Thor: Ragnarok is a bitter Pre-Christmas present

Genre: Action, Adventure, Drama, Comedy, Fantasy
Director: Taika David Waititi
Cast: Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Cate Blanchett
Duration: 130mins

Call it The Starkening. After Iron Man’s alter ego got neurotic in ‘Iron Man 3’ and moral hypocrite in ‘Captain America Civil War’ his spirit of devil-may-care quippiness was forced to roam the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe), seeking new hosts. And it found some, however unlikely: first a master of Eastern mysticism (Doctor Strange), and now a Nordic war deity. Director Taika Waititi’s take on the God of Thunder plays a bit like rock mockumentary loaded with ill-made jokes, built around a severe humbling, and full of silly bombast.

I know that not only many viewers, but also many film critics have praised the film Thor: Ragnarok for the humour it has and for its self-parodying snooping. I don’t know. For my part, I found a mediocre humour and if it stands out, it is because the whole movie is equal or worse in mediocrity.

I say it quickly: if it’s about such a humour, Thor Ragnarok falls very soon in the calibration of its effectiveness. Their jokes are stale and they are pure rhetoric of vain cinema. Jokes have no depth, because they do not go beyond the most unnecessary self-reference, characteristic of schematic characters, poorly designed, mono-thematic & one-dimensional.

This time, Thor and Loki discover that they have a goddess sister, Hela, so bad that Loki looks like a new-born child. That becomes horrendous family lawsuit, without the presence of Odin (do the gods die?), to the point that if we take away the very exaggerated visual effects and the acceptable photograph of Javier god-knows-what, what is left is a parody or a spoof packed with a shoehorn in the fantasy genre.

Not to mention the soundtrack, based on “ruinous noisy noises” and something techno-pop that may or may not be techno-pop. The narrated story stretches more than the bill, divided into three distinct parts that take away the connection or link to the total argument: three in one, like that, at a pure pulse and between occurrences.

With weakly designed characters, the performances are more lacklustre than one could possibly fathom. Saying this, I can only save the strength of Cate Blanchett as Hela, turned cruel villain from his gallantry, and the crazy hedonism of Jeff Goldblum as the king of an extravagant site that starts from a garbage dump and where they have imprisoned the Hulk.

With some sequences out there well achieved, so few that I could list them one at a time, the truth is that Thor Ragnarok is insubstantial and an insipid film that fans of superhero films can see like this, so as not to lose the habit or the Marvel commercial thread. Of course, they must endure ridicule against their heroes in the film itself.

Finally, if this film is mediocre as a comedy, as a drama it’s even worse.

• About the Author

About Saurodeep Basak

A caffeine dependent life form. Full-time procrastinator. A man-child. I have this new theory that human adolescence doesn’t end until your early thirties. A man of mystery and power whose power is exceeded only by his mystery. The only thing stopping me from shining in life is my sheer lack of motivation.