The two previous Thor films always seemed like placeholders to quell audiences excitement for upcoming bigger and better Marvel comic book movie adaptations. Yes, the Thor films are mildly entertaining but no great shakes...until now. Thor: Ragnarok is by far the best of the Thor movies, thanks to a gleefully tongue-in-cheek approach.
The God of Thunder, Thor (Chris Hemsworth), must battle his wicked sister Hela (Cate Blanchett) from destroying his home of Asgard. Along the way, he is forced into arena combat by an oppressive ruler (a hilarious Jeff Goldblum), which is where Thor reunites with Hulk (Mark Ruffalo). Thor also teams up with his adopted trickster brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston) as well as the hard-drinking Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson).
Director Taika Waititi (What We Do in the Shadows) has fashioned Ragnarok as an action-comedy with the emphasis on comedy. This really is the funniest Marvel movie to date. Waititi takes so many typical action movie moments and completely turns them on their ear. For example, in one scene Thor delivers an impassioned speech about how he is the one to save Asgard. To emphasize his point, he intends to throw a concrete ball through a window. However, the ball bounces off the shatterproof window and hits our hero in the head, knocking him out cold. Something silly like that happens every few minutes in Ragnarok, making this film completely disarming, even if it is a little longish.
As for the action scenes, they are very exciting, and to have Led Zeppelin's Immigrant Song play during not one but two big action moments is pretty bad ass.
