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Update: October 26, 2017
Dragonlord’s Review of THOR: RAGNAROK (No Spoilers)
Bottom Line: A fun, loaded, epic adventure that revamps the titular hero, Taika Waitit takes the Thor franchise in a whole new exciting direction; i.e., Ragnarok rocks!
The Thor brand was in a bit of a slump in his past several outings. Thor’s second solo movie, Thor: The Dark World, was a bland disappointment and the God of Thunder had a marginalized role in Avengers: Age of Ultron. The franchise was in severe need of a jumpstart. In comes New Zealander comedic filmmaker Taika Waititi (What We Do in the Shadows) who not only brings his own style of humor and eye-popping visuals to Thor: Ragnarok but delivers on bringing a fun, action-packed, epic adventure.
Ragnarok opens with an action-packed crowd-pleaser that showcases how cool Thor is in action which immediately rectifies one of The Dark World’s biggest mistake which had a grounded and unimaginative approach to physical combat instead of embracing the setting's fantastical nature. Following the prologue, the goddess of death Hela escapes from her prison and invades Asgard while Thor unintentionally ends up on the alien planet Sakaar where he must fight in a gladiatorial contest to earn his freedom and get back to save his people. One hitch – Thor’s gladiatorial opponent is Hulk.
Written by Craig Kyle, Christopher Yost and Eric Pearson, the story unfolds so effortlessly thanks to the smooth directorial style of Waititi. The journey from one scene to the next is so pleasant and seamless. The run time is 130 minutes but feels like it is longer because the movie is so dense and loaded with quality content. The script is pretty dark, darker than the previous Thor movies, but Waititi’s lighthearted approach balances the gloomy aspects of the narrative and prevents Ragnarok from being too dim and dreary.
In Thor: The Dark World, most of the humor didn’t work because it involved the contrived existence of annoying supporting characters either ad-libbing or doing juvenile and cringey kinds of comedy. Coming from a comedic background, Waititi’s proficiently employs humor so fluently and it doesn’t feel forced like in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. Ragnarok ups the quantity in the chuckles department with lots of hilarious moments. Some of the jokes don’t necessarily hit the mark but they’re nonetheless charming and inoffensive.
Chris Hemsworth returns to play the Son of Odin once more but you can tell that he (and everybody else) is having a blast filming this. Hemsworth has always had a natural comedic timing, he gets to cut loose and showcase it here. Thor also gets a makeover, cosmetically, with God of Thunder's hair being cut (meaning the Australian actor doesn’t have to uncomfortably wear the Goldilocks wig anymore), and ability-wise. He may have lost Mjolnir but gets some serious power upgrade in exchange.
Cate Banchett as Hela is hella sexy (screw you pun haters). Hela is the first major female villain in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Blanchett absolutely kills it. Hela is not just magnificently evil but she is an unstoppable formidable villain with a badass power set. Her battle against the Asgardian army was deliciously hardcore. One concern I had before watching the movie was they would ditch Hela’s intimidating headgear early on, so I was extremely relieved that they kept it all throughout the film.
Tom Hiddleston has been consistently fantastic as Loki but unlike in The Dark World, he doesn’t have to carry a lot of the load this time around since the other supporting characters brought their A-game. Loki pretending to be Odin was a hoot and Anthony Hopkins, coming off his crack cocaine performance in Transformers: The Last Knight, was simply superb in pulling off that priceless scene. The secret cameo by an A-list star in that particular scene was a riot. Loki’s facial reactions and emotional outburst during the Contest of Champions arena battle was one of the funniest things in the movie.
Tessa Thompson as Valkyrie was a pleasant surprise as she turned out to be a great supporting character with a few kick-ass scenes and a great chemistry with Thor. Valkyrie’s ship was very cool. Mark Ruffalo was wonderful for the brief time he was in. Wasn’t really enamored with Jeff Goldblum playing Jeff Goldblum performance as Grandmaster but it was amusing in some parts. Karl Urban as Skurge was decent but didn’t live up to the character’s full potential, though he did have his one shining moment (Thor comic book fans know what this is).
