Thor: Ragnarok (2017)

The comedic value of Thor Ragnarok sets Director Taika Waitit first venture out with the Marvel Universe apart from the rest. Where we would normally be given the geopolitical and social values with a side dose of humor we see these focus points reversed, the end result is a great movie that has to be watched, in the right sequence, with the rest of the movies to understand what is happening when they get to Avengers: End Game.  

The full story focuses on the sequence of events started when Loki had taken Odin’s place on the throne culminating in the end of Asgard, a prophecy foretold as Ragnarok. Cate Blanchette looking like a bad-ass Lilith coming in as Thor’s older sister, and rightful heir to the throne, destroying Mjolnir before knocking him out of the bifrost and into a relm controlled by the Grand Master was complete Hollywood, but it worked. By contrast of the gold walled castles in Asgard, with Sicar’s “the edge of the known and the unknown” being set with a strong resemblance to the original Star Wars trash scene the movie made good use of the visual setting; even the ‘devils anus’ looked like it sounds it should. There are several other examples of visually subtle humor, like Banner waking up from being the hulk for two years with beads around his neck like he had been partying the whole time at Mardi Gras, or Stan Lee making his obligatory cameo as the barber who got to cut Chris Hemsworth’s hair. I can only say I am going to miss watching Stan in future online movies. I moved to Alaska the day after my seventh birthday in 1976 and had been given an 11″x 17″ Thor Comic as a present but really for the trip, o say that his stories ignited the imagination of millions of kids just like me would be an understatement, he is still doing it to this day in the minds and hearts of whole new generation.  

The moral message to Thor Ragnarok that home is where the heart is, would make him proud; the fact it had more a comedic edge than the rest of the movies in the franchise, I think, would have made him proud because at the end of the day it was always about entertaining us- something this movie did on several levels. Lastly please remember that you can free download previous Thor (2011), and Thor: Dark Word (2013) from Filmxy.