- Location: Cinemark Century Point Ruston
- "Thor is in some ways the most escapist of the Marvel superheroes, and it's high time they utilized him creatively to escape the restrictive narratives of most of the Marvel universe." That's how I ended my review of the previous Thor movie, and the gods answered my prayers with Taika Waititi's Thor: Ragnarok. Now this is a movie that knows how to have fun with a ridiculous character! From blasting off with a spectacular escape from fiery Muspelheim, to rapidly bouncing between Asgard, the Sanctum Sanctorum, and Norway, to getting dumped on the garbage-ridden planet of Sakaar, this film covers a greater variety of fantastic locations in its first half hour than most superhero movies do in their entire runtime.
- As if to directly repudiate all that has come before, Thor: Ragnarok wastes no time killing off Odin (Anthony Hopkins), The Warriors Three (Tadanobu Asano, Ray Stevenson, and Zachary Levi), and the hammer Mjolnir as rapidly as possible, and even dismisses the perpetually boring Jane Foster with a throw-away joke. Instead, the film spends much of its time on the cosmic misadventures of the noble Thor (Chris Hemsworth), not-so-noble Loki (Tom Hiddleston), and the amusingly petulant Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) on Sakaar while Heimdall (Idris Elba) and the Asgardians find themselves ground under the heel of forgotten daughter Hela (Cate Blanchett) and her reluctant executioner Skurge (Karl Urban). I suppose one expects a certain amount of apocalyptic upheaval from a film subtitled Ragnarok, and this movie certainly delivers.
- In addition to serving as the trash dump of the universe, Sakaar's problems are further complicated by the eccentric Grandmaster (Jeff Goldblum) who sponsors gladiatorial combat between the planet's most intimidating denizens. Finding herself indentured to the Grandmaster is Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson), a former Asgardian who tries to drink away the memories of her people's slaughter at the hands of Hela eons ago. Naturally, Valkyrie captures Thor and eventually helps him to escape, but the exact sequence of events is much less interesting than just watching Thor, Hulk, and Valkyrie interact. Now that Hulk's vocabulary has expanded considerably, he and Thor are perfect comic foils for one another, and the addition of a nonchalant rock creature named Korg (voiced by Waititi himself) immediately makes Ragnarok one of the funniest Marvel movies yet.
- Although Hela isn't given especially much to do besides chew scenery and toss an endless supply of daggers, I was pleased to see that the movie does an excellent job adapting Jack Kirby's original costume design. In fact, the film handles its costume and set designs much better than either of the other Thor movies, and its utterly goofy Led Zeppelin and Jean-Michel Jarre-inspired soundtrack is certainly among the most unique of the Marvel movie soundtracks. Its action sequences, especially Thor's initial encounter with Surtur (voiced by Clancy Brown!), are also much improved over those of the previous Thor films, although I would have appreciated them even more if the film's trailers hadn't spoiled what would have been a few great surprises. All in all, Ragnarok convinced me that I should hunt down other of Waititi's films and actually made me look forward to the next installment of the Thor series. Gods, I never thought I'd write that.
- Cameos by Benedict Cumberbatch, Sam Neill, Luke Hemsworth, Matt Damon, and your old pal, Stan Lee.