The Warriors Three, who were severely underutilized and squandered in The Dark World, are sadly even more trivialized in here. Korg, voiced by Waititi himself, was a funny, amiable character. Stan Lee makes one of his best cameos in here. Most important of all, Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) was nowhere to be found. Huzzah! Awesome appearance by a more poised Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), who seemed like a true Sorcerer Supreme this time around, and his interaction with Loki was hysterical.
The much-anticipated rematch between two of Marvel’s heavy hitters does not disappoint. The Hulk-Thor fight is well-choreographed with both combatants receiving a lot of highlight reel moments. But the most pleasant surprise is the revelation of Thor’s fighting prowess and skills, without the help of Mjolnir, shown for the first time in the MCU as he goes toe-to-toe with the jade giant.
The film’s action was sensational, clean and easy to follow, an impressive outing for Waititi for his first time handling a big-budget spectacle movie. The special effects were amazing. The Hulk FX and motion capture were outstanding, it really looks like Ruffalo compared to previous iterations. Thor isn’t the only one to get a makeover as the Hulk has a slightly thinner head and a new hairstyle but most importantly, the ability to talk longer and converse at a toddler level.
The film is one big Jack Kirby tribute as the set designs, costumes, props, ships, creature designs and even the energy crackle are modeled after the legendary comic book artist’s drawings. There’s even a Jack Kirby Hulk artwork on Sakaar. Everything about the retro-looking Sakaar is a homage to the pulpy sci-fi films of the 80s.
There are several Easter Eggs that will amuse comic book and MCU fans alike (Thor Frog anyone?). There is one particular gratifying Easter Egg reveal that finally resolves one of the most confusing and conflicting plotline in the MCU regarding one of the contents in Odin's vault. As it turns out, the half-joke I made back in 2015 turned out to be true (click link for mild spoilers).
The score by Mark Mothersbaugh (former lead singer of the band Devo) was splendid. The music, with mixes of synth pop and new wave, is not hummable but they are nonetheless memorable and elevate the scenes. The best part is they delivered what they advertised in the first trailer which is Led Zeppelin’s “Immigrant Song” song rocking out in the actual movie, twice.
In an incompetent filmmaker’s hands, this film could have easily been another dull Warcraft movie. Instead, Waititi has created a fun-filled epic adventure and some might say the funniest MCU film yet. Thor: Ragnarok joins the prestigious ranks of rare movies where the third installment is legitimately good, and to the eyes of many, even surpasses the first two films.
RATING: 9/10
Spoiler Thoughts and Musings on THOR: RAGNAROK
The action at the beginning was spectacular and reminded me of the first Thor movie where the God of Thunder plowed through the Frost Giants in Jotunheim. The hammer twirling action in here was so cool. Thor had a sub-par run in the action department in his last two outings (The Dark World, Age of Ultron) and that’s why I was so happy they him into a badass action hero again.
I love that Ragnarok embraced back its fantastical, magical and mythological roots. The Dark World gave us a more grounded feel with characters doing less-than-spectacular stuff and implied that the Asgardians were merely just space aliens.
Some movies leave fans disappointed when a memorable music from the trailers won’t show up in the movie. It shows a dissonance between the film and the marketing department. Marvel Studios has their shit down as shown with the “Immigrant Song” being inside Thor: Ragnarok and “Hooked on a Feeling” inside Guardians of the Galaxy.
Lol at Matt Damon as a Loki actor. Odin actor was portrayed by Sam Neil (Jurassic Park) and Thor actor was Chris’ brother, Luke Hemsworth.
Odin did a Master Oogway exit.
