Thor: Ragnarok

Thor Ragnarok leaves the bland formula from it's first two films for an exciting and self-aware redemption story, traversing through the trash heap planet Sakaar and an Asgard under siege. Sakaar was my favorite setting out of any recent Marvel films, with Jeff Goldblum giving a hilarious performance as a playful dictator and the arena-centric atmosphere providing an intriguing set piece. Blanchett plays the best villain of the Thor trilogy, Elba's character is essentially Aragon from LOTR, and Tessa Thompson and Marc Ruffalo/Hulk are respectively well- motiaved and solid comic relief.

Frankly, I didn't like the first two Thor movies, the game plan was so clear from the get go. Same old "save the world" routines, brooding hero with a burden, a love connection born out of necessity and bloated battle scenes. It is the same blueprint for many superhero movies, but Thor has the God element that made the stories feel even more preposterous and ridiculous. It is hard to be vested in his quests because God don't die, hurt as much and can always employ one last deus ex machina that solves the unsolvable problem. But Thor: Ragnarok throws that over-used game plan out from Bifrost into an unknown territory, making it this year's best superhero movie. I know I know… Justice League has not descended, but looking at the trailer it doesn't take a genius to see that it will be doing the above-mentioned routine.

New Zealand director Taika Waititi seems like an unusual choice to helm Thor's third standalone movie. He has the indie root in him and he makes superbly smart comedies with oddles of heart, just watch What We Do in the Shadows (2014) and Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016) to see his outstanding oeuvre. Apparently, the Marvel-Disney studios have given him full reins and he went ahead and make a comedy. But how do you inject an indie comedic vibe into a superhero franchise that has not been done before?

Essentially, Waititi throws out all the cumbersome weights that hampered Thor and tells a simpler but no less cool story about a superhero trying to get back to his home to clean house. In between he gives Thor ample opportunities to be a beer-swigging beefcake, negotiate some treacherously outlandish situations and strip him off the one thing that makes him Thor, the Mjolnir. At one point, Odin even asks a defeated Thor "What are you, the God of Hammers? " that had me laughing till my tears rolled down.

The tone is light but no less serious, populated by so many colourful characters in a vivid world trapped in impossible situations. At first I thought the introduction of Hulk in the early trailer is a misstep, but Mark Ruffalo's casting would have been close to impossible to keep under wraps. By giving Planet Hulk comic fans a look-in would have been a better move. The repartee between Thor and Hulk/Banner is so hilarious. No less funny is also the dialogue between Thor and Loki, gone is that "he ain't heavy, he is my brother" vibe and this is a Thor that will give Loki a smackdown if he is out of step.

Cate Blanchett plays Thor's estranged sister with evil relish and you don't cast Jeff Goldblum without allowing him to be Goldblum. Waititi even voices a gladiator-mentor character named Korg that practically steals all the scenes he is in. Chris Hemsworth hams it up just to a safe degree and nails all the one-liners with an A+. In fact, the whole cast seems to be having fun.

Thor: Ragnarok embraces its preposterousness and swims in a pool of ridiculousness with the deadpan and self-mocking humour hitting all the bullseyes. In the midst of it all, it still manages to tell a super duper cool story of a superhero saving his people. Yet it manages to remain fresh and zip along with a zany lightning pace. What an inspired choice for a director. The risk taken will pay huge dividends. This has superb rewatch value and I already feel like buying another ticket just to catch all the one-liners one more time. This Thor is Thor-some!

In some alternate reality, a movie bearing the title of Thor: Ragnarok has taken itself very seriously indeed: full of literal doom and gloom, it's an apocalyptic drama about the End of Days, as prophesied by Norse mythology. Since that pretty much describes the world in which we currently live, it's actually rather fitting that Marvel's 17th studio film is something else entirely. In our reality, Thor: Ragnarok is a wild, wacky and very welcome blast of pure joy - a raucous comedy that fuses an intergalactic road trip with buddy comedy, brotherly rivalry and battle domes. Thank Thor (and director Taika Waititi) for that!

