Thor: Ragnarok
The Marvel Cinematic Universe is a funny place, it all started off with Iron Man in 2008 which I loved, but then just over a month later it almost all imploded with The Incredible Hulk. Two years later Jon Favreau sets everything right again with Iron Man 2. Then 2011 saw two rather meh films, Thor and Captain America. Not a fan of either. But then in 2012 Joss Whedon blew everything out of the water with The Avengers, and pretty much single-handedly ruined the future for the MCU. I say this because now it seemed like most films in the series would be some sort of Avengers film, because why would anyone fight alone any more?
By the time Age of Ultron came around it was so totally bloated that I would have given up on the MCU if it wasn’t for James Gunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy the year before. This kick arse laugh out loud addition to the MCU included none of the current characters, and whats more, it was a blast.
I skipped a few MCU films in an attempt to prevent superhero burn out and re-joined the fray with Scott Derrickson’s Doctor Strange. I was most interested to see how a predominantly horror director would handle an MCU origin story. The answer – freaken awesomely.
The following year Guardians 2 lacked the originality and had lost some of it’s mojo. And then local lad Taika Waititi was given the reins to the third Thor film, and going by the style of the trailers it was looking much more Guardians than Avengers. Count me in.
Thor: Ragnarok see’s Thor in a race to prevent Ragnarok, AKA: the destruction of his home-planet and the end of the Asgardian civilization. But Thor gets a little lost along the way and ends up in an arena fight with Hulk who seems to have lost his ability to self calm. From there on it’s a rip roaring tour de force of cinematic glory and face cracking fun and laughter.
Taika even manages to give it a very Kiwi flavour which is pretty much the icing on the cake and the cherry on top. This along with brilliant performances from Cate Blanchett and Jeff Goldblum, a fantastic soundtrack and spectacular visual effects combine to make Thor: Ragnarok one of the best Marvel films to date.
And what’s more, because Taika pretty much puts his stamp all over it, it’s justifiable to say it’s the best kiwi film ever.
Rating: M Violence.
FILMGUIDE rating:
