Thor Love And Thunder Review, Discussion And Reactions

[Herbert Playz]

Intro
This movie was so wild and off the rails, that I'm finally convinced that what we've been watching in the latest MCU movies; Spider-man No Way Home, Dr. Strange Multiverse of Madness and now Thor Love and Thunder are the aftershocks of Loki's shenanigans with the Timekeepers.

Odd Cuts From scene to Scene
Thor Love and Thunder feels like a B movie that was given a massive budget. It's extremely cheesy and has some odd cuts in it, which often time leaves the viewer with the feeling of "wait, what just happened"? Certain scenes in the movie just seem to fly by like we are rushing through some scenes to meet a certain runtime.

A great example is the opening sequence. After the previews the movie just starts. We are in an arid landscape looking at Gorr before he becomes the god Butcher. He's obviously starving and dehydrated. He begins praying to a god for help in taking care of his daughter. She ends up dying, he buries her, he then hears something and starts walking and then all of a sudden he is in a lush green forest! How does he get there? Is this is a mirage?

The change is so sudden that you almost think it has to be a mirage.  But its not, he's somehow come upon the very god he was praying to in the desert for help. There is never any real explanation of how he got there. He then shortly proceeds to insult the god, get choked out and the sword just magically appears in his hand, which he uses to kill the god. 

Another example is when Thor goes to defend new Asgard, when they get there at night, the town is immediately attacked. And while its being attacked, Valkyrie just burst out of a portal through the sky. With no explanation of how she did that(she never shows this power again in the movie.) This whole scene is oddly cut.

After a brief fight, Gorr is like I can't beat the original Thor and Thor Jane😂, at the same time. So he starts grabbing all the kids. And within about 9 seconds of actual screen time, he somehow manages to round up all the young kids of new Asgard on an isolated hill, far away from town and teleports away to the shadow realm. Because obviously this cursed sword can do everything and teleport the wielder everywhere but the one place they actually want to go. Thor in comparison can barely control "the Bifrost" with his Warbreaker. Which brings up another issue, retconning is rampant in this movie.

Retroactive Continuity and World Building Issues
The first and most obvious retcon is Thor's relationship with Jane Foster. When we last saw Thor in Avengers End game he is going adventuring with the Guardians of the Galaxy. But for some reason, in Thor Love and Thunder, we are treated to a sequence where Thor lived with Jane for a time. I'm assuming this is sometime after the events of Thor 2 dark world and before Age of Ultron.

During this time it is shown that Thor seems to have accidentally put a spell on mjolnir to protect Jane, which is supposedly how she is able to wield mjolnir in Thor Love and Thunder. But this makes no sense! Because now mjolnir is able to deconstruct and recombine at will. This retcon renders Hela's destruction of Mjolnir totally mute!  Thor should be able to recombine mjolnir by sheer force of will. Why would Mjolnir magically reconstruct itself just for Jane and not for Thor? It makes no sense at all!

Another retcon is that Thor can somehow use "the Bifrost" without actually having a Bifrost??? LOL. Maybe its just a huge error in terminology. But in avengers infinity war, Heimdall was able to somehow use "dark magic" to create a rainbow bridge that transports Hulk away from Thanos, so he wouldn't be killed. When Heimdall uses this power, it looks awfully similar to the way "the Bifrost" looks when Heimdall operated the machine in Thor 1, back in Asgard. If Heimdall could create a rainbow bridge(the Bifrost) by just touching his sword Hofund, why was the machine on Asgard ever needed? This feels like a big continuity issue.

Traditionally I always looked at the machine in Asgard as "the Bifrost". But over time it seems like the MCU has slowly changed the definition of what "the Bifrost" is. Now with the retconning taking place, it seems important to view "the Bifrost" not as the machine itself but simply as a rainbow bridge.

After the machine was broken in Thor 1, Thor could no longer travel via a rainbow bridge, this is verbally confirmed by Thor right before he destroys the machine and again in a conversation with Heimdall at the end of Thor 1. At this time everyone clearly is referring to the machine as "The Bifrost".

In Thor 2 Dark World we are shown and told that "the Bifrost" has been rebuilt. Clearly still referencing the machine. Then later on in Thor 3 Ragnarök, Asgard is destroyed by Sutur. But somehow with Asgard destroyed, it seems like Thor has gained the power to create a rainbow bridge using his Stormbreaker weapon and the MCU refers to it as Thor using "the Bifrost".

