Humour has always been an integral part of the MCU movies and shows. Be it Tony Stark’s witty retorts, the banter between Hulk and Captain America in The Avengers franchise or the camaraderie between Quill and Thor. Some Marvel fans have criticised the franchise’s excessive use of humour while others love that the franchise doesn’t mind being the butt of jokes. However, in Thor: Love And Thunder, the humour is all over the place. In comedy movies, there is no such thing as ‘too much humour’. However, in an adventure-superhero film such as this one, one would expect there to be some moments of seriousness that build the suspense and keep the viewers at the edge of their seat. Sadly, the film has none. The comedy in too much and misplaced.
The excessive use of humour and jokes, while it elicits laughs and entertains the viewers, takes away from the seriousness of the film. At some points, it seems that the film is parodying itself and not in a good way. There are jokes being cracked in the middle of an intense situation when Gorr has Thor, Foster and Valkyrie in a chokehold, asking them to call the axe (Stormbreaker) which he intends to use to open the Bifrost. The use of humour in a situation as Skechers Outlets grave as the one where a villain has the heroes by their necks, kinda takes away from the seriousness of the film. For some reason, it doesn’t seem that the stakes are high. You just don’t feel invested enough in the characters to care about them or want them to succeed in their mission to kill Gorr and stop him from killing Gods.
While Natalie Portman does a fantastic job as the Mighty Thor (we see her killing shadow monsters and decimating the Necrosword with Mjolnir) she also shows a more emotional and vulnerable side as Dr Foster who is struggling with cancer. Thor, played by Chris Hemsworth, seems to have gotten dumber (for the lack of a better word) with time. We see him trying to deliver evocative speeches to inspire a feeling of hope in the people of Asgard only to fail and become the butt of jokes. Thor clearly seems to have become more dim-witted than before, or perhaps, was written this way by the writers for the sake of humour. Whichever be the case, this dim-witted ‘Himbo’ image of Thor might change the way his character is viewed for the worse.
Christian Bale plays the role of Gorr who takes control of the Necrosword and captures Asgardian children. Though Bale’s performance is praiseworthy, he doesn’t come across like a menacing, evil Marvel antagonist that the superheroes are scared of. Gorr is perhaps the weakest and the most underwhelming Marvel antagonist yet. His appearance might remind of Lord Voldemort from Harry Potter. Other characters – Valkyrie, Korg and Sif are unidimensional. Hey Dudes Shoes They have no depth and appear to be surface-level people with no backstories. There is also a rather bizarre, jarring and off-putting love triangle between Thor, Stormbreaker and Mjolnir, which is funny at first but is dragged on unnecessarily to the point that it becomes irritating. A classic case of misplaced humour.
At the end of the film, which shows Dr Foster die in Thor’s arms and Gorr asking Thor to take care of his daughter Love, one would expect tears to roll down their eyes but it doesn’t happen. This is probably because we don’t feel emotionally attached to the characters. This is where the film loses. It fails to make viewers feel for the characters. Had the writers not gone overboard with the humour and written Gorr as a more menacing, scary antagonist, Thor: Love and Thunder might just have worked. Not only is Thor: Love And Thunder easily forgettable and underwhelming, it also fails to leave an impact and might just be the weakest MCU film yet.