'Thor: Love and Thunder' review: Why it’s time to rethink the Hollywood superhero

Chris Hemsworth is resplendent as Thor, and Natalie Portman as Jane Foster/Mighty Thor is appropriately attuned to Waititi’s signature transitions between silliness, sentimentality and attempted heft, but neither star seems really invested in 'Thor: Love and Thunder'. (Image: Screen grab/Marvel entertainment)

Let’s face it, the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is no longer about inspired creations. It is largely a sludge of big business—worlds, heroes, villains and sidekicks, and their interconnectedness across franchises strategized perhaps a decade in advance. Predictably, the latest instalment of the Norse hero series Thor, Thor: Love and Thunder, which released in theatres on July 7, is hasty in thought and imagination. The execution of the film’s visual exuberance, its CGS plenitude, does somewhat make up for the lack of thematic density. I don’t remember being as swept up in and dazzled by the baroque magnificence of a gargantuan set as the divine sanctum, prosaically called Omnipotence City where Zeus (Russell Crowe) presides over all manner of  gods.

After helming 2017’s Thor: Ragnarok, a smash hit and winningly funny film, director and co-writer Taika Waititi (his co-writer is Jennifer Kaytin Robinson) returns with a promise ambitious on paper, and in sync with an age obsessed with inner transcendence: Thor has to find himself and his inner peace. It’s time Hollywood starting rethinking superheroes instead of making them slave to ideas and vibes of our age, obsessed with self-improvement and inner meaning.

We meet him as a lonely wanderer. New Asgard, a bountiful little Nordic village, is in the hands of friendly regent Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson). But a galactic killer named Gorr the God Butcher (Christian Bale) interrupts his retirement. Gorr seeks the extinction of the gods. To combat the threat, Thor enlists the help of King Valkyrie, Korg. His former girlfriend Dr Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), who, now afflicted with the emperor of all mortal maladies, joins in, and she can inexplicably wields his magical hammer and rise to be Mighty Thor. Together, they set out on a harrowing cosmic adventure to uncover the mystery of the God Butcher’s motives.

Gods are indifferent, self-absorbed and callous, which the sufficiently and gleefully zaftig Zeus embodies. Crowe plays the small role of Zeus with supersized enthusiasm, making Greek sound like the language of debauched cornucopia—he is more interested in the next orgy rather than saving children captive in a dark chamber under Gorr.

Chris Hemsworth, who reprises the role of Thor, is bodily resplendent and Portman is appropriately attuned to Waititi’s signature transitions between silliness, sentimentality and attempted heft, but none of the big stars are really invested. There’s a hurriedness in both their performances.

What really gives Thor: Love and Thunder its novelty and imprint is Gorr. Played with utmost relish by Bale, Gorr is a cross between Nosferatu and the Joker. Bald above face deepened by scars, hollow amber eyes and rotten teeth, draped like a monk in white, Gorr is not just terrifying, but also the film’s only deep-dive personification of the film’s overarching, timeless theme—love doesn’t always take you to pretty places and happy endings.

Waititi’s glib dialogues and see-saw between silliness and sentimentality have some crackling moments, but the style starts to feel aimless pretty soon.

For its visual sumptuousness, the colour schemes—segueing from candy floss palettes to sparse black-and-white set- and CGI-driven magnitude, Thor: Love and Thunder is thrilling to watch. But for fans, there’s not enough behind all the spectacle. An Oscar bait for Bale? That’s entirely possible.

Thor: Love and Thunder released in theatres on July 7.