The Marvel Universe has moved past self-consciousness and gone straight to parody. Five years ago, this version of Thor: Ragnarok would have been called “Phor: I’m a rock” and it would have been produced and directed by a totally different studio with the intent of lampooning the very burgeoning market of comic book film franchises. Marvel has just decided to do it themselves. It’s true that Ragnarok has more in common with Spaceballs than Star Wars, but what of it? As I watched it, I got the sense that Marvel was just speeding faster into its own cannibalistic trend, in an attempt to brush past audience fatigue and head right back into the nostalgia pit that these films called home to begin with.

But Ragnarok works specifically because it thinks of itself as a comedy first. This is most likely the influence of New Zealand director Taika Waititi, an actor and comedian, who now directs his fourth feature film – by far his biggest. Last year, his film The Hunt for the Wilderpeople was released, starring Sam Neill and a precocious Julian Dennison, and that was one of the smartest, funniest films of 2016. Waititi had more time and space to really spend time with his actors and flesh out the story in Wilderpeople, which is what makes it so exceptional. Ragnarok is filled with the usual cornucopia of plot that all these films have, so Waititi must settle for stuffing the jokes in when he can, and he gets in a surprising amount of them.

Chris Hemsworth returns to play Thor, as does Tom Hiddleston to play his meddlesome brother Loki. With a crisp, shorter haircut Hemsworth proves to be sexier as a mere mortal than as a god. He gets the haircut after being driven out of his home of Asgard by Hela (a fierce Cate Blanchett), the Goddess of Death and the sister he never knew he had. She smashes his famous hammer before sending him off into the mysteries of the galaxy. He ends up imprisoned on another planet named Sakaar, led by an eccentric Grandmaster (Jeff Goldblum), who collects intergalactic slaves to fight Colosseum-style in front of a raucous crowd. Thor chooses to fight the Grand Champion in the hopes of winning his freedom. That champion turns out to be his old friend, The Incredible Hulk.

So you can see that the film’s script (by Eric Pearson, Craig Kyle and Christopher Yost) is spinning wheels to get as many non-Thor characters in as possible, which is nothing new. Benedict Cumberbatch’s Doctor Strange makes a brief appearance for not totally plot-solid reasons, but it does provide the film with a quick, effective bit of physical comedy. After finding the Hulk (who eventually does morph back into Mark Ruffalo’s Bruce Banner), Thor hopes to devise a plan to head back to Asgard in time to stop Hela on her plan of complete domination. He recruits Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson) – the very person who captured him in Sakaar to begin with – after learning she’s a fellow Asgardian, but first has to think of how to escape this strange planet and the maniacal Grandmaster.

A good deal of Ragnarok takes place on Sakaar, which allows Waititi to really flesh out the more eccentric aspects of his film, covering his sets and costumes with sugary pastels. The casting of Goldblum is a particularly brilliant choice, as he gives a very no-assembly-required performance, filling his screen time with a varied number of Goldblum-isms that all manage to be quite enjoyable. It also introduces us to a character named Korg (voice by Waititi), another one of the Grandmaster’s enslaved gladiators, made completely out of crumbling rock. Korg’s gentle, deadpan delivery is Ragnarok‘s single funniest aspect, and I can definitely see Korg being the focus of his own superhero spoof one day.

It’s a bummer to admit that by far the least interesting portion of the film is Cate Blanchett’s Hela, who is very standard where movie villains are concerned. Blanchett’s very presence is enough to elevate the character, and she has a few moments that allow her to also participate in Ragnarok‘s precise comedic timing, but for the most part she’s just an Asgardian Maleficent – all fury and fire, and little substance. Hemsworth as Thor is seductively charming, as he proves that he is closer to Channing Tatum than Arnold Schwarzenegger. He has all the tools for complete movie stardom in an age where movie stars don’t really exist any more. Ragnarok does him justice.

Like all of these movies, Ragnarok feels long. I will always be against the compulsion of stuffing so much plot into a film that you know will have several sequels. It makes the movies feel nervous, as if any day this will be the last one they get to make, though we all know that’s not true. Superhero fatigue at the movies is real, and I feel it every day, but that does not mean there aren’t still good films being made at Disney and Marvel. Ragnarok isn’t really that risky a gamble, but in choosing Waititi to direct, they did make a decision to try something unique, interesting, and at the very least incredibly funny. I didn’t even see the first two Thor films and I got through this one just fine.

 

 

Directed by Taika Waititi