Thor: Love and Thunder is nostalgic 80s excess come to life, and not just because Thor wears a rad, cutoff leather vest. Too much of a good thing is still too much, and the indulgences of Love and Thunder keep it from being the best version of itself.
Love and Thunder recenters the franchise on the relationship between Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and Dr. Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) after the two drifted apart amidst universe-saving efforts and world-renowned scientific breakthroughs. Presumably scarred by the precipitous decline in her Star Wars prequel character’s agency, Portman left the role back in 2013 after she sensed Foster had devolved into little more than Thor’s love interest.
It’s clear why she came back, and there’s something comforting about seeing Thor and Jane together again, now with a full and rewarding character arc for Jane. She wields the power of Thor this time around, but it’s not just a fan-servicey “what if Jane held the hammer?” device. Instead, becoming the Mighty Thor is a coping mechanism for tragedy that’s befallen Jane’s life, and seeing her work through those complicated emotions, recapture her relationship with Thor, and accept her fate is certainly effective.
Unfortunately, that effectiveness highlights a big problem: the God of Thunder feels underdeveloped. Ostensibly, his arc is supposed to show him learning that love is worth experiencing, even with the pain and loss it inevitably brings. He starts off in the appropriate place (as a pretentious jerk who pretends that “meditating” once or twice means he’s enlightened), and he ends the right place (rewarding love is back in his life), but that endpoint feels completely undeserved.
Plenty of characters around him, especially Valkyrie (played again by the always-charming Tessa Thompson), call out his repression and glaring lack of self-awareness, but the story doesn’t give much reason to think Thor truly develops, save for the closing scenes that tell us that’s the case. Hemsworth is winning as always in the role, but the lack of depth kneecaps the final product.
For the rest of the review, head over to the Martin City Telegraph’s site here.
