Review of Thor: Ragnarok (2017) by Pur__0_0__ — 08 May 2021

After the release of Infinity War, I had begun bingewatching all the MCU movies. And I'm not gonna lie to you. I wasn't feeling like watching this movie. After seeing Thor and Thor: The Dark World, I had taken the assumption that Thor movies are always bleak and lifeless. They always try to be serious when they can't possibly do it when they have characters like Thor, Loki and Odin. And so when it was time for me to watch this movie I was very reluctant, because I knew I can't skip it. But I'm glad I sat through this movie, because it was a huge improvement.

The movie started out in Asgard, from the point where Thor: The Dark World left (and honestly the only thing I remember about that movie). The way that movie had ended, I had thought this movie would build more on Loki pretending to be Odin. But that ended immediately. Instead this movie focuses on Thor and Loki's estranged sister Hela, who had been abandoned by Odin at a young age. She easily manages to defeat both Thor and Loki and sends them to exile on Sakaar, with Thor reaching the planet two weeks after Loki. That was the part where the movie skyrockets the interest. I like everything about it movie from a cinematic point of view - the CGI, the acting, the comic timings, the story, the dialogues. Everything is absolutely perfect. I could undoubtedly say that this is one of, if not the best superhero movies which is not an origin story but rather a continuation of events. The comedy of the arc is the selling point. My favourite dialogue was the rock guy saying, "I planned to start a revolution but didn't publish enough pamphlets so hardly anyone turned up.".

After Thor, Loki, Hulk and Valkyrie come back to Asgard to stop Hela we get the best CGI ever witnessed with Thor. I really like how his eyes glow whenever he has to shoot lightning. I always wanted him to be like that. Thor really had a very drastic character development. I know many people have said this - he lost his father, learnt about his sister, his friends were killed, his precious hair was cut by none other than Stan Lee himself, he continuously got taken down by Valkyrie and lost against Hulk, his entrie planet got blown up and his people encountered Thanos in space. And yet this was the funniest MCU movie yet. And not just Thor, every scene that had Loki in it was always interesting too.

However, this movie was obviously not without its set of flaws. For starters the elephant in the room, the amount of exposition that was given throughout the movie was too much, with most of it never being mentioned any time afterwards. There was even a scene where Thor is explained everything about Sakaar on a virtual trip, but it was never talked about afterwards nor was it necessary. If it wasn't for this unnecessary padding of runtime, I'd have given it 10/10. The Planet Hulk arc was also quite unexplored from the comics, and it would have been great if they made a spinoff movie on Hulk also since Hulk has never been given a solo movie starring Mark Ruffalo. Then the biggest plot hole, Valkyrie electrocuting Thor also didn't make sense since Thor is literally the God of Thunder and he shoots lightning from his hands. And then when Hela pins Thor he gets the ex-machina of his father telling him about his superpowers.

Thor: Ragnarok is an excellent MCU movie. It's kinda sad that this can't be enjoyed unless you've watched Thor: The Dark World and Avengers: Age of Ultron. Because it could have really been cool to show to someone who has no idea what the MCU is all about. It does have the good reward to it, since you can watch Avengers: Infinity War after it. And the tone of this movie is so flexible that even the grim Infinity War completely suits in being its sequel.