Deep Dive Disney: Wes Looks at Thor Ragnarok

Welcome friends to a very special Patreon sponsored edition of Deep Dive Disney, where we will be taking our first official look at the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Yes, if you want to get caught up in semantics, we did dip a toe into the MCU back when we looked compared No Way Home and Into the Spider-Verse, but this will be our first full blown Deep Dive into a MCU film. And what film has our Patron requested? Why, today, we’re looking at the 2017 epic that is, Thor Ragnarok. While this wouldn’t have been my first choice for our first look at the MCU, I do love this movie so I’m not exactly complaining. Besides, at the time I’m writing this, the latest Thor movie, Love and Thunder has just hit theaters so the timing couldn’t be better. While I personally have always loved MCU Thor as a character, most of that being down to Chris Hemsworth being an incredibly likable actor, I actually feel it took a while for the Thor solo movies to hit their stride. The first Thor movie was good, but nothing to write home about in my humble opinion. In fact, it was the only MCU phase one film I never bothered to see in theaters. It’s sequel, Thor The Dark World, I did see in theaters and I liked it fine, but despite some fun moments and a legendary Chris Evans cameo, I found the movie to be mostly forgettable. This one however is where the Thor franchise figured itself out. Taika Waititi took over directing duties and the man seemed to understand that this is a comic book movie and comic book movies are supposed to be bright, loud, colorful, ridiculous and above all, fun. What can I say, the man is talented. Speaking of Taika Waititi, this isn’t Thor related, I just wanted to say that if you are not watching Taika Waititi’s HBO Max Series Our Flag Means Death, you have made some poor life decisions. But anyway, let’s talk about the film itself. After the events of Dark World and Age of Ultron, Thor has been away from Asgard trying to uncover the mystery of who’s been hunting the Infinity Stones. However, when an old enemy of Asgard reveals that Thor's brother Loki is alive and is impersonating Odin, Thor returns home, exposes his brother and forces him to reveal where the real Odin is. Unfortunately, the brothers are about to have much bigger problems as Odin has reached the end of his very long life and when Odin dies, the magic keeping Thor and Loki’s sister, Hela Goddess of Death, imprisoned dies with him. And indeed, Odin passes into the next world and Hela wastes no time entering this one. Hela quickly demonstrates that Thor is out of his league as she crushes Mjolnir like a saltine cracker. The brothers try to follow Hela to Asgard but a mishap with teleportation lands them both on a garbage planet called Sakaar where Loki ingratiates himself to its insane ruler and Thor is enslaved and forced to compete in gladiatorial combat. Encountering both old friends and new, Thor must assemble a team, escape Sakaar, return to Asgard and save his people from Hela’s wrath before it’s too late. So, let us waste no further time and take a look at Thor Ragnarok.

Main Character:

As I said at the top, I love Chris Hemsworth's portrayal of Thor. To play a character like the MCU Thor requires a tight balancing act between playing a stalwart hero of myth and a goofy but well-meaning meathead dude-bro. Fortunately for us, Chris Hemsworth balances that perfectly. This film brings Thor to his lowest point, at least until the next movie where Thanos slaughters all his people and snaps his brother’s neck right in front of him but that’s not the movie we’re talking about today. Up to this point, Thor has defined himself and his power through Mjolnir, his signature hammer, symbolic of his worthiness as a hero and a son of Odin. Now that it’s gone, Thor has lost a lot of confidence. I do like that his arc involves being able to understand that material things are not what define you, something we’ll swing back around to when we get to the story section. I do appreciate that Hemsworth gets to flex his comedic muscles a bit more in this movie. Something about a hero who takes himself very seriously saying stuff that’s actually really funny, almost as if the whole “Behold the God of Thunder” is an act and he’s breaking character, is pretty hilarious to me. And of course, Hemsworth has great chemistry with all his co-stars. I feel like this, more so than in any other Thor or Avengers movie, the dude is just having the time of his life with the character and it shows. Hopefully that carries over into Love and Thunder.

Villain:

There’s a couple of villains worth discussing in this movie. I’ll start by giving a brief shoutout to Surtur, the big monster destined to bring about Ragnarok and destroy Asgard. He’s pretty much just a big scary devil looking man, but hey, he’s voiced by our old pal Clancy Brown, so that’s cool.

Next up is The Grandmaster, ruler of Sakaar, played by the legendary Jeff Goldblum. I swear, I don’t know if Goldblum is even acting in this movie. I think he just showed up to the set already dressed in that outfit, did a bunch of Jeff Goldblum things in front of a camera and Taika Waititi just decided to work it into the movie. He is such an over the top weirdo, but he still has Jeff Goldblum’s somewhat monotone delivery which makes it all the more hilarious. Great character all around.

And finally the main event, Hela, Goddess of Death. Much like Hemsworth is having a blast playing up the comedy in this movie, you can tell from moment one that Cate Blanchett is having the absolute time of her life hamming it up like a Disney villain in this role. From the moment we see Hela we know she is completely out of Thor and Loki’s league, especially with the whole crushing the hammer bit. Hela draws her power from Asgard, meaning that as long as she’s in Asgard she’ll keep getting stronger and will eventually become unstoppable. What this basically means is that this is a fight that Thor cannot win conventionally, making Hela feel like much more of a threat that say, Malekith from the last move. Criminal waste of Christopher Eccelston I say. Hela wastes no time showing all of Asgard who’s boss, wiping out the entire army by herself and resurrecting them into her own army of the dead. Did I mention she also has a giant wolf for a pet as well as her own personal Karl Urban in the form of Skurge the Executioner, even if he later turns on her and gets a cool redemption arc. Either way, Hela is awesome and I wish they were able to give her more screen time, but whatever, I’m grateful for what we ended up with.

