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Thor: Love and Thunder has suffered in its second weekend in theaters the largest percentage drop in viewership for a Marvel movie in history. This plunge is not due to the release of any other major competing film, so it can be inferred that it is due to word getting out that it is awful and bland.
The Thor saga began with a somber and Shakespearean tone (its first installment was directed by Kenneth Brannagh, a Shakespeare specialist), but with each sequel, Thor has gone from aspirant to the throne of Asgard to court jester.
Already in Thor: Ragnarok, directed by Taika Waititi (who repeats at the controls of this fourth installment), we could see that the Thor saga was being filled with glitter, neon, rainbows, and jokes, but in Thor: Love and Thunder, this transformation is completed to an unbearable level.
The problem isn’t that Disney has once again decided to turn a classic male hero into a clown. The problem is that it’s not even funny. The movie pretends to be a self-parody of superhero movies, but its jokes are lame. One seems to be in for a clown’s performance at a children’s birthday party, which is not funny to either the parents or the kids.
Thor: Love and Thunder is a pathetic attempt at being a Mel Brooks movie, in the style of Young Frankenstein or Spaceballs, but with two significant drawbacks: one, its humor doesn’t even come close to matching the humor of these comedies. And two, these Mel Brooks films were never part of the Star Wars or Universal Monsters canons.
This Movie Pleases No One
Thor: Love and Thunder disappoints both fans of the classic Thor and the woke audience it is trying to appeal to. The former see that what started out as an adaptation of Shakespeare’s Henry V to the superhero world, as a cautionary tale about the consequences of the thirst for power and revenge, has turned into a kind of vaudeville, or worse, an end-of-school play directed by the kid in class who has a Liza Minnelli poster in his room and organizes sit-ins to get soy milk on the high school menu.
The latter, the woke horde, have also been unhappy with the result, and accuse Thor: Love and Thunder of “queer baiting,” i.e., not being gay enough, despite Taika Waititi and Natalie Portman’s assurances that it would be very gay.
Apparently, that two of its four main protagonists are explicitly gay is not enough. One is a proudly lesbian Valkyrie, and another is a stone man whose boyfriend is another stony man with a mustache. I suppose to satisfy the cravings of woke culture, this supposedly children’s movie would have had to have shown some explicit sex from these characters.
If we were to talk bait and switch, we should coin the term “Marvelbait,” which is what Disney is doing with classic comic book superhero characters. You think you go to the movies to see the honorable, heroic characters of your childhood, and what you find are bumpkins who are outclassed and lectured by empowered, diverse and inclusive women.
The only really redeemable thing about the film is Christian Bale’s performance as the villainous Gorr the God Butcher, who seems to be lifted from a different movie and shoved into this one with a mirror game. Not for nothing did Christian Bale himself state that he didn’t know he was entering the Marvel Cinematic Universe by participating in this film. No wonder and I imagine that seeing the result, he would rather not have done it.
Ignacio Manuel García Medina, Business Management teacher. Artist and lecturer specialized in Popular Culture for various platforms. Presenter of the program "Pop Libertario" for the Juan de Mariana Institute. Lives in the Canary Islands, Spain // Ignacio M. García Medina es profesor de Gestión de Empresas. Es miembro del Instituto Juan de Mariana y conferenciante especializado en Cultura Popular e ideas de la Libertad.
Social Networks: @ignaciomgm