We reunite with Thor (Hemsworth) - still free of new Infinity Stones, freshly confident that he's once again warded off the fabled Ragnarok - just as he discovers that something is rotten in the state of Asgard. As teased at the end of Thor: The Dark World, Loki (Hiddleston), his shape-shifting trickster brother, has been impersonating their ailing dad, Odin (Hopkins). When Odin's strength finally fails, the dark secret he's been keeping at bay storms into the lives of his sons: Hela (Blanchett), their bloodthirsty older sister, is back to claim the throne she believes is rightfully hers.

For (largely) better or (occasionally) worse, Thor: Ragnarok doesn't dwell as much on the royal family drama as its predecessors did. Instead, its second act plays out on the candy-coated, death-dealing planet of Sakaar. Ruled by the whims and fancies of the Grandmaster (Goldblum dialled to 11), Sakaar's people are relentlessly entertained in their very own battle dome. (Think the gladiatorial contests of ancient Rome, with holographic screens and super-powered alien beings.) Following an initial devastating confrontation with Hela, Thor is stranded on Sakaar, and brought in by the mercenary Valkyrie (Thompson) to stand against the raging primal force of the Hulk (Ruffalo) - not quite the "friend from work" Thor remembers.

If that all sounds like serious business, rest assured it's very much not. There's a gentle wit threaded through every frame of this film - a glorious, big-hearted silliness that fans of Taika Waititi will remember (and treasure) from such indie comedy gems as What We Did In The Shadows and Hunt For The Wilderpeople. Miraculously, Waititi has managed to infuse this gargantuan, green-screened epic with his trademark offbeat vibe, best exemplified in the way key plot points are revealed (via sardonic monologue or ironic stage play) and the character he plays (Korg, a chirpy rock monster who befriends Thor before our hero heads into the arena).

Waititi's involvement is a blessing for pretty much everyone involved in the film, but especially for Hemsworth. It's not that he hasn't been good in his previous appearances as the God of Thunder throughout the franchise - he was suavely charming in Thor and resolutely grim in The Dark World. But he's so remarkably good here, switching effortlessly between bright-eyed puppy and care-worn leader, that it feels like he's finally come home. Hemsworth's performance in this film is a fantastic balance of sunshine, silliness and subversiveness, and it's a joy to behold.

It's clear, too, that everyone in the cast - including respected veterans like Hopkins and Blanchett - were delighted to partake in the film's mirth and mayhem. Ruffalo continues to play the dual aspects of Bruce Banner - looming brute and mild-mannered professor - with so much winning charm that you want him to get his own Hulk movie, stat. Hiddleston is totally game for playing up the odd- couple comedy of Loki's rivalry with Thor, while shading unexpected complexity into his character's machinations. Thompson swaggers off with practically every scene she's in, finding the heart, humour and heroism in an Asgardian warrior who's lost her way.

Perhaps more impressively, Waititi handles every Marvel blockbuster's requisite action scenes with more clarity and flair than you'd expect from an indie director. He manages to find character and comedy beats even in swooping spaceship chases and bruising hand-to-hand combat. There's a thrilling fluidity to the action sequences - whether it's Thor soaring towards his enemies like lightning made flesh, or Hela unleashing her multiple projectiles of death with a dark, graceful beauty.

That's not to say Thor: Ragnarok is perfect. As it turns out, the film's greatest strength - apocalypse as afterthought - is also its biggest flaw. Waititi just about manages to find the emotional weight in Thor coming to terms with his power and leadership (a driving theme for this character), but it does get a little lost in all the knockabout comedy. Thanks to Blanchett, Hela is never less than terrifying: she oozes gleeful malevolence in her wake, forcing Thor to confront his own gold-tinted ideas of himself, his family and his history. Alas, she's also one of that peculiar breed of antagonist who's immeasurably powerful and strangely ineffective, all at the same time.

For years, Marvel has been making brave choices in terms of the directors to whom it has entrusted its stories and characters. This strategy has yielded films that are, for the most part, creatively diverse, ranging in quality from decent to excellent. Even so, handing the reins of the Thor franchise to a director with such a unique voice as Waititi might have been its biggest gamble yet. Fortunately, it pays off in spades. Smart, silly and self-aware, Thor: Ragnarok is a blockbuster that feels like it snuck into cinemas by way of the art-house. It's also that rare threequel which isn't just as good as its predecessors - it's easily the best of the lot.

