Thor: Ragnarok (2017)

Thor: Ragnarok (2017)

IMDB Rating : 8.3 (as on 29.10.2017)

PG-13 | 2h 10min | Action, Adventure, Comedy

 Imprisoned, the mighty Thor finds himself in a lethal gladiatorial contest against the Hulk, his former ally. Thor must fight for survival and race against time to prevent the all-powerful Hela from destroying his home and the Asgardian civilization.

Director: Taika Waititi

Writers: Eric Pearson, Craig Kyle

Stars: Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Cate Blanchett

IMDB Link Here

Movie Rating ★★★★☆  

Humour lightens another load of Marvel  

Wendy Ide 

The thing that most annoys me about comic book superhero movies, is that they are so intent on hitting the required beats of the formula that there is very little space left to squeeze in a sense of a distinctive directorial voice. In this at least, Thor: Ragnarok is a departure. New Zealand director Taika Waititi takes the helm of the latest instalment of the adventures of Marvel’s meathead minor deity.

And while Waititi is not credited as a writer, you do get a tangible sense of his input, not just in the humour of the film – it’s the funniest Marvel so far by no small margin – but in the nature of that humour. In common with Waititi’s vampire mockumentary What We Do in the Shadows, the film finds absurd comedy by juxtaposing the extraordinary with deliciously prosaic details. A badass warrior made of lumps of granite (and voiced by Waititi himself) bemoans a rebellion that failed because of a lack of pamphlets. A formidable flesh-liquefying weapon wielded by Grandmaster, Jeff Goldblum’s despot/game-show host, is referred to, with deadpan banality, as “the melt stick”.

The film also manages a distinctive look – the dual backdrops of Thor’s threatened home planet, Asgard, and Sakaar, the junk-strewn setting for Grandmaster’s gladiatorial battles, are strikingly realised. But perhaps the most fun comes from the prickly fraternal jostling between Chris Hemsworth’s lovable lunk Thor and his trickster stepbrother Loki (an enjoyably malicious Tom Hiddleston).

 Read full review at The Guardian

Movie Rating ★★★★☆ 

Good gods! Taika Waititi breathes life into Marvel's outcast

Craig Mathieson

All credit to Taika Waititi. Like one of the characters in his assured mash-up of pop culture debris, Norse mythology, and superhero sarcasm, the New Zealand filmmaker has breathed life into a dormant body.

Waititi understands the caped conventions of the superhero movie, it's just that he can't be bothered sustaining them. Starting from the opening scene, where Thor (Chris Hemsworth) confronts a demon of fiery dimensions, the villain's monologue keeps getting interrupted by comically minor intrusions. Throw in a touch of Evil Dead-era Sam Raimi​ as a hammer slices through the air with camera in tow and you have a viable antidote. The choice Kiwi accents, bro, are a bonus.

Thor, finally, is in on the joke after playing the po-faced crown prince of the astral realm of Asgard. With her head thrown back like Gloria Swanson in Sunset Boulevard, Blanchett is a "Goddess of Death" with contemporary allusions.

Waititi's previous films, such as 2010's Boy and 2016's Hunt for the Wilderpeople, turned on the inadequacies of family, and that continues here even as Thor tries to escape the Grandmaster (a delicious Jeff Goldblum​). A gladiator in a sci-fi Thunderdome, Thor encounters a swaggering bounty hunter (Tessa Thompson) and another Marvel headliner, Mark Ruffalo's double act of the raging Hulk and nerdy Bruce Banner.

Given such generous assets, Waititi folds the elements together with a fearless feel for tone: there are graceful master shots to frame action sequences, then a post-apocalyptic encounter cut through with primary colours instead of bleak greys. Thor still has to get his father's benediction, but Ragnarok makes mass destruction and a superhero's responsibility equal to adventure thrills and eccentric diversions.

Put Waititi's success together with James Mangold's grim, elegiac Logan and Patty Jenkins' triumphant Wonder Woman and it's clear that 2017 is the year comic book movies discovered the value of a distinct voice. Hopefully it lasts.

