I tried to start a revolution... but I didn't print enough pamphlets

Thor: Ragnarok (2017)

8.4/10 on IMDb
97% on Rotten Tomatoes

Chloe's Thoughts: Signed, sealed, and recommended by Chloe;
Watch it in cinemas;
I'm buying the DVD

Watch it if you: Are a fan of Thor and the Hulk;
Are a fan of the Guardians of the Galaxy;
Want a fun, action-packed, outerspace movie with a lighthearted 80s vibe

Since the events from Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Thor's search for the Infinity Stones leads him to a bizarre planet where he must contend in a gladiator-like contest. He finds himself needing to defeat the Hulk in order to survive, while also trying to find a way to prevent the prophetic doom of Asgard.

When the trailers for this film first came out, I was excited to see it have a lighter tone, similar to Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), but was a bit worried they would try too hard, similar to Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017). Fortunately, I think they did a pretty good job this time around in balancing the superhero plot and the humour, and I had fun watching this film.

So firstly, this Guardians-esque tone was really refreshing, particularly considering the fact that the previous two Thor films (and even the Avengers and Captain America films) were very serious, dark and moody. At first, I thought they were trying too hard to be like Guardians, and I was getting concerned for the rest of the film (for example, at the very beginning there's a recurring joke that repeatedly breaks the tension created by an evil monologue, and it was getting tiring). However, I think the film picked up and the jokes started to land more and more, and it ended up being really enjoyable with some great laugh-out-loud moments.

Another thing that this film does differently is it kind of just gets your typical Thor stereotypes and turns it upside down. One small example that isn't a spoiler is cutting Thor's hair. The God of Thunder's luscious locks are gone, and so even just visually you can see that it's being set apart form other Thor movies.

While I think this may have been a cool thing for the director to do just so that it would make a refreshing Thor movie, I also think that the studio really wanted this film to bridge the very wide gap between The Avengers movies, the Doctor Strange movie, and The Guardians of the Galaxy movies. These three types of films all seem very, very, different, and when all these characters come together for the Infinity War movies later, it could be very jarring and it could be a complete disaster. There will be an overload of characters, different personalities, different tones, and just way too much witty banter.

Fortunately, this film does a great job at tying in the fact that Doctor Strange lives in the very same world that the Avengers live in, and the fact that Thor really does come from outer space, and from the same universe as the Guardians of the Galaxy. While we don't ever see Star Lord, we feel his presence through the tone of this film, so when we see them all come together for Infinity War, it's not going to be as jarring as it could have been. So I think they did a really good job at tying all these movies together. It's a big task, and there is a lot of room for a disaster to happen, but Marvel is handling it very well at this stage.

And that brings us to the characters. There was a great variety of characters in this film, and I quite enjoyed what they did with some character arcs. Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston as the on-again-off-again love/hate brothers were great as usual. As I said, they uproot a lot of what we know about Thor, and it gave a pretty cool, pretty badass, character arc for him.

They also expanded a lot more on the Hulk and Bruce Banner's relationship. I'm not too sure what to think of it at this stage but it brings up a lot of questions for what they will do with that character in future films. There was a lot more focus on the Hulk rather than Bruce Banner this time around, which again brought about an interesting character arc.

Then there's a bunch of other characters in this. Cate Blanchett as the goddess of death Hela was great. She was such a bad ass and dayum, when did she get so hot?! Galadriel, gurl, get it.

The only thing is that her villain's plot wasn't the best. They introduce her well but then she kind of just... doesn't do much. In terms of Marvel villains, though, she's better than a lot of other villains.

I also really loved Tessa Thompson as one of the Valkyries, it's great that we're seeing her in more roles (she was in Creed (2015) and Westworld (2016)).

Idris Elba is badass and cool as Heimdall, Karl Urban was in this, and there's even a Matt Damon cameo! Alongside Luke Hemsworth and Sam Neill, which I didn't even notice because I was so shocked and taken aback by Matt Damon.

There's also Jeff Goldblum and I feel like he was just playing himself honestly, because his character was so bizarre and whacky.

Click to show/hide spoilers:

Thor's hair is gone (and he screams like a baby when it gets cut), his right eye is gone (making him look more like his father), his hammer is gone, and his home realm is gone! Talk about uprooting everything we know and love about Thor. Interesting how they worked in the Thor helmet, but he's more Odin than Thor now.

Speaking of which, they had a great send off for Odin here. Anthony Hopkins has always given me the creeps since Silence of the Lambs (1991) (I kept thinking he was going to crazy in Westworld), but he's a very lovely old man in the Thor movies, and it was sweet what they did with his character. (Also, of course they made Odin hide out in Norway, since he's a Norse god.)

They also uprooted the Hulk character by firstly hardly having Mark Ruffalo in, then giving Hulk a personality and even making him talk. You find out he's a huge man/monster-child and it's confusing, it's bizarre, it's pretty great. The only thing is that Bruce Banner specifically states that if he turns into Hulk again, he won't come back as Bruce Banner. I'm glad they didn't do a cop out like oh-look-I-can-control-this-again-because-I'm-always-angry, and they made him stay as the Hulk at the end of the film, but I'm curious how this will play out in future movies. Will Bruce Banner die and will the Hulk remain? Will the Hulk die too so it won't be confusing?

Although I think one of my favourite scenes was when the Hulk was transforming back to Banner, after seeing the clip of Natasha. That was so heartbreaking and tragic, and it really showed how difficult it was for Banner to come out, because the Hulk really wanted to keep his own identity too.

I found it hilarious when we saw Thor's goofy smile when he was trying the lullaby on the Hulk. And then his constant massaging of Banner's shoulders while repeating, "Sun's getting low. Sun's going down."

Also, let's talk about Doctor Strange. Firstly I laughed at how similar 177b Bleecker Street sounds to 221B Baker Street, and the fact that Mister Benadryl Cucumberpatch is both Doctor Strange and Sherlock. I thought it was a nod to Sherlock at first, but it turns out it's just a strange (no pun intended) coincidence. It's almost too perfect, though.

But I loved how much magic he has learned since Doctor Strange. He's still super arrogant, and shows off all his crazy teleportation and portal abilities (I laughed so much at him teleporting and then us just seeing Thor rolling down the staircase), and he even makes Loki really confused about how he does all this stuff. I'm really excited to see his powers grow in the next film.

And was the mid-credits scene a lead up to Infinity War? I couldn't get past how part of the ship looked like it had the Transformers logo, but at first I thought it might be Thanos' ship. That would allow for Thor and the Guardians to meet, and then Thor could relay this to the Avengers so they'd all come together. But then I thought it might be weird for Thanos and Thor to meet like that, so perhaps it could have been Star Lord's ship?

Overall, I really enjoyed this film. I mean, it's kind of like a Mad Max/Gladiator in space movie, and it's like a crossover with Guardians, so what's not to love? Does the tone match a typical Thor movie? I don't know, probably not, but I enjoyed it and that's all that matters. The acting was great, the character arcs were interesting and refreshing, and I would recommend seeing it in cinemas. It's definitely a very enjoyable watch.

Oh, one final note: there's a mid-credits scene worth staying for, but the post-credits scene is definitely skipabble.