THOR: RAGNAROK

 

• First time seeing it
• Loved it
• 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!