I admit it, I'm not exactly a Thor fan. I think the first two Thor feature films were passable efforts but paled in comparison to other heroes outings. For this reason I went in expecting a whole lot of meh!

Now Ragnarok was critically acclaimed, I never heard a bad thing about it despite the fact that I wasn't blown away by the trailer at all.

So with a new Thor outing, sprinkles of Planet Hulk and more humour than usual (Especially from Thor) how'd I think it did?

From the opening moments with Thor swinging from a chain awkwardly rotating as he's trying to have a conversation I was gripped. This wasn't the dull boring stoic Thor we'd grown to accept, this guy was cracking of the wise and I was laughing by buttocks off.

Cate Blanchett delivers as Hela like I never expected she'd manage, Jeff Goldblum is excellent in a role he felt almost born for and the entire thing is one joke filled roller coaster ride that I enjoyed considerably more than I expected to.

Did all the comedy diminish the impact of the Marvel Universe? Oddly not, it fit in perfectly even when a serious moment was underlined with a goofy slapstick laugh.

Kudos to Marvel once again, so far out of every single MCU movie I've only disliked 2 and for a harsh critic like me that's really something.

So much fun, so many laughs and has freshened up a character that in this guys opinion was getting a bit stale. Damn good job.

The Good:

Cast do a great job

Genuinely funny stuff

The Bad:

Could have done more with the Planet Hulk story arc

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

This is where Hulk and Thor were during Civil War!!!!

Immigrant Song just makes any scene better

It's probably best Jaimie Alexander (Lady Sif) couldn't be part of the film

Hulk talking is weird, confusing and please make it stop

Greetings again from the darkness. The ultimate cinematic dilemma … how to make the next comic book movie stand out from the (many, many) others? The brilliant answer comes from director Taika Waititi and co-writers Eric Pearson, Craig Kyle and Christopher Yost – a screwball superhero action film that delivers not only the required alien war scenes, but also a campy villain for the ages in a movie that may be the funniest of the year.

For those who prefer their superheroes dark and brooding, this one will be a shock. Prepare for Jeff Goldblum as the Grandmaster – the most polite villain we've seen in awhile, and one who looks to be straight out of the 1960's "Batman" series. Chris Hemsworth as Thor is one of many returning actors/characters, only this time he really gets to flash his comic timing on top of his Thunder God biceps. His love- hate, trust-no trust, see-saw relationship with brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston) is in full force, as is the Bruce Banner banter with The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo). It's certainly more in line with GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY than the previous movies for Avengers.

As much fun as Goldblum brings to the party, this is really Cate Blanchett's show. She is the frightening (with a dash of camp) Goddess of Death, and long-lost sister of Thor and Loki, and daughter of Odin (Anthony Hopkins). With a headdress that puts everyone at the Kentucky Derby to shame, Hela's enormous powers are such that she crumbles Thor's mighty hammer with little effort – just to remind everyone that big sisters are renowned for messing up younger brother's toys.

Of course, with that title, we know that the story revolves around what could be the end of Asgard. Joining in the fun are: Idris Elba who is back as Heimdall, Tessa Thompson as a master of one-liners Valkyrie, Karl Urban as Skurge - rewarded with a wonderful exit scene, Ray Stevenson returns as Volstagg, and rocky alien Korg who is voiced by director Waititi. Fans of the series will be happy to know other familiar faces pop up periodically – one especially magical sequence teaches Loki a quick lesson.

In addition to the main rescue story line, the powerful villains, and crazy aliens, there are numerous nods and tributes to previous versions (notably Planet Hulk, and Fantastic Four), and a hilarious early stage play with three cameos that make it clear, big time laughter is here to stay. It's fun to catch the reunions from such previous projects as Star Trek, JURASSIC Park and Westworld.

Special acknowledgment goes to director Taika Waititi for hilariously taking the comic book film world down a different path. He's known for his comedic projects like HUNT FOR THE WILDERPEOPLE (one of my favs from 2016), WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS, and his work on the brilliant but short-lived "Flight of the Conchords". It's still very much a Marvel movie, with visible fingerprints of Stan Lee, Larry Lieber, and Jack Kirby. It's also a fantastic adventure film that sets the stage for next year's AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR, while also featuring the best use ever of Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song". So get ready to rock, roll and rollick in a film that is just about as much fun as you can have in a theatre.