THOR ODINSON: From ‘God of Thunder’ to Comic relief- Why Marvel?… WHY?
Let me begin by stating that I am a fan of the MCU films. (Despite feeling let down by some of them). I am also an avid comic book geek and although I am really a ‘DC’ guy (Shout-out to the one and only Kal-El aka Superman), I do also enjoy the Marvel comics.
Thor Odinson is one of my favourite Marvel comic book characters and I had initially liked the MCU take on the character, ala the first film and its much-hated sequel, ‘The Dark World.”
Whilst I am a huge fan of his film origin story (not so much the sequel), it is the actual character that I especially liked in those films. Then along came “Ragnarök”, which I dislike quite a bit, primarily due to the way that they have changed the character. Not to mention the movie also turned ‘The Hulk’ into a joke! But that is a conversation for another time.
Now, I understand that you must move with the times and change things up, keep the audience guessing, and I do appreciate that. However, in my opinion, these films and the son of Odin is now just played for laughs. I believe this character has changed the most out of all the other MCU characters since his first film. Not because of the movie arc’s, such as Iron Man who matured and become more responsible through his movie series. The once mighty ‘God of Thunder’ has become… well… just simply comic relief.
In Ragnarök, his father died, his sister came back and fought him, he was marooned on another planet, he lost his home planet, but it was hard to take any of those aspects serious as the movie was just one joke after another. If there was a ‘sad’ moment, it was then automatically made light-hearted, usually with Thor making or being involved in a silly moment or action. This is a totally different character from what he was like in the first two films where he was a much more serious character.
I actually found him very funny in the first two movies, not because of the silly jokes that he was making, but through his naivety. For example, when he walks into a pet shop and asks for a horse. When he is told there are no horses just dogs’ cats and birds, he states, “then give me one of those large enough to ride!” This is funny as he knows no better, and it is a genuine off-the-cuff remark. Whereas now, the jokes feel forced and not naturally who the character is.
I feel that the MCU is trying to do this in more of their movies and that it does not really belong here. The only MCU film that I would expect that from is ‘The Guardians of the Galaxy’, as they have been silly from the start, so it suits the characters and the sequels.
And… the colour palate is so bright and colourful. Again, totally different from what it should be. The new trailer for the latest film has just dropped: ‘Love and Thunder’ (below), and dare I say, it looks just the same as Ragnarök. I already know that I am going to complain about it, although Christian Bale looks amazing as ‘Gorr the God Butcher’ and Natalie Portman as ‘Mighty Thor’ is looking like a dish!!
I am a Taika Waititi fan and I enjoy his movies; I just don’t think that this style of movie is right for the character. He has gone from one extreme to another with no build-up at all. Now as much as I am complaining, I will definitely be going to catch the new ‘Love and Thunder’ movie when it comes out, so yes, I am the biggest hypocrite, but I had to let my frustrations out!
Let me know if you agree in the comments
