Before we even get an opening title card, Thor: Ragnarok wears its love for geeky movie elements on its sleeve by having Thor duke it out with a giant fire demon named Surtur voiced by Clancy Brown and also some fire demons and there's also a giant dragon involved in the mix. Again, this is just the opening scene of the movie, which sets the stage for just what Thor: Ragnarok is most concerned with as a movie: thrilling fun. That means this film doesn't have the big emotional gut-punches that comprise my personal favorite MCU moments (there's nothing as gut-wrenching as that Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 ending, for example) but it really is hard to complain about the lack of deeper substance given how successfully it delivers on the promise of constant rollicking fun.
Despite Waititi's public statements about making this new Thor adventure entirely disparate from its past entries, Thor: Ragnarok does continue off from the cliffhanger ending of Thor: The Dark World wherein Thor's mischevious Loki (Tom Hiddleston) has been impersonating their dad, Odin (Anthony Hopkins), so that he can rule over all of Asgard. Thor exposes this ruse but then learns that Loki usurping their father's throne means a dangerous individual by the name of Hela (Cate Blanchett) that their dad had been keeping prisoner for centuries has now been unleashed. In her first moments of freedom, Hela pushes this mighty Avenger aside and banishes him to the garbage planet of Sakarr, which is kinda like if the Mos Eisley city from Star Wars was a planet and also plastered in bright colors.
Here, Thor's quest to stop Hela from destroying Asgard is stopped by The Grandmaster (Jeff Goldblum, basically playing a space version of himself and that is the opposite of a complaint), who forces Thor to compete in his massive gladiator matches. Now Thor is trapped and his attempts to get back home will soon involve a local scavenger known as Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson) and fellow Avenger Hulk (Mark Ruffalo). Thor's time on Sakaar offers for plenty of chances for the screenplay (which is credited to Eric Pearson, Craig Kyle & Christopher Yost though Stephany Folsom and Taika Waititi also apparently heavily contributed to the writing) to delve deep into easily accessible cosmic weirdness ranging from portals to sticks that can melt people and everything in between that I found to be akin to catnip, it's just so endearing how clearly in love with science-fiction craziness this story is.
But the best element to come out of spending time on Sakaar are the new characters we get to meet, chief among them being Valkyrie who serves as a stunning showcase for the talents of actor Tessa Thompson. From the moment she drunkenly swaggers onto the screen, Valkyrie is thoroughly engrossing as a character, she has great chemistry with the likes of Chris Hemsworth and the two different sides of the Hulk personality and she gets some of the movies best action moments! Also serving up plenty of entertainment is a loveable overly polite rock monster by the name of Korg, voiced by Taika Waititi himself, who gets some of the movies most memorable comedic lines and steals nearly every scene he pops up in.
It's pretty obvious just from reading this review up to this point that there's a lot going on in Thor: Ragnarok and it's easy to be worried that the movie could turn into another overstuffed mess like so many blockbusters over the years have become. Luckily, there's a spryness to the way Thor: Ragnarok handles its myriad of characters, worlds and plot points, the script doesn't get bogged down by newly introduced story elements, it doesn't overwhelm the viewer with overly complex mechanics or tedious exposition. When a new character or two enter the story, the movie just keeps on chugging down the tracks with new passengers aboard. Darting back-and-forth between an Asgard sanctuary that looks like it leapt right out of Lord of The Rings right back to the grimy alien planet of Sakaar should cause tonal whiplash in theory but in execution, the movies able to make those two aesthetics jive simply by nature of making the story those aesthetics inhabit well-paced and engaging.
It doesn't hurt of course that the various realms we see in the movie are beautiful to look at, the sets in this film are amazing, especially the colorful locales on Sakaar that seem like they leaped right out of Jack Kirby's imagination and onto the silver screen. A similar level of success can be found in the costumes, with Valkyrie and Hela's outfits especially being standout pieces of attire that feel like they're going to become regular Cosplay fixtures in no time and for good reason. While we're on the subject of Hela, it should be noted too that Cate Blanchett turns in deliciously fun work as the movies big bad, she just gets 110% of your attention from the moment she walks on-screen and seems to be relishing this over-the-top role of pure villainy.
But what of our lead character, Thor? He's actually quite good and thinking on it, I'm interested in how he's a positive example of a static character in some respects. Thor does some growing in certain areas in the movie, but he doesn't have a profound character arc like he did in his very first solo outing and that actually works out more than fine. Kinda like WALL-E or The Tramp in many classic Charlie Chaplin movies, Thor's journey here is about him influencing others (namely Valkyrie and Hulk) and the scripts ability to just let him go off an adventure and be a classical charming hero is a smartly economical storytelling move. Plus, it leads to some great comedic moments where that bravado of his morphs into confusion over the pervasive weirdness of Sakaar and Hemsworth gets to constantly utilize his gift for comedic timing in memorable ways.
Playing alongside Thor throughout his third solo adventure are Tom Hiddleston and Mark Ruffalo as Loki and Hulk respectively and they're both a lot of fun here, especially Ruffalo in portraying a more verbal but still dim-witted version of The Hulk. Thor: Ragnarok is really just packed to the gills with great performances right down to supporting players like Idris Elba and Karl Urban who each get memorable moments of their own. Glad to see Waititi's ability as a director to command indelible performances out of his actor hasn't been lost in his transition from New Zealand indie movies to big American blockbusters. Taika Waititi does a great job directing Thor: Ragnarok, the kind of blockbuster that's unabashedly proud of its love for all things cosmic, humorous and fun. I can totally get onboard with that.
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