On our drive up to Idyllwild, we were hoping that we’d run into a convenient situation where we’d be able to see the new Thor: Ragnarok in theaters, and we were fortunate! I did, however, waste a significant amount of time trying to explain what I thought would be the back story to this film. The MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) is quickly growing and for anyone who doesn’t know the comics or watch the movies many times, you can get lost in the timeline. I had to remind Fit that Thor and Hulk were not in Civil War, so these two movies were most likely taking place at the same time and leading towards The Avengers: Infinity War, along with Ant-Man and Guardians of the Galaxy 2, and who knows what else.
But that was the easy part. The hard part was explaining what Ragnarok is, who Hela is, about the Midgard Serpent, about Fenrir, and all that good stuff. Fit ended up getting it for the most part, minus the resetting of the Universe after every Ragnarok. Essentially, the most important part in the comics, related to the previous Thor movies, is that Odin sent Thor to Earth in order to disrupt the events leading up to the past Ragnaroks. Odin’s hope is that taking away Thor’s power and sending him to Earth would change the inevitable end of the world. They changed Hela’s origin story, the Midgard serpent doesn’t appear… oh sorry, spoilers.
Enough of that, let’s talk about what this movie brought to the table. It was a crazy fusion between Planet Hulk and Thor Ragnarok, which worked well because not only did Thor and Hulk have great on-screen chemistry, but Thor and Bruce Banner also got along well. You can just tell watching this movie that Taika Waititi clearly created a filming environment that nearly everyone enjoyed. We couldn’t help but notice all the roles by some of the best Kiwi/Maori actors and even the crazy cameos by Matt Damon and Chris Hemsworth’s older brother.
Fortune worked in the favor of the fans when the previous director decided to drop out and they brought Taika in, giving the largest directing budget to an indigenous person. Taika embraced his skills that we saw in the past and produced something that could compete with the beauty of “The Hunt for the Wilderpeople“. You wouldn’t expect that from a superhero movie, but this movie showed a budget very well spent on a talented cast and incredible CGI. We even had a chance to see the set of The Grandmaster’s city on the planet Sakaar. For such a small model, the attention to detail was out of this world. (No pun intended.)
There is far too much to say about this film and while it may have deviated from the comic, it did it in an epic and outstanding way that brought Thor and Hulk into the forefront of the Avengers leading into Infinity War. With the expected outstanding performance by Idris Elba, a role that made you think Cate Blanchett was 30 years old, and Taika stealing the show while voicing Korg, you couldn’t take your eyes off the screen. This was, very arguably, our favorite MCU movie to date and it got us excited again for Infinity War, which, judging by that post-credits scene, is so much closer than anyone thinks.