Good call on their part for changing the location of Thor meeting Hela for the first time and the destruction of Mjolnir. In the trailers, it showed Hela destroying Mjolnir in a drab alleyway in the city. In the final cut, they moved the action to an open field cliff side which is a more appropriate setting than an alley.
Really sad that they killed off the Warriors Three and equally bummed out that they were never given the opportunity to shine in Thor 2 and 3. At least Hogun managed to show off his fighting skills against Hela and even managed to struck her several times before he died.
At first I was disappointed Sif (Jaimie Alexander) wasn't in here, probably due to scheduling conflict with her TV show Blindspot. But in retrospect I'm glad she wasn't in here because she would have been given a marginalized role and she would probably just be killed by Hela.
Back in 2015, I made a half-joke that Odin's vault is full of knockoff relics like the Infinity Gauntlet. Turns out to be correct as I lol'd when Hela revealed that the Infinity Gauntlet in the vault is fake.
As much as I love Mjolnir, it just looks awkward sometimes when Thor is smashing people with it since the weapon looks small. When Thor was wielding Hulk’s war hammer weapon, it looked really good. I fully support Thor wielding a new Mjolnir but based on the war hammer axe design from Ultimate Thor.
Ragnarok actually follows the same narrative structure as the first Thor film.
Lol at Grandmaster’s alternate definition of slaves – prisoners with jobs.
Outside Grandmaster's tower, there are several large face sculptures of what seems to look like Beta Ray Bill, Swamp Thing and Ares. Not sure if Bi-Beast is still in there as last seen in the trailers.
In the comic books, every Asgardian citizen, male or female, are fierce warriors. I would have liked to see this in the movie as most of the citizens shown were sheep waiting to be rescued. I would have liked to see every man, woman and teen wielding a weapon and ready to do battle when the undead attacked them at the Bifrost Bridge.
Similar to a motivated BJ Penn or Chuck “With that Look in His Eyes” Liddell, Surtur with Eternal Flame Training was awe-inspiring to behold. The colossal fire demon did the comics proud. Equally amazing was Hela trying to fight giant Surtur.
No strong opinion on Thor losing one eye except that it’s sort of fitting since he is now King of Asgard and the previous ruler also had one eye. But great job to Marvel for keeping that spoiler part out of the Avengers: Infinity War trailer at Comic-Con which shows Thor having both his eyes. After Ragnarok comes out, they'll retouch Thor's eye in future trailers and in the actual Infinity War movie.
They should have just killed Heimdall in here. It would solve a lot of plot holes on why he can’t warn them of any incoming threats or why can’t Thor just ask Heimdall to find Ultron and the other threats.
As a fan of Walt Simonson's classic run on Thor, it was awesome to see Skurge’s last stand.
I love the fact that even with Thor’s new power upgrade, he still couldn’t defeat Hela. It’s a nice refreshing change from the trope of the hero powering up to beat the bad guy.
Thor could have suggested that Loki go to prison for his crimes on Earth and that a few decades is nothing to an immortal.
The ending with the Asgardians going to Earth is based on the comic book storyline where New Asgard was now located in Oklahoma, USA.
The first post-credits scene shows Thor and Loki talking about going back to Earth. Loki is apprehensive since the people there hate him because of the invasion incident in New York. Thor’s ship, which is already huge by itself, is suddenly overshadowed by another humongous space ship, roughly 20 times bigger than their own ship. Based on the Avengers: Infinity War trailer shown at Comic-Con, that this is Thanos ship. Thor probably lost the ensuing battle and drifted off in space. And that’s where he is rescued by the Guardians of the Galaxy.
The second post-credits scene shows Grandmaster’s ship crash landed in the junkyard of Sakaar. Grandmaster goes out of the ship and he is surrounded by the revolutionaries. Grandmaster congratulates everyone on their participation on the revolution, especially himself since he is a big part of the situation. Lastly, he tells the insurgents that let’s just call it a draw.
