Love Avoids a Blunder

With 2017's Ragnarock Taika Waititi took an MCU also ran and made one of the franchises few must see movies. He doesn't quite manage to capture lightning in a bottle twice but he does deliver a perfectly acceptable blockbuster.

In many ways Love and Thunder is one of the Marveliest of Marvel movies, something in bad guys past (admittedly something pretty terrible in this case) makes him go all genocidal and to complete his evilness he must find the magic macguffin while the heroes try to stop him via some snappy banter and middling action sequences. The film stands tall in that it has funnier humour than most of its stablemates and a villain that leaves their mark. You'd need to look far and wide to find an actor put in more work with so little time than Christian Bale as god shanker Gorr, elevating a character that could easily have been another Malekith the Accursed into one of the franchises most memorable villains.

While Love and Thunder has no problem balancing its jovial tone with a menacing villain it is less successful at adding a stage four cancer story to the mix. The physical transformation in Natalie Portman's Jane from wasting away patient to shredded Mjolnir wielder is impressive and Portman looks like she is actually enjoying being in one of these for the first time but the story doesn't half bring an Asgardian size elaphant into the room. It's pretty hard to believe that in all his travels through the cosmos Thor hasn't been to one place he thinks might have a shot at curing cancer.

A rather subdued film by Taika Waititi standards and there is no doubt the Marvel formula has been worn so thin its transparent but there is still fun to be had and Thor gets a satisfying end to his story.

7 love hearts out of 10 thunderbolts.

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