Second time seeing it. We watched it when it was nominated for best picture
I admire this movie for the things that are unique about it. The African setting and the diversity of the cast and characters provide a welcome non-white, non-American focus. The movie is also full of strong, independent, plot-important women. These qualities do make it stand out from the crowd
Having said that, do I think this movie transcends the Marvel formula? No, not really. I was surprised it was nominated for best picture the first time I saw it, and it still doesn't blow me away after having seen everything that came before
The action is fine. There are some cool hand-to-hand fights, especially the waterfall scenes. The setting is interesting. Not a whole lot of memorably funny parts. Most of this movie kind of just slips away after seeing it
However, the one thing that stuck, both the first time and this time, was Killmonger. Considering I've complained about boring villains in the past, the villain in this one definitely elevates the whole movie beyond some of the others. Michael B. Jordan is super entertaining to watch, and his character's motivation has a lot of depth and nuance. Best part of the movie by a fair margin
I've started taking notes while watching these things, and my notes for Black Panther included me saying, "Same old climax. People just flying all over the place." And it's true! The CGI, weightless, generic climax is something that has plagued a lot of the Marvel movies. I've even started wondering if I'm placing too much weight on the climaxes, and perhaps I should start to judge these movies more on whatever comes before. But is it too much to ask for an engaging, original action movie climax!? What is it about the way they make these movies that the big, final, super important action set-piece, the culmination of the whole movie, is so incredibly forgettable? I can think of only a handful of Marvel movies with memorable climaxes that stand out from the others: Avengers 1 and 2, Thor: The Dark World (I know, I'm surprised it stands out, too), Ant-Man, Civil War, Doctor Strange, and Guardians 2 if I'm being generous. Am I missing something here? Does anyone out there have an argument for the Marvel climaxes being good? Or did I miss any individual movies that should get recognition? I'm open to discussion
The Marvel movies always get a boost in quality when you can sense the director's unique style, and that's the case here. Taika Waititi's dry sense of humour permeates to the core of this movie. I haven't seen all of his movies, but I liked What We Do In the Shadows, and he wrote and directed for Flight of the Conchords, one of my favourites. Everyone knows this is one of the funniest Marvel movies, and it sure is, but I really did love how distinctively funny it is through the writing and the performances
For that reason, I was surprised to find Waititi isn't actually a credited writer on this movie. Honestly, I'm assuming he put his spin on the script quite a lot, but if more praise is due to the credited writers, consider it given!
Running trend in the Thor movies: Asgard scenes are boring and self-serious, Thor out of his element scenes are funny and entertaining. Setting so much of the action on Sakaar was the best choice. There's an immediate shift in tone in this movie compared to the previous ones, almost jarringly so, but still not enough to make the Asgard scenes all that memorable. Although I did like the Matt Damon cameo and Anthony Hopkins was funny playing Loki/Odin
The whole climax of the movie was pretty forgettable. I liked Cate Blanchett as Hela, though. She was fun as a straight-up, no subtleties, villain. I also liked their tactic for defeating her. Karl Urban did nothing for me, considering how much screen time his character got
So with that in mind, back to Sakaar!
Mark Ruffalo is charming, Tessa Thompson is badass, Tom Hiddleston is mischievous. I liked them all
Jeff Goldblum! What I loved about him in this movie is that there was JUST the right amount. He made the most of every minute of time he was on the screen and it never got old. Same with Korg (voiced by Waititi, as most of you know). It takes restraint to use these characters sparingly, as I'm sure they knew how much the audience would love them
I've always liked Hemsworth in these movies, and I think he's a really funny actor. It's also always more interesting to see Thor in a vulnerable position, considering he's a God. But more importantly, THOR GOT A HAIRCUT
Ashley's reaction to said haircut: "OH MY DADDY DADDY. I'm going to flood this fucking couch!"
The joke was on her, dear reader. It was I who flooded the fucking couch. Hemsworth looked goooooood
And now, a little tangent for some Mark and Ashley lore. Way back in April 2017, the trailer for Ragnarok was released. You remember it. It featured Immigrant Song pretty heavily. Ashley and I were seeing a movie, no idea what it was, and this trailer pops up. Ashley decided to refer to Immigrant Song as "that song from Shrek 3!" Now, at first I just gently mocked Ashley for associating that song with Shrek, and not with, say, Led Zeppelin, by suggesting that Shrek 3 was her favourite movie of all time. And BOY has that initial mockery morphed. It has now become a running joke that Ashley is obsessed with the Shrek franchise, but also that she is sexually aroused by it and him. She affectionately refers to herself as a Shrek Slut. So! If ever you've heard us joke about Shrek and Ashley's fetishization of everyone's favourite ogre, well, this is why. Thanks, Thor: Ragnarok trailer, for inspiring this stupid thing we've been saying for over two years!