Link to previous thread: http://forums.sherdog.com/posts/135260863/
Dragonlord’s Review of THOR: RAGNAROK (No Spoilers)
Bottom Line: A fun, loaded, epic adventure that revamps the titular hero, Taika Waitit takes the Thor franchise in a whole new exciting direction; i.e., Ragnarok rocks!
The Thor brand was in a bit of a slump in his past several outings. Thor’s second solo movie, Thor: The Dark World, was a bland disappointment and the God of Thunder had a marginalized role in Avengers: Age of Ultron. The franchise was in severe need of a jumpstart. In comes New Zealander comedic filmmaker Taika Waititi (What We Do in the Shadows) who not only brings his own style of humor and eye-popping visuals to Thor: Ragnarok but delivers on bringing a fun, action-packed, epic adventure.
Ragnarok opens with an action-packed crowd-pleaser that showcases how cool Thor is in action which immediately rectifies one of The Dark World’s biggest mistake which had a grounded and unimaginative approach to physical combat instead of embracing the setting's fantastical nature. Following the prologue, the goddess of death Hela escapes from her prison and invades Asgard while Thor unintentionally ends up on the alien planet Sakaar where he must fight in a gladiatorial contest to earn his freedom and get back to save his people. One hitch – Thor’s gladiatorial opponent is Hulk.
Written by Craig Kyle, Christopher Yost and Eric Pearson, the story unfolds so effortlessly thanks to the smooth directorial style of Waititi. The journey from one scene to the next is so pleasant and seamless. The run time is 130 minutes but feels like it is longer because the movie is so dense and loaded with quality content. The script is pretty dark, darker than the previous Thor movies, but Waititi’s lighthearted approach balances the gloomy aspects of the narrative and prevents Ragnarok from being too dim and dreary.
In Thor: The Dark World, most of the humor didn’t work because it involved the contrived existence of annoying supporting characters either ad-libbing or doing juvenile and cringey kinds of comedy. Coming from a comedic background, Waititi’s proficiently employs humor so fluently and it doesn’t feel forced like in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. Ragnarok ups the quantity in the chuckles department with lots of hilarious moments. Some of the jokes don’t necessarily hit the mark but they’re nonetheless charming and inoffensive.
Chris Hemsworth returns to play the Son of Odin once more but you can tell that he (and everybody else) is having a blast filming this. Hemsworth has always had a natural comedic timing, he gets to cut loose and showcase it here. Thor also gets a makeover, cosmetically, with God of Thunder's hair being cut (meaning the Australian actor doesn’t have to uncomfortably wear the Goldilocks wig anymore), and ability-wise. He may have lost Mjolnir but gets some serious power upgrade in exchange.
Cate Banchett as Hela is hella sexy (screw you pun haters). Hela is the first major female villain in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Blanchett absolutely kills it. Hela is not just magnificently evil but she is an unstoppable formidable villain with a badass power set. Her battle against the Asgardian army was deliciously hardcore. One concern I had before watching the movie was they would ditch Hela’s intimidating headgear early on, so I was extremely relieved that they kept it all throughout the film.
Tom Hiddleston has been consistently fantastic as Loki but unlike in The Dark World, he doesn’t have to carry a lot of the load this time around since the other supporting characters brought their A-game. Loki pretending to be Odin was a hoot and Anthony Hopkins, coming off his crack cocaine performance in Transformers: The Last Knight, was simply superb in pulling off that priceless scene. The secret cameo by an A-list star in that particular scene was a riot. Loki’s facial reactions and emotional outburst during the Contest of Champions arena battle was one of the funniest things in the movie.
Tessa Thompson as Valkyrie was a pleasant surprise as she turned out to be a great supporting character with a few kick-ass scenes and a great chemistry with Thor. Valkyrie’s ship was very cool. Mark Ruffalo was wonderful for the brief time he was in. Wasn’t really enamored with Jeff Goldblum playing Jeff Goldblum performance as Grandmaster but it was amusing in some parts. Karl Urban as Skurge was decent but didn’t live up to the character’s full potential, though he did have his one shining moment (Thor comic book fans know what this is).
