(WARNING: This review contains some spoilers from Thor: Ragnarok)
Thor: Ragnarok, what can I say? This movie was freaking amazing, I’d give it 10 out of 10 Goldblum’s. This is one of Marvel’s best movies to date and that’s saying a lot with movies like Iron Man, Captain America: Civil War, and even 2017’s Spider-Man: Homecoming. Ragnarok did a great job of not taking itself too seriously with a great balance of comedy and action in a movie about an impending unstoppable apocalypse. Also, for anyone keeping score out there, this is Marvel’s first movie to contain nudity (Spoiler, it’s not who you think it is!).
Thor: Ragnarok at its heart was a simple movie about one man who just wants to save his home and his people from the prophecy Ragnarok. Not much has changed with Thor’s personality from the first time we met him, he’s still a hot head who doesn’t understand his full potential, but I will say, by the end of the movie we finally saw the God of Thunder we’ve been waiting years to see. Ragnarok follows Thor’s journey to stop the imminent apocalyptic Ragnarok from destroying Asgard. We find out what Loki’s been up to these past few years (keep an eye out for some cameos during the play “Odin” is watching when we first find him). Next, we meet Thor and Loki’s sister Hela who has come to take her place as the ruler of Asgard, everything goes south for our hero who then winds up as a pawn by the Grandmaster (Jeff Goldblum) and must fight the Hulk to survive and be the grand champion. At this point, we finally know what Thor, Loki, and Hulk have been up to since we saw them last. There was one scene between Thor and Loki that really stuck out to me and that’s when Thor turns to Loki and explains how they always play the same game “First you gain my trust and then you betray me”, while this didn’t necessarily come full circle, I believe this to be major foreshadowing heading into Infinity Wars. The movie doesn’t quiet end how you’d expect, which is a good thing unlike many previous Marvel movies with their happy endings. Make sure to stick around through the credits since there is 1 mid-credit scene and 1 post credit scene.
The biggest shortcoming, I believe Ragnarok had was Karl Urban (Skurge/Executioner). Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed Karl Urban in Star Trek, but I felt Skurge/Executioner was just useless and could have been played by anyone. He had a simple redemption arc after being appointed to replace Heimdall (by fake Odin) and then he reluctantly betrayed the Asgardian people by siding with Hela just to go full circle and back to protecting the Asgardian people when it mattered most. The only other issue I had was that this Thor, like every other Thor storyline, involved his siblings being the main villains. There just has to be someone else for Thor to fight…Other than those complaints (I’d consider them very small compared to Iron Man 3’s Meridian nonsense) this movie was pretty flawless.
Overall, I’d say Taika Waititi’s directorial debut in the MCU…RAGNAROK’D! Yes, I was asked not to say that, but I don’t care, the movie Ragnarok’d, let’s say it again, RAGNAROK’D! Visually the movie was beautiful, every location we saw in the movie and just about every scene was very vibrant and diverse. Hela and Valkyrie are great additions to the Thor and MCU universe and I really hope we continue to see them in other MCU movies. Thor and the Hulk worked very well together since Waititi kept them both around the same intelligence level without making them too thoughtless. Jeff Goldblum was perfect to play the eccentric Grandmaster, who is easily one of my favorite actors in any movie. I’d love to hear your thoughts about Thor: Ragnarok! Did Loki steal the Tesseract to give to Thanos? Do you think Korg and Miek should have their own spin-off? Let us know what you thought of Thor: Ragnarok!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mike Maizel is a regular tech beat reporter, movie reviewer, and producer for NewsWatch. He loves all things tech, and can regularly be found outdoors in the mountains of Colorado.