There are major continuity issues with this because it would mean that Heimdall was so powerful that he was able to create "the Bifrost"(rainbow bridge) by just using his sword. This ability is actually quite problematic because as we were told in Thor 1, "the Bifrost"(rainbow bridge) is powerful enough on its own to destroy entire worlds if left unchecked. And Heimdall has left behind a son with his eyes and powers.

I really think the MCU needs to make up its mind on its terminology. Its clear to me that the machine on Asgard was originally considered "the Bifrost". Heimdall was its guardian and principal user. Heimdall would use his sword to activate the machine. "The Bifrost" was capable of creating a rainbow bridge to other worlds. Earthlings such as Jane Foster referred to this rainbow bridge as an Einstein Rosen bridge. But by giving Heimdall the ability to create an Einstein Rosen bridge using his own "dark magic"(whatever that is,) without the use of the machine, and then allowing Thor to do the same via Stormbreaker(even though Asgard and the machine is destroyed) they've totally negated the existence of the original machine on Asgard. 

The MCU needs to find a way to sort this out, because right now, based on what we were told about the power of "the Bifrost" in Thor 1, Thor should have the ability to destroy entire planets with the Stormbreaker. To get this all figured out we need a good explanation on what dark magic is, who can use it and a clear explanation on what purpose the machine on Asgard served was and why everyone was originally referring to it as "the Bifrost". 

Plotholes
Once Jane, Thor and Valkyrie discovered that Gorr needed to use the Stormbreaker to get to Eternity they should've immediately have left and used Stormbreaker to go to Eternity themselves and made a wish to just remove Gor's power or any number of other useful wishes. According to the plot of the movie, there was only one wish and it goes to whoever gets there first. By making any wish the heroes would automatically neutralize any wish Gorr could make.

Another huge plothole is Zeus. If Zeus actually knew that Gor was a threat and had enough confidence in his son Hercules to actually send him after Thor to try and take him down with the amount of power and combat experience that Thor's obtained so far, then its obvious to me that he should have just sent Hercules along with him to defeat Gorr when they asked for help.

Gorr had decent power because of the sword but he definitely wasn't all powerful. Hercules, original Thor,  Valkyrie and "Thor Jane" should have been more than enough.

Another plothole, with the Stormbreaker and Hofund having the ability to summon the Bifrost which can take you to eternity, why in the world would Thor not simply transport himself directly to Eternity in Infinity War and wish Thanos out of existence?

The Title
A nice little surprise to me was that the title Thor Love and Thunder is not a reference to Thor and Jane Foster but instead its a reference to Thor adopting Gorr The god Butcher's daughter. This is extra interesting because she obviously has some type of Celestial related power. Fun fact, Gorr's daughter in the movie is actually Chris Hemsworth's real life daughter.

I'm glad Thor finally has something in life to care for. The writers should no longer paint him as the aimless, depressed down on his luck super hero.

Summary
For me Thor Love and Thunder is a fairly entertaining movie with strong B movie vibes. It is without a doubt the weakest Thor movie(by far). Its like the MCU saw the success of Thor Ragnarök and from there, allowed director Taika Waititi and Chris Hemsworth to do whatever they wanted to do in the making of this movie. Chris Hemsowrth actually has his wife and kids appear in this movie. It almost feels like an inside joke at this point, with the likes of Russell Crowe, Matt Damon and Christian Bale all in on the gag. It feels like none of them ever really take their roles seriously.  For them its an opportunity to jump in, clown around, grab a paycheck and get your face some guaranteed screen time in front of an international audience.

The general public will always flock to see these kinds of films but as a fan of great fantasy worlds and good worldbuilding there is a lot to be desired. On a scale of 1-10 with 5 being average I'd score this movie a 4. It has some funny moments, some cool action scenes and characters we've grown to love over the years but ultimately falls far short of what most true fans would want from a movie when bringing these characters to life. By all means go see it and be entertained. But you're going to likely leave the theater wishing there was a bit more meat with all this cheese.

 

[Herbert Playz]

 

[Herbert Playz]

 

[Herbert Playz]

 

[Herbert Playz]

 

[Herbert Playz]

 

[Herbert Playz]

 

[Herbert Playz]

 

[Herbert Playz]

 

[Herbert Playz]