The Warriors Three, who were severely underutilized and squandered in The Dark World, are sadly even more trivialized in here. Korg, voiced by Waititi himself, was a funny, amiable character. Stan Lee makes one of his best cameos in here. Most important of all, Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) was nowhere to be found. Huzzah! Awesome appearance by a more poised Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), who seemed like a true Sorcerer Supreme this time around, and his interaction with Loki was hysterical.
The much-anticipated rematch between two of Marvel’s heavy hitters does not disappoint. The Hulk-Thor fight is well-choreographed with both combatants receiving a lot of highlight reel moments. But the most pleasant surprise is the revelation of Thor’s fighting prowess and skills, without the help of Mjolnir, shown for the first time in the MCU as he goes toe-to-toe with the jade giant.
The film’s action was sensational, clean and easy to follow, an impressive outing for Waititi for his first time handling a big-budget spectacle movie. The special effects were amazing. The Hulk FX and motion capture were outstanding, it really looks like Ruffalo compared to previous iterations. Thor isn’t the only one to get a makeover as the Hulk has a slightly thinner head and a new hairstyle but most importantly, the ability to talk longer and converse at a toddler level.
The film is one big Jack Kirby tribute as the set designs, costumes, props, ships, creature designs and even the energy crackle are modeled after the legendary comic book artist’s drawings. There’s even a Jack Kirby Hulk artwork on Sakaar. Everything about the retro-looking Sakaar is a homage to the pulpy sci-fi films of the 80s.
There are several Easter Eggs that will amuse comic book and MCU fans alike (Thor Frog anyone?). There is one particular gratifying Easter Egg reveal that finally resolves one of the most confusing and conflicting plotline in the MCU regarding one of the contents in Odin's vault. As it turns out, the half-joke I made back in 2015 turned out to be true (click link for mild spoilers).
The score by Mark Mothersbaugh (former lead singer of the band Devo) was splendid. The music, with mixes of synth pop and new wave, is not hummable but they are nonetheless memorable and elevate the scenes. The best part is they delivered what they advertised in the first trailer which is Led Zeppelin’s “Immigrant Song” song rocking out in the actual movie, twice.
In an incompetent filmmaker’s hands, this film could have easily been another dull Warcraft movie. Instead, Waititi has created a fun-filled epic adventure and some might say the funniest MCU film yet. Thor: Ragnarok joins the prestigious ranks of rare movies where the third installment is legitimately good, and to the eyes of many, even surpasses the first two films.
RATING: 9/10
Spoiler Thoughts and Musings on THOR: RAGNAROK
The action at the beginning was spectacular and reminded me of the first Thor movie where the God of Thunder plowed through the Frost Giants in Jotunheim. The hammer twirling action in here was so cool. Thor had a sub-par run in the action department in his last two outings (The Dark World, Age of Ultron) and that’s why I was so happy they him into a badass action hero again.
I love that Ragnarok embraced back its fantastical, magical and mythological roots. The Dark World gave us a more grounded feel with characters doing less-than-spectacular stuff and implied that the Asgardians were merely just space aliens.
Some movies leave fans disappointed when a memorable music from the trailers won’t show up in the movie. It shows a dissonance between the film and the marketing department. Marvel Studios has their shit down as shown with the “Immigrant Song” being inside Thor: Ragnarok and “Hooked on a Feeling” inside Guardians of the Galaxy.
Lol at Matt Damon as a Loki actor. Odin actor was portrayed by Sam Neil (Jurassic Park) and Thor actor was Chris’ brother, Luke Hemsworth.
Odin did a Master Oogway exit.
