If you’re a fan of Marvel movies, every second Christian Bale spends in Thor: Love and Thunder are like manna from heaven. That same actor who starred in Christopher Nolan’s Batman is now playing a bloodthirsty vampiric heavy, Gorr, a disillusioned follower out to avenge the gods who disregarded his pleas and abandoned his dying family by slaughtering them all. With his hairless cemetery emaciation and ebony dagger grin, Bale looks terrifying in the part. In addition, he’s also acting his method ass off behind all that make-up, giving the Avengers rogues’ gallery a mix of sour rage and curdled heartbreak. As portrayed by Bale’s brilliantly devoted horror-show portrayal, Gorr seems like he could have walked in from a whole different movie.
Bale Love and Thunder never threaten to collect any seriousness save for his welcome but odd sequences. Taika Waititi returns to write & direct another Thor film, this time as both writer and director, but don’t look for more of the inspired buddy humour from Thor: Ragnarok. The Kiwi comedian’s finest jokes were evidently used up in the last sequel, so this time he’s returned with a shaky animated adventure that frequently feels like a feeble parody of its own franchise. A Marvel film that barely holds together is a rarity these days. It’s been a while since we last saw the God of Thunder (Chris Hemsworth, who seems to be riding high on our presumption of fondness for his herculean himbo), and he was about to go on yet another adventure with the ragged group of cuddlesome outlaws known as the Guardians of the Galaxy.
At first, Chris Pratt, Natalie Portman, and the rest of the cast appear in two mostly wordless moments (their group appearance has the skimpiness of a failed contract negotiation), while Thor drops the pounds in a training montage that ends too abruptly to achieve the desired retro-cheesy sweet spot. To cover up these early sequences, Waititi reprises his role as the kindhearted rock monster and newly created backstory reiterator Korg. With Jennifer Kaytin Robinson, Waititi co-wrote the script for Thor: Ragnarok, which borrows extensively from Jason Aaron’s celebrated, multiyear run on the Thor comic book. Love and Thunder is a mashup of two of his most important storylines. Nonetheless, this is a tale about Thor’s journey to rescue a group of kidnapped Asgardian children from Bale’s fallen deity, who has already dispatched a number of lesser gods on a one-way, premature trip to the afterlife.
But it’s a hurriedly put-together narrative about a scientist, played here by Natalie Portman, stealing her ex-mystical boyfriend’s hammer and taking on the mantle of Thor. The reunion of these literally star-crossed lovers has the potential to be both romantic and comical. As in the first Thor, where Portman’s longing for her awesomely abbed love interest mingled with her scientific curiosity, Hemsworth and Portman had great on-screen chemistry. Thor’s forced collaboration with his super ex-girlfriend in Love and Thunder doesn’t get quite as much comedic discomfort as it should in an attempt to stoke that ember. If there was any hope for a Marvel take on the remarriage comedic trope, it was quickly dashed by Waititi’s omission of even a single scene of Jane discovering and celebrating her newly gained godlike powers.
A “surprise” reveal previously spoiled by the trailers, featuring her in full regalia, is omitted from the film. As a comedy, Love and Thunder is disjointed and never settles into a rhythm. As a pompous, inept Zeus, Russell Crowe earns some mild chuckles as a sub-Mel Brooksian parody of Clash of the Titans. Waititi employs the film’s notoriously shaky visuals and flashy production design for laughs, but his success will depend on how well he manages to land them. Like the news that New Asgard has become an amusement park, his attempts at parody are lacking in aim or accuracy. A hint at Marvel cross-promotion or merely product placement disguised as comedy is hard to discern when Tessa Thompson, the newly crowned King Valkyrie (in Ragnarok, she was given more to do than she had in Ragnarok), appears in an Old Spice commercial. Between these tentpoles, one is reminded of Waititi’s awful Holocaust crowd-pleaser Jojo Rabbit.
This is another only fitfully hilarious joke machine extolling the transformational power of love in its syrupy backstretch, as Love and Thunder finally reveal themselves to be. To discover how to reopen his heart is at the centre of Thor’s entire voyage. At the very least, it will not insult anyone’s taste in cinema. Unlike Ragnarok, the new Thor has no fewer than four Guns N’ Roses songs on the soundtrack. Bale’s presence ensures that Love and Thunder don’t devolve into a parody of itself, but rather a film that occasionally detours into true danger. An excellent opening sequence sets the tone for a grimmer, darker opus than the one that follows, with him suffering in the parched desert-like Christ before discovering his evil mission. Another set-piece has Waititi practically leeching colour right out of the frame in an attempt to imitate the doomy monochrome beauty of an Akira Kurosawa fight, as Gorr creates a trap for our heroes in the interplanetary dead zone. By the time Bale appears in the scene, the movie’s Day-Glo frivolity has been sucked right out of it, and the dramatic tension has been brought back into it. Friday, July 8th is the release date for Thor: Love and Thunder.