimension and she heads
off to Asgard to take the
throne.
The movie literally splits
in two at this point. Poor
Blanchett, who has gone
full vamp as Hela, is good
as always but how lame it
must be to be in the “fun”
Thor movie and have
to play one of the most
blandly written villains ever.
While she’s off waging her