Thor: Love and Thunder: Chris Hemsworth finally returned to the big screen and once again put on the suit of the most powerful of the Marvel Studios heroes. With him, many familiar faces from the group that faced Thanos (Josh Brolin) in Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame as the Guardians of the Galaxy. 

But also part of his team that was consolidated in Thor: Ragnarok as Korg and Valkyrie. However, the outstanding figure is Natalie Portman. With good villains and the absurd and delirious humor of its director, Taika Waititi, the film works much better in its last stretch.

According to the official synopsis, the film finds Thor (Chris Hemsworth) on a journey unlike anything he’s ever faced: seeking inner peace. The path to get there is narrated with a very good introduction by Korg (Taika Waititi) that serves as a summary of all the adventures of the protagonist so far and in the form of a fairy tale to a group of children (which marks the path and the movie message). 

But the retreat is interrupted by a galactic assassin known as Gorr, the Butcher of Gods (Christian Bale). To combat this threat, Thor leaves the Guardians of the Galaxy, until then his family, to reunite with the Queen of Asgard, Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson), and with a surprise: his ex-girlfriend Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), now It’s Mighty Thor. Together they will seek to take care of the villain on duty.

Perhaps it is the most Marvel Studios movie of this Phase 4. After a start that configures what will be seen in the two hours of footage, Thor: Love and Thunder enters a path of humor, humor, and humor without control, in that there is little to resolve or the presence of a villain who really presents a conflict is almost nil. 

And when he does, it’s not like he feels like a real threat either. I am not referring explicitly to Christian Bale’s performance as Gorr, the Butcher of Gods, who does a great job with a physical performance worthy of his career, but to the space that is given to him in the structure of the film.

The film has other goals: to maintain the humor of Thor: Ragnarok, which was so effective for Marvel that it even made Thor the funniest and most beloved character in the franchise (I risk saying that on a par with Spider-Man and Captain America) throughout Thanos’ stage (the arrival in Wakanda with Rocket and Groot in Infinity War as the moment of greatest splendor). 

In the search to maintain that presence, he lost some of the action (which his previous film did have) and focused on more “human” issues for a god such as love, fatherhood, the passage of time, the losses of his family and friends, etc And that’s where Jane Foster, the always amazing Natalie Portman, comes in, giving the film a bit of fresh air, but also changing the game and the internal dynamic. 

Thor: Love and Thunder turns into a nice romantic comedy to the rhythm of Guns N’ Roses. In any case, the reunion of the ex-partner and the tension placed on the Hemsworth-Portman acting duo that fits so well on the Marvel screen took much of the attention. 

Added to that, Taika’s humor, at times invasive, led the film to go through a fragment of not knowing where it was going. A bit repetitive and even boring. Not even Russell Crowe and his Zeus could save the film in that part. Maybe a little Toothgnasher and Toothgrinder, the funniest goats you’ll see in the movies, but it still felt heavy.

But beyond the exaggerated use of comedy and romantic misunderstandings between Thor and Mighty Thor, the film makes an interesting break near the last third that strikes a balance against so much color and laughter, with a successful scene in which photography stands out ( the film becomes black and white with some flashes of color), the visual effects, the creature, and environment design, the direction, etc. 

Thor: Love and Thunder

From there, the film was another. He used all the potential of taking a story based on comics, he played with the colors, the rhythm, and the shapes. It really felt like something new and it came in handy after a certain monotony that had trapped the film.

After that change, it improved a lot towards closing. Portman and Hemsworth present moments of real encounter and towards the end, Thor becomes the true hero for various reasons that they will discover in the film. Far from feeling like a story full of humor bordering on the absurd, as it mostly was, Thor: Love and Thunder closes its characters with a warm embrace, introduces new ones for what is to come, and returns the God of Thunder to the center of the MCU.

Thor: love and thunder opens on July 7 in theaters.