Lived up to the hype of being entertaining, which is a feat rarely managed in the MCU - yet entertaining it was. This and Spider-Man: Homecoming are the two most entertaining new popcorn movies I've seen in a while, and certainly two of the best for the fatigued and dull MCU as a whole.
To put it into perspective, this was more 'entertaining' than Dr Strange, less boring and drawn out than Guardians of the Galaxy 2, and like night and day when compared with Avengers 2's moving wallpaper fiasco.
That said, it was very much throwaway entertainment and I'd never watch it twice. It wasn't a movie on par with something like Star Wars because it has zero drama and the characters are literally imbued with what you could call a flicker of personality. The rest is carried by the action and the beat of the humour, which while initially feels rather forced and unfunny, eventually meets a decent arc and falls into place. But what's here is good enough to kill two hours on without getting tired and wanting it to end.
What's done right is the angle. The director has freshened it up considerably and this feels like what comic book movie should feel like - a comic book. When I used to read Marvel comics they had a lot of offshoots where fun stuff would actually happen. I remember a particularly fun Hulk/Thing team up graphic novel with similar adventure and humour.
Additionally, the 80s throwback was delicious, and Marvel are really drawing from the right pot (finally) with this. I thought SP:Homecoming's obvious 80s brat pack school daze vibe was already a step in the right direction (lifting everything from the soundtrack to Ferris Bueller nods all the way through) and this apes the conventions of the era even harder. It's not just the technicolour logo but the synthesised action score and general upbeat craziness of it all. It works well.
And this is mathematically about 10000 times better than the original Thor movie, which, if you've seen it, condolences. It's one of the worst movies ever made and only worth watching to laugh at. Well done again Kenneth Branagh, your technique is considerably surprising, and it was thanks to this dire catastrophe I avoided the sequel like the plague. Thankfully Ragnarok is nothing at all like its predecessors, because it's, well, entertaining.
One thing that didn't sit so well with me is the praise around Tessa Thompson's Valkyrie. She started off well with a good entrance, but when it becomes apparent how limited the actor's ability is she really starts to grate. Thompson, frankly, is a very average actor, her entire character built around a one-note cliche tomboy affair which involves a dead stare and a big pout she refuses to let subside. Now I heard that Thompson played Valkyrie like an LGBT character, and if so that's a total failure too. She was plenty fuckable and was far far less LGBT than Cate Blanchett, who conversely gave a superb performance and would make a very believable lesbian. Thompson was frankly irritating by about halfway through, mainly because she uses 'smug' as some kind of method performance; and smug gets irritating very quickly when there's nothing else going on.
Which is why it makes me laugh heartily to find professional journalists writing articles like this joke of a feminist power punch from Hunter Harris:
I Didn’t Give a Sh*t About Marvel Movies Till I Saw Tessa Thompson in Thor: Ragnarok
Well done Harris for failing to note all of the shortcomings of the actor, including ability to act, diversity of acting repertoire, complete lack of feminist slacks, and general irritating persona. If all you got out of Thor: Ragnarok was that Tessa Thompson was the best thing in it, stop watching movies and shoot yourself in the face.
Otherwise, recommended!
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