Thor: Love and Thunder ★★½

MARVEL has really dropped the ball with its film treatment of one of its original superheroes.

In Thor: Love and Thunder, the Norse God has become a bumbling, lovelorn fool to the extent that it’s hard to see where he is going to re-fit into this fourth phase of the supposedly interconnected Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Right now the character, as played by Chris Hemsworth in the two instalments directed by New Zealander Taika Waititi, would barely be able to take his place alongside the likes of Captain America, Hulk and Black Widow as they move towards what audiences anticipate being another all-encompassing climactic showdown with a world-threatening force.

In fact I’m not sure where this phase is going in terms of a serious through-line.

Thor, Spiderman, the Guardians of the Galaxy and even Doctor Strange all now lean into comedy as much as any other genre and the attempt to create some gravitas with The Eternals fell horribly flat. There appears to be more character-building in Marvel’s television series than on the big screen where superheroes really belong.

Waititi definitely brought something fresh and interesting to the Thor films with Ragnarok in 2017. But the absurdist comedic angle was still nicely balanced with a continuation of Thor’s crucial role as an Avenger.

However, in Thor: Love and Thunder, the comedy is doubled-down to the extent that the entire world and all the characters in it are played for laughs…except one.

As the ‘God Butcher’ Christian Bale almost seems to be in a different film and the dramatic events involving his character that bookend the film provide its best moments.

Certainly Bale comes out of this with integrity intact, which is more than I can say for Russell Crowe who goes completely over-the-top in playing Zeus as some kind of gay version of Con the Greek Fruiterer (it’s a reference to an old Australian comedy show if you can be bothered looking it up).

Certainly Crowe’s turn is in keeping with the overall tone of the film, but he agreed to a role which has absolutely no substance or potential relevance to the ongoing Marvel journey.

Hemsworth is fine, but the other disappointment is Natalie Portman’s character arc which is confusing and throwaway.

As a silly comedy, Waititi’s film is mostly entertaining; but as a chapter in the Marvel series, it’s a total mis-step.