Thor Ragnarok: Wasted Potential

Marvel has caused me great deal of stress since Thor: Ragnarok released. Not actual stress but more the “what did I just watch?” stress (I know you can relate)?

With two lackluster films behind them, Marvel needed the third installment of the Thor series to hit. Early reviews told us director Taika Waititi was taking a more comedic tone with the film but like most, you would think this would mean a few jokes in between two hours of bad ass fighting. Instead, we got joke after joke after joke after… you get my point. Marvel must have forgotten the line between funny and downright cringe worthy—a number of instances in this film, particularly the opening first scene, were “turn this shit off please” quality—Thor, in this universe, has come off with a sarcastic tone so of course laughter will arrive but having the God of Thunder perform a stand-up routine with serious villains is wasted potential. 

If you don't know the comic, Ragnarok, which ran from Thor no.80 to no.85, is a tale of the perishing of Asgard and Thor. So when Marvel chose this title, I expected something opposite of what was put on screen. There was killing and blood-spilling but every moment these characters had a chance to speak in between battle, there would always be a joke that would ruin the impeding doom we are supposed to believe. 

Hulk’s character seemed to be thrown in because they forgot about him after sending him to no where (I know thats not true) and every scene with just Banner was a moment to forget. Mark Ruffalo has done a good job as the Hulk in previous MCU films so to see awkward moments with Chris Hemsworth and the other actors is depressing, especially since Marvel decided to take elements of Planet Hulk and put them in Ragnarok. The blend gave us the battle of Thor versus Hulk (which ended lame as shit) but not showing any other Hulk battle in the Contest of Champions prior to to see how Hulk became the champion was, again, wasted potential. 

Hela was the lone redeeming quality from Ragnarok. Marvel has hit with their villains recently so to see them nail this one was a plus as her ability to dominate from the get-go was impressive. In every scene, Hela was the most menacing as she brought her new vision onto the Asgardian’s, but to take points away from Marvel—as they always does—they tried to force jokes with Hela’s fights with Thor. Why?

Anyway, Loki killed it per usual and Marvel letting him show us the vision of the Valkyries versus Hela was such a fucking moment, a visual, a sequence, a fan service of the highest decree. That leads us back to the overall point of this review, that Raganarok is wasted potential. When you have these characters and high stakes, why try to make a Seinfeld comic book film?

Let me know what you think by leaving a comment below or tweet me @TheFlysh