Good call on their part for changing the location of Thor meeting Hela for the first time and the destruction of Mjolnir. In the trailers, it showed Hela destroying Mjolnir in a drab alleyway in the city. In the final cut, they moved the action to an open field cliff side which is a more appropriate setting than an alley.
Really sad that they killed off the Warriors Three and equally bummed out that they were never given the opportunity to shine in Thor 2 and 3. At least Hogun managed to show off his fighting skills against Hela and even managed to struck her several times before he died.
At first I was disappointed Sif (Jaimie Alexander) wasn't in here, probably due to scheduling conflict with her TV show Blindspot. But in retrospect I'm glad she wasn't in here because she would have been given a marginalized role and she would probably just be killed by Hela.
Back in 2015, I made a half-joke that Odin's vault is full of knockoff relics like the Infinity Gauntlet. Turns out to be correct as I lol'd when Hela revealed that the Infinity Gauntlet in the vault is fake.
As much as I love Mjolnir, it just looks awkward sometimes when Thor is smashing people with it since the weapon looks small. When Thor was wielding Hulk’s war hammer weapon, it looked really good. I fully support Thor wielding a new Mjolnir but based on the war hammer axe design from Ultimate Thor.
Ragnarok actually follows the same narrative structure as the first Thor film.
Lol at Grandmaster’s alternate definition of slaves – prisoners with jobs.
Outside Grandmaster's tower, there are several large face sculptures of what seems to look like Beta Ray Bill, Swamp Thing and Ares. Not sure if Bi-Beast is still in there as last seen in the trailers.
In the comic books, every Asgardian citizen, male or female, are fierce warriors. I would have liked to see this in the movie as most of the citizens shown were sheep waiting to be rescued. I would have liked to see every man, woman and teen wielding a weapon and ready to do battle when the undead attacked them at the Bifrost Bridge.
Similar to a motivated BJ Penn or Chuck “With that Look in His Eyes” Liddell, Surtur with Eternal Flame Training was awe-inspiring to behold. The colossal fire demon did the comics proud. Equally amazing was Hela trying to fight giant Surtur.
No strong opinion on Thor losing one eye except that it’s sort of fitting since he is now King of Asgard and the previous ruler also had one eye. But great job to Marvel for keeping that spoiler part out of the Avengers: Infinity War trailer at Comic-Con which shows Thor having both his eyes. After Ragnarok comes out, they'll retouch Thor's eye in future trailers and in the actual Infinity War movie.
They should have just killed Heimdall in here. It would solve a lot of plot holes on why he can’t warn them of any incoming threats or why can’t Thor just ask Heimdall to find Ultron and the other threats.
As a fan of Walt Simonson's classic run on Thor, it was awesome to see Skurge’s last stand.
I love the fact that even with Thor’s new power upgrade, he still couldn’t defeat Hela. It’s a nice refreshing change from the trope of the hero powering up to beat the bad guy.
Thor could have suggested that Loki go to prison for his crimes on Earth and that a few decades is nothing to an immortal.
The ending with the Asgardians going to Earth is based on the comic book storyline where New Asgard was now located in Oklahoma, USA.
The first post-credits scene shows Thor and Loki talking about going back to Earth. Loki is apprehensive since the people there hate him because of the invasion incident in New York. Thor’s ship, which is already huge by itself, is suddenly overshadowed by another humongous space ship, roughly 20 times bigger than their own ship. Based on the Avengers: Infinity War trailer shown at Comic-Con, that this is Thanos ship. Thor probably lost the ensuing battle and drifted off in space. And that’s where he is rescued by the Guardians of the Galaxy.
The second post-credits scene shows Grandmaster’s ship crash landed in the junkyard of Sakaar. Grandmaster goes out of the ship and he is surrounded by the revolutionaries. Grandmaster congratulates everyone on their participation on the revolution, especially himself since he is a big part of the situation. Lastly, he tells the insurgents that let’s just call it a draw.
Link to previous thread: http://forums.sherdog.com/posts/135260863/