Side Characters:

Okay, this movie has a lot of side characters and they are all significant, many of them being well established MCU characters. I love all these characters, but because I don’t want to be here all day, I hope you don’t mind if I go rapid fire through these characters and summarize as best I can. First and foremost there’s everyone’s favorite Loki. I mean, what do you even want me to say? Loki is awesome and Tom Hiddelston is awesome in the role. I like how Loki has gone through a lot of growth in this movie. He still tries to betray Thor at one point, but Thor is prepared for it. The brothers do eventually admit that they love one another, even if they’re not the best at showing it. I kinda wish this character growth for Loki was able to carry over into the Loki series, but what we got in that show was great. Also, Loki apparently having PTSD at the sight of the Hulk, no doubt remembering how Hulk kicked the shit out of him back in Avengers, got a laugh out of me.

Speaking of, The Hulk, having flown into space back in Age of Ultron, resurfaces here and is now the Champion of the Grandmaster’s arena. Hulk is a blast in this movie. He hasn’t reverted to Bruce Banner since we last saw him in Ultron, so the Hulk, while still his rage filled self, seems a bit more in control. He’s found a home here and he’s generally happy. Once he reverts to Banner, Mark Ruffalo’s comedic chops really get to shine as he and Hemsworth play off one another excellently. I love Banner freaking out suddenly finding himself naked on a mysterious planet that worships The Hulk with no memory of how he got there.

Benedict Cumberbatch, fresh from his debut as Dr. Stephen Strange, has a hilarious extended cameo and, what can I say, Cumberbatch has always been great in the role and he’s hilarious as he messes with both Thor and Loki. If I had one nitpick, I’d say Cumberbatch hasn’t gotten the hang of his American accent quite yet, but he’ll get it sorted out by the time he get to Infinity War the following year.

The beautiful and talented Tessa Thompson shows up as Valkyrie, an Asgardian warrior previously defeated by Hela and now living out her days in self-imposed drunken exile as a servant of The Grandmaster. Tessa Thompson is a great actress and I’m very glad she’s here. I look forward to seeing more of this character in Love and Thunder.

Anthony Hopkins returns one final time as Odin and I like his farewell scene at the beginning. He understands that he made a lot of mistakes in life and regrets that his sons will soon have to deal with the fallout of one of his bigger ones, but he still shows them both love in the end and acknowledges that Thor will be a better leader to the people of Asgard than he ever was.

Director Taika Waititi himself plays Korg, a massive rock monster who competes in the arena who, despite his appearance, is actually pretty chill and easy going. Something about an imposing alien rock beast talking like well… Taika Waititi, gets some big laughs.

We’ll close out this section by calling out a couple of amusing cameos. At the beginning of the movie when Thor returns to Asgard, Loki, still in the guise of Odin, is watching a play depicting the events of Thor The Dark World with Sam Neil as Odin, Matt Damon as Loki and one of the Hemsworth brothers as Thor. No, I don’t know which one, there’s like what, thirty? I’m pretty sure they grow new ones in some factory in Australia every week.

Memorable Scenes:

Pretty much every fight scene in this movie is spot on. Maybe the choreography is not as tight as something like the recent Shang-Chi, but I just love watching these powerful God beings kicking ass to a Led Zeppelin soundtrack. We even get The Hulk fighting a Giant Wolf. That might be the coolest thing ever to happen in the history of movies. Easily the highlight is Hulk’s fight in the arena with Thor. We’ve seen them go toe to toe before back in Avengers, but this is really the first time we see the two strongest Avengers going all out and beating the living shit out of each other. This is a knockdown drag out brawl between two superheroes and it is amazing.

Story:

As I alluded to earlier, the message this story is going for seems to be this idea that places and things don’t matter, people do. Thor spent this entire movie trying to save Asgard, but what he failed to realize was that he was hung up on the physical place when in reality, Asgard is anywhere its people are. It’s the people that need to go on, not buildings or Thrones. It’s for this reason that I enjoy how Thor defeats Hela by unleashing Surtur on Asgard. Yes, all of the planet is destroyed and Thor does not feel good about it. Yes, it was just a place, but it was still his home. But then, when you’re a leader, you need to make hard decisions and the fight with Hela was one that Thor knew he couldn’t win any other way. Another example of this theme is Thor’s loss of Mjolnir. Thor felt that without his hammer he was nothing, but in reality, the hammer was never the source of his power, it just allowed him to focus what was already there. The “The Power Was Inside You All Along” is a pretty overused trope, but I think this is one of the better uses of it.

The Dark Disney Factor:

This is complicated. See, the MCU is usually marketed towards an older audience, so the Dark Disney Factor, which is meant to point out the darker and more disturbing moments in children’s movies, doesn’t really apply here. However, this film does have a gnarly moment or two. I actually love the moment where the Grandmaster just straight up melts a dude and Thor bears witness to every horrific moment of it. And while I praised it a minute ago, I do have to agree, the destruction of Asgard at the hands of Surtur is still a difficult pill to swallow. This place has been around since the first Thor movie back in 2011, and now it’s gone. Also, the movie opens with Thor talking to a skeleton. That’s cool.

Final Thoughts: I'm very glad my Patron, Rachel, decided to request this one, it really is one of my favorite films in the MCU. As we discussed when we covered Aquaman, I appreciate a comic book movie that's not afraid to be a comic book. Comic Books are weird, and out there and bombastic, and that describes this movie to a T. Next time, we'll be tackling a Disney Classic that I actually have never seen. So join me as Deep Dive Disney dives for the first time into Tron.