Directed by : Taika Waititi 

It feels more like a promise than a curse. So, this is my vow : all gods will die.

Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman and Christian Bale in 'Thor : Love and Thunder'

Spoilers ahead..


Gorr - The Butcher (Christian Bale) after a personal tragedy seeks extinction of the Gods, and the next in his path is Asgard. To fight him, Thor (Chris Hemsworth) takes help of King Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson), Korg (voice by Taika Waititi) and his ex-girlfriend Jane Foster (Natalie Portman). 

The movie starts with Gorr losing his daughter when his prayers to his God are unanswered. This results in him getting drawn to the cursed Necrosword eventually killing his God as he believes this sword is not a curse but a promise that 'All Gods must die'. Such a dark start gives hope to what the movie could potentially be trying to do here, but all those hopes are diminished right after this. 

From the trailers itself, I feared this is the film that I will be getting, and to be frank its not bad as I feared, there are certainly some scenes that makes you laugh. The sad part however is that its nowhere close to as good as 1st or specially 3rd film was. Its just about better than the Thor 2 : The Dark World. 

I feel this movie works more as either a nepotism way (Chris Hemsworth wife, two sons and daughter are all in the movie) or buildup to next Thor movie with the way they kill Jane sending her to Walhalla and Thor looks after daughter of Gorr. Russell Crowe cameo (playing God Zeus) comes across very irritating and cringeworthy, my guess is that the idea was to replicate somewhat of Grandmaster (played by Jeff Goldblum) in the last movie but it misfires totally. And the end credits suggest we might go a very silly route for a sub-plot where Zeus son takes revenge for the humiliation he got by Thor and co. 

Christian Bale is excellent in the short screen-time he gets, specially the horroresque shot sequence where he kidnaps children. He is ofcourse totally under-utilised, and also a poorly written character because for someone named 'The Butcher' you would expect atleast one violent scene to showcase how deeply he is hurt and wants to release his pain, but we never get any of that. Instead we are told that off-screen he has butchered many Gods. To be honest, even the little he fights with Thor or anyone else, it comes across as a weak villain who just isn't strong enough which again questions how the hell is he 'The Butcher'. 

Tessa Thompson just like Bale is totally wasted, given insignificant scenes in the little screen-time she gets. They could had easily explored her life since she became the King of Asgard in much better way instead of the comical robotic duties performed. 

As happy as I was to see the return of Natalie Portman, who even has a good role until the very end when they decide to kill her off. This again brings out the question if this movie was just a means to tie off all the loose ends and narratives, rather than attempt something else in the post Thanos/Natasha/Ironman era. Even the whole flashback done by Korg that included unseen scenes between Thor and Jane during the times they were together leading to the breakup gave that same vibe. It was great to see her hold the hammer/Mjolnir and really look like the Mighty Thor, and also her funny attempts to say catchphrases. 

Chris Hemsworth comic timing is great as always, even though the tone of his goofiness is little too much at places. I did enjoy his talks with Stormbreaker and his ex-weapon Mjolnir. And great chemistry with Natalie, while its sad to see very less of him with Tessa this time. 

Guardians of the Galaxy gets just one appearance at start of the movie, which is a good thing, where its mostly Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) who gets a good scene telling Thor its good to feel shitty over a lost love than feeling empty having never loved. In a way, Thor's journey in this movie goes through this feeling, if only it was explored in a much better way. 

The soundtrack in Thor Ragnarok was terrific, I totally missed the use of Led Zeppelin's 'The Immigrant'. Instead we see 'Guns n Roses' that doesn't really have the same impact. 

In the end, Thor - Love and Thunder, is watchable with some laughs, which is a disappointment because Marvel movies with exception of Spiderman : No Way Home have started to go the average route way too consistently. Something has to change or this whole superhero saga may not last any more phases. 

My Rating : 5/10