 Read full review at Sydney Morning Herald

Ragnarok Is More an Approximation of Fun Than the Real Thing

Stephanie Zacharek 

Thor is one of the more ridiculous Marvel superheroes, which also makes him one of the best. You don’t need to have multiple generations’ worth of superhero mythology under your belt to comprehend this God of Thunder with a hearty appetite for beer and a bodybuilder’s brawn; it’s permissible to just like him.

Thor: Ragnarok is boyishly eager to reveal Thor’s goofy likability to us, as if it were something we hadn’t yet cottoned to. Directed by the enormously talented New Zealand filmmaker Taika Waititi, it’s well intentioned but ultimately numbing, an instance of fun overkill whose ultimate goal seems to be to put us into a special-effects coma. Not even the occasional inspired touch — like Cate Blanchett as the silky villainess Hela — can save it. It’s at least three movies rolled into one, with maybe half a decent one in there. But like Thor himself, it sure is big. And if you value quantity over quality, it’s a lot of movie for the money.

Thor: Ragnarok is packed tight with zooming space vehicles and noisy thunder battles, but the movie’s extravagant excess is more narcotizing than energizing. Even poor Thor seems lost in all of it, and he’s supposed to be its star. Waititi appears to be following the example of James Gunn’s tiresomely adorable Guardians of the Galaxy movies. Even if his touch is a tad lighter, like Gunn, he sends up the flare every other minute: “Hey, this is a movie based on a comic-book! It’s supposed to be fun! Let’s not take any of it too seriously!” These are increasingly elaborate approximations of fun rather than the real thing. Meanwhile, the studio’s money — in this case, it’s that of Walt Disney Pictures — is splashed resplendently on the screen. The meter is running every minute, and don’t you forget it.

All of this would be less depressing if Waititi were just your random independent filmmaker making the jump to big-budget pictures. This isn’t the first overstuffed superhero movie, and it won’t be the last. But he’s too original to be wasting his time this way. His previous features include the breezy, offbeat Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016), a lovely but not cloying picture about grief and coming of age (and one with a foundation in Waititi's Maori roots), as well as the gloriously wiggy lo-fi vampire comedy What We Do in the Shadows (2014). Waititi has a gift for ramshackle madness with a strong undercurrent of compassion — but honestly, where is that going to get you these days? Today the reward for being a terrific or at least just an interesting independent filmmaker is to be put at the helm of a big-budget superhero movie, which means you shoot for a couple of months and then spend a year (or more) in post-production, supervising the layering of elaborate special effects and, most likely, putting out lots of fires. Much of moviemaking is putting out fires — it has always been so. Still, the big movie franchises are not where the best filmmaking is being done. You can’t blame anyone for wanting to try his — or her — hand at it. But the hammer of power is really a pretty tiny one, much, much smaller than it looks on the big screen.

Read full review at Time

Movie Rating ★★☆☆☆ 

Cate Blanchett plays Hela, the sister of Thor, wielding “limitless power” and even more in the way of mascara, who has returned from banishment to destroy Thor’s home of Asgard in fulfilment of the ancient prophecy of Ragnarok. An even more powerful force is at work in the land, however: the box-office returns of Guardians of the Galaxy 1 and 2, which have enacted a prophecy more far-reaching in its consequences: henceforth every Marvel superhero movie is to be remodelled as light comedy.

Thus, while Blanchett is put on hold for an hour or so, Thor (Chris Hemsworth) is whisked off to another planet with the production design of a Viking disco, where he gets a haircut, takes selfies and banters with the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) like Hope and Crosby in the On the Road movies. Best of all, Jeff Goldblum pops up as a Hunger Games-like mastermind in a gold robe (“Hey, Sparkles ...”), oozing showbiz smarminess.

But Hemsworth, bless him, is no Hope, and you may find yourself longing for the days when superheroes played it straight. “Just this once, can Hulk do something other than smash?” Thor asks Hulk. What is he supposed to do, compose piano waltzes?

 Read full review at The Times