SUPERHERO GENRE FINALLY GROWS SOME SPACE BALLS

It’s easy to not like Thor. His first two feature films were nothing better than adequate. He sports a blonde beach mop worthy of an individual that goes out in Manly on a Saturday night wearing thongs. He carries a big hammer but never builds a single thing. And his accent sounds like he went to an overseas school that was much better than your own.

Thankfully, “Thor: Ragnarok” is the end of all that.

In arguably the best reversal of tone yet seen throughout the Marvel Cinematic franchise, 2017’s iteration of Thor provides us with a hilarious, spell-binding and warm-feeling-inducing take on our (formerly) least cared about Avenger. Much of this can be attributed to the fresh take of direction stemming from New Zealander Taika Waititi as well as sharp writing from the Pearson/Kyle/Yost team that interplays so fantastically with the strong ensemble.

It feels condescending to nation-drop the Kiwi-factor on Waititi, but despite the lack of an official credit in writing, it is undoubtedly apparent that his idiosyncratic humour and comedic beat melds with his cast and vision so perfectly. With a heavy Aussie and Kiwi cast, the film plays on how the characters interact with one another more than it does with a copy-paste “save the world” narrative. Waititi hams up the focus on banter between these god-like and literally-gods powered superheroes, yet grounds their stories in a relatable and refreshing family comedy of sorts. And with cinematography by Aguirresarobe and a fantastic set team, the worlds they romp through feel far more realised and complex than what we’ve been used to in previous Marvel films.

One of the film’s strongest elements proves to be getting the most out of it’s heaving cast list. Formerly bland performances such as Thor (Hemsworth) are utterly annihilated as a more comedic and mature character is born from the ashes (RIP the movie known as Thor: The Dark World). Hemsworth’s performance feels like one of the most natural yet seen in the MCU, and the movie’s premier set-pieces come from his back-and-forth playfulness with steadfast Marvel characters such as Hulk (Ruffalo) and Loki (Hiddleston). Even the villains of the film prove surprisingly worthy of praise, with Goddess of Death, Hela (Blanchett) providing deadly charm and outfits that will make most teenage boys feel both conflicted and attracted. With strong outings from new cast such as hard-drinking, hard-hitting, own-holding Valkyrie (Thompson) and the enigmatic game-show/dictator Grandmaster (Goldblum), there is little to fault in terms of what each actor and actress brings to this cosmic romp.

Much of the film’s shortcomings can probably be traced back to a relatively slow first act as well as a perhaps almost sickly extravagance when it comes to the bright lights and big city excess the film oozes. It’s easy to lose the film’s stars in it sometimes.  Surprisingly though, the narrative does what many MCU has failed to do; deal consequence. We are left at the conclusion with some serious ramifications and changes in the status quo going forward in both the Avenger and Thor storylines, which is a pleasure to see for one seemed like the weakest and least relevant of the superhero narratives.

Of course, the price of admission can be attributed to Waititi’s performance as the faux-Thing and fellow gladiator to Thor, Korgs. With tough skin, a soft tone and over-enthusiasm to do the right thing, there are few better characters to take out the Best of 2017 in supporting-supporting cast. While a lazy argument can be made for Waititi’s direction taking creative license and a sense of trailblazing from the “Guardians of the Galaxy” series, a deeper look at “Thor: Ragnarok” serves to elucidate a more friendly narrative, more human problems and a more heart-warming hero film.

But in shattering the status quo, turning up the laughs and creating a superhero movie that does nothing more than make me enjoy watching a movie, “Thor: Ragnarok” may be the end of something, but it is just the start of something special in the Marvel Universe.