LogFAQs > #950836272

XIII Rocks
This movie is "slight", and the comedy is perhaps over-employed - not taking itself too seriously is great, but the literal destruction of Asgard is played off as a joke, and that's probably a mistake. I'm also not a huge fan of the Thor/Hulk fight for a couple of reasons - 1 is the dodgy CGI of the arena itself, which will not age well, and 2 is the fact that the way Hulk is built up in the movie is incongruous with the marketing. The movie refers to the "champion" of the arena as being unbeatable but never reveals that it's Hulk until Hulk himself appears. Which would have been a cool twist, except for the fact that Hulk is on the poster, and Hulk coming through the door into the arena and Thor's reaction is IN LIKE EVERY TRAILER. A bizarre lack of joined-up thinking there to be honest. Either don't market Hulk, or reveal his presence early. Don't go for something that seems like it'd be a big twist in the movie but market it like it's information you're expected to have.

But that's like the full extent of my complaints. This is the funniest movie in the MCU and revels in absurdity, oddity, mining comedy out of the weirdest and best situations (apart from the aforementioned Asgard whiff, which was a step too far). I've mentioned this in other writeups and I will again - sometimes movies have moments that are instantly memorable and elevate it, where the whole thing kind of gloriously clicks. This had one such moment where it really clicked with me and where I realised I was watching something awesome, and it's the shot of Thor, surrounded by lightning as he lands on the rainbow bridge just as Immigrant Song kicks in again. What a fucking great choice of music and a brilliant scene to go with it.

Hela, obviously, is a superb villain, and unlike the awful Malekith is fully involved in the humour of the movie, with some of her scenes with the Executioner being among the funniest. Cate Blanchett is having the time of her life here and helps showcase a powerful, intimidating villain who is understandable and looks supreme in that costume. And of course Jeff Goldblum is in this, playing it every inch as odd as you would expect him to, and almost steals the movie.

There's a ton of solid gold scenes and moments in this. I had a cough while watching it the first time, and it was aggravated multiple times by spontaneous, raucous laughter - notably by the moment Thor hits himself in the face with the ball; it's such easy slapstick comedy, but for whatever reason it got me good. I love the easy, seemingly-improvised scenes, too, such as the one where Thor tells the story about Loki and the snake. The reactions of Valkyrie (a really excellent addition) and Banner seem so smooth and natural.

Just a brilliantly watchable movie that gets everything a superhero movie is supposed to get right, right, in spades - and has that little bit of extra to make it unique (in this case, its unexpected, off-kilter humour).

Anagram
What if Thor was more like Guardians of the Galaxy? This was a good decision, if only because Chris Hemsworth is not a very good actor and is mostly just good at comedy. We also get Hela, one of the better villains, just hamming it up and looking like an evil queen.

NBIceman
The biggest point in this movies favor is that Taika Waititi showed up and was completely unafraid to just make a fun, weird, bombastic space story. But thats a really obvious talking point that Im sure everyone else is gonna cover better than I could, so Ill talk about the second-biggest point in its favor instead. Thor and Loki are arguably the characters that have developed the most across the entire MCU (and hell, Thors changed more even since Ragnarok), and theyre now at the point where their interplay basically carries the whole film. They strike a great balance between genuine/heartfelt and legitimately funny. Thors new easygoing, jokey nature allows Lokis gradual shift to Chaotic Neutral to shine, and at long last, the rest of the cast actually complements that. The scenes with Odin are fantastic, Doctor Stranges cameo is delightful, Hulk is utilized perfectly, and Thor descending on the zombies with Immigrant Song playing has already gone down as an all-time MCU moment. Helas unfortunately a Phase 1 villain in a Phase 3 movie, which is what keeps it from being part of the very top tier for me, but the rest of it is wonderful. Very much deserving of all the love it gets.

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