After a very contentious slideshow yesterday wherein I, in keeping with many, excessively critiqued the brand new Thor: Love and Thunder teaser trailer, I received to considering… I ponder if folks know the way a lot I really like the Thor franchise?

I do know, I do know, that slideshow was saucy, what can I say? I refuse to be a shill for a multimillion greenback story machine. There are a whole lot of different websites and blogs you’ll be able to go to for that. Because, right here’s the form of embarrassing factor, I unashamedly love each certainly one of these dumb Thor movies. And greater than that, I really like the potential Thor has. The means to rewrite folklore and fable in comedian type is highly effective, enjoyable, and thrilling. I benefit from the Scandinavian aesthetic on display (harmful waters, I do know), and I’m firmly within the camp of letting Marvel-ified gods be goofy for max comedic impact. Chris Hemsworth is completely solid as Thor, a mix of comedian earnestness and excessively good-looking appeal. The first two movies are rocky, certain, however Thor: Ragnarok is a god-damn delight.

I firmly imagine that Thor has the potential to discover lots of emotional depth whereas additionally remaining comedian and absurdist–these are gods, proper? And they’re right here… combating aliens alongside a cybernetic raccoon? I imply certain, I’ll purchase it. This is a comic book adaption, in spite of everything. But you’ll be able to’t persuade me that this isn’t essentially the most ridiculous factor you can probably suggest.

Ragnarok confirmed that writer-director Taika Waititi has the vary to create a humorous and emotionally wealthy story for Thor whereas going by the paces of an enticing Marvel action-journey movie. Ragnarok was an anti-colonial energy rock anthem that I went to see within the theater not less than thrice. I liked the Valkyrie-Hulk bromance; placing Jeff Goldblum in a getup that wouldn’t be misplaced in The Birdcage was a stroke of genius; and the truth that we received Loki and Thor interacting in a approach that felt brotherly and antagonistic. I really liked watching their relationship play out.

Look, Ragnarok was simply straight up enjoyable! I cosplayed as Thor for the premiere at my native theater. I wrote a homicide thriller get together primarily based on the movie for my birthday celebration (my buddies, god bless them, truly dressed up in public for me). I created cosplays for my mom and father, satisfied my brother to purchase a Loki outfit, and we posed for a household photograph that received despatched out to all our household and buddies for Christmas. I want I have been joking, however it was so earnestly cringeworthy that I don’t remorse it for a second.

Not to say that though Ragnarok is campy and goofy as hell, it’s received content material. The movie isn’t about combating the following Big Bad—each Thor and Loki admit within the movie that they’ll’t actually stand as much as their sister, Hela—and finally the movie doesn’t finish with our heroes defeating Hela. They select to make their escape fairly than try a final stand. This alone was a refreshing breath of recent air for the Marvel universe, the place so many movies finish with a brawl the place one hero has to bodily defeat the villain of the month. Ragnarok can also be an incredible follow-up to the primary movie, which was a fish-out-of-water “gotta grow up fast” narrative, and a welcome change from Dark World, wherein the worldbuilding was used to additional the bigger franchise’s development, fairly than its personal plot.

So when Thor: Love and Thunder stored getting delayed, and the trailer stored getting pushed again, I used to be anticipating one thing nice. At least one thing with first rate CGI. And proper now? I simply want that Marvel would push Thor just a bit additional… and even let Waititi off the leash solely.

Take, for instance, Unworthy Thor, which began in 2016, after (one other) superhero Civil War. Here we’ve got every thing I really like in a Thor story. A tragic himbo who simply desires to discover a approach to transfer previous the truth that he’s not adequate to be a hero, a quest by house to discover a magic weapon, and many absurd team-ups. (Beta Ray Bill is coming to the MCU when?) While it’s not likely heavy on the comedy, the artwork was constantly nice, and I totally loved how huge unhappy this huge boy was principally the entire time. It was angsty, emotional, dramatic, and had, unquestionably, the most effective, most easy character design I’ve ever seen from Marvel.

We received Thor together with his Uru-metal arm, a crimson cape, black pants, and that’s it! That’s all he wants! Short hair, don’t care, weapons out, axe blazing, I liked it. Perfection. It was every thing. This was it, I believed, that is peak Thor. Part of this was as a result of Thor had lastly moved previous the final trappings that had tied him to the “mythological” Thor–which is a bizarre factor to say when he’s actually crying on the moon, as a result of his life is so unhappy, however hear me out.

He doesn’t have his weapon. He doesn’t have his throne. He doesn’t even have his identify. (He goes by Odinson throughout this run, as he’s undeserving of the facility of Thor, so due to this fact he’s undeserving of the identify.) This Thor will get to be a brand new form of character, a wierd, otherworldly alien with an excessive amount of energy and a love for Earth, human intentions, and a wierd attachment to his identification as a god and a hero. It’s implausible. We’re not rewriting the previous, we’re dashing it in opposition to the rocks and constructing new tales from the rubble.

And I noticed that within the trailer. Thor: Love and Thunder is taking inspiration from Unworthy Thor in huge methods, however is it sufficient? Will Waititi’s humor be an excessive amount of or too little? Will Jane Foster/Thor (she will get to be Thor, she’s worthy of the identify) be the heroine I cheered for within the comics or will she develop into simply one other villain that Thor has to defeat in a quest to search out himself? Waititi appears to be utilizing Ragnarok as a visible and emotional jumping-off level for this new movie, fairly than launching from Endgame, the place Thor made his final look.

Marvel appears intent on capitalizing on the tongue-in-cheek banter of Ragnarok and the back-and-forth between Thor and Star-Lord we noticed in Endgame, which is nice! Those have been a few of the greatest components of each of these movies. And I belief Waititi to do one thing unbelievable. Unworthy Thor was a implausible run as a result of it didn’t trouble with the trimmings of godhood past the emotional weight of expectation. What occurs to a god once they can’t shield who they have been created to guard?

Will I watch Thor: Love and Thunder? Absolutely. Will I like it? Probably. But the rationale I’m doing it’s as a result of Unworthy Thor confirmed me that Marvel has the heart to remove the long-lasting issues that make Thor recognizable, to push the storyline in bonkers, enjoyable, absurd new instructions. Ragnarok proved that Waititi has the vary to create a movie that’s truly contextualized inside its personal narrative—not simply the MCU’s bigger imaginative and prescient for what a Marvel film must do to be able to additional the bloated franchise’s plot strains. And, I’ll totally admit it, I wish to see Jane Foster kick ass. Thor is lifeless. Long dwell Thor.

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