Film Review - Thor: Ragnarok (2017)

Thor: Ragnarok is the 17th Marvel Studios production and is directed by Taika Watiti who also made last year’s Hunt for the Wilderpeople the story here sees Thor (Chris Hemsworth) trying to prevent Ragnarok the end of everything but when a coup by the Goddess of Death Hela (Cate Blanchett) sees him and Loki (Tom Hiddelston) exiled from Asgard and stuck on planet Siccar they have to find a way home to stop Hela and also pick up an old friend.

Thor: Ragnarok is a lot of fun for two key reasons:

- First Watiti’s signature droll humour is on full display here and there are many times where I laughed a lot 2 references in particular had me laughing properly out loud in the cinema and much like the Wilderpeople there are a lot of jokes thrown at the screen but its done in a way that doesn’t make them feel overcooked they’re layered jokes that work on multiple levels and they work in a way that treats the audience with intelligence.

- And secondly a lot of the performances are quite good Hemsworth finally gets to show what a funny and charismatic lead he can be in the right hands and its definitely his best work in this series so far he’s been good in other films like Rush with Ron Howard but here his charisma and great sense of comic timing really shine here, Mark Ruffalo returns as the Hulk and he too is pretty good while Tessa Thompson does what she can with Valkyrie but doesn’t get a lot of screen time to shine, Tom Hiddleston meanwhile continues to be a bright light for this universe and it only cements my proof that he should be playing Prince Vegeta in a Dragon Ball Z film.

But alas there are two big issues with this movie:

- Firstly the film is far too long its 130 minutes and it could’ve easily lost 20 to 25 minutes off that length the Wilderpeople by contrast was only about 101 minutes and that film felt a lot punchier in terms of the impact of its humour and also the overall impact of the film itself whereas here the long runtime drags down the impact of its jokes and it makes the more heavier scenes feel out of place and this movie has that feel of the original Ghostbusters from 1984 in terms of balancing the seriousness with the comedy but that film was also only 105 minutes long and if Ragnarok had been around that runtime it would’ve worked much better as a film.

- Secondly and y’all know where this is going and it’s the same old song with the Marvel Studios villains and Blanchett is good in the film but she has very little screen time and a lot of her scenes feel disconnected from the main storyline as they have a much more serious feel to them and at times it takes away from the fun action sci-fi comedy tone the film strives for the most.

But again if the film had only been at that 105 to 110 minute length this might not have been such a problem but it is and it has also made me feel even more impatient for Thanos to show up in Avengers Infinity War next year and really emerge as the Mad Titan as Marvel Studios is in desperate need to make its villain work especially that one.

And so that was Thor: Ragnarok a really fun film even with that long length, 3 out of 5.