Thor: Ragnarok

A minor improvement over the previous installment, 2013 ’s Thor: The Dark World, Thor: Ragnarok follows Chris Hemsworth’s title hero as he attempts to defeat a deadly villain (Cate Blanchett’s Hela) bent on universal domination – with the movie also detailing Thor’s exploits on a garbage planet overseen by Jeff Goldblum’s goofy but dangerous Grandmaster. It’s ultimately clear that Thor: Ragnarok is at its best in its fast-paced and almost incongruously entertaining opening stretch, as filmmaker Taika Waititi, working from a script written by Christopher L. Yost, Craig Kyle, and Eric Pearson, delivers a first act that’s far more charming and downright funny than one might’ve anticipated. (There is, for example, a hilarious bit near the beginning involving Thor’s continuous interruptions of a seemingly fierce baddie.) It’s only as the movie progresses into its midsection, set almost entirely on that aforementioned garbage planet, that Waititi’s grip on the viewer begins to steadily loosen, as there really isn’t much of interest transpiring within this portion of the proceedings and it does, as such, become exceedingly difficult to overlook the padded-out needlessness of most of these scenes. The less-than-engrossing vibe is compounded by a final third devoted primarily to the buildup (and prolonged) battle between Thor and Blanchett’s one-note antagonist, with the movie’s climax suffering from exactly the sort of endless, CGI-heavy feel that tends to plague all Marvel releases – which ultimately does ensure that Thor: Ragnorok ends on as underwhelming a note as one could envision. It’s too bad, certainly, given the potential afforded by the strong first half and stronger-than-expected supporting cast, with the massively overlong running time unquestionably playing a key role in confirming the film’s pronounced downfall (ie the movie would’ve been improved greatly by some serious streamlining).

** out of ****