It has been 2 weeks since the release of Thor:Ragnarok and I think that’s enough time for most people to have seen the film and be okay with a review filled with spoilers.
If you have not seen the movie this post will be full of spoilers, so if you don’t want anything spoiled, I suggest you stop reading now!
Alright let’s dive into the review…
STORY
So we open the movie with Thor retelling the events that lead him to this point, being trapped in a hanging cage in Surtur’s lair. Thor recounts all of his past exploits with the Avengers and his solo adventures on Midgard before the bottom of the cage drops out and he tumbles unraveling the chain to come to rest hanging in front of Surtur himself. Surtur postulates about how he will bring Ragnarok down upon Asgard by uniting his crown with the Eternal Flame of Odin’s vault. Thor, in true Thor fashion, uses MJOLNIR to break from the chains and knock Surtur’s crown off his head. He flees from a large hell hound/dragon/jet creature and returns to Asgard with the crown of Surtur in tow.
When he arrives back on Asgard he finds that Odin has commissioned a play of Loki’s “Great Sacrifice” with Matt Damon making a surprise cameo as one of the actors in the play. In addition to the play, Odin has erected a large golden statue of Loki to commemorate his death for all of Asgard to see. Thor forces Loki to reveal his trickery and show that it was actually him and not Odin who has been ruling Asgard since the end of Thor 2: The Dark World which took place 2 years prior. The two brothers then travel to Midgard to New York where Loki has said he has hidden Odin. When they arrive at the retirement home where Loki has said he left him, they discover it being torn down. Dr. Strange steals Loki away and leaves a note for Thor to join him at his Sanctorum. When Strange realizes that Loki will leave once they find Odin, he tells Thor where his father is and frees Loki from the trap he had set for him.
When the brothers find Odin he is close to death and he warns them that his first born, Hela, will be released upon his death and that they will not be able to stop her. As Odin dies, the prison holding Hela dissolves and she appears on Midgard. Thor and Loki prepare to battle her and Thor hurls MJOLNIR at her. Much to his and Loki’s surprise, Hela catches MJOLNIR in her hand and crushes it. Loki activates the bifrost to get them out of danger but they are pursued by Hela into the bifrost and thrown out into the vastness of space. Hela arrives on Asgard and kills two of the warriors three before being confronted by the army of Asgard and the final warrior. She destroys the entire army and walks into the throne room. As she looks up she sees the lies Odin has spun about how they came to be on the mural above the throne. She destroys the mural to reveal an older one underneath wherein it tells of War and conquest and slaughter done by Odin with Hela at his side. She walks into the vault and takes some of the enternal flame and breaks through the floor into the tomb of the old Asgard warriors underneath the vault. She descends into the tomb and brings them all back to life including the massive wolf Fenris.
Thor crash lands on a strange planet in a junk pile. He is accosted by locals who call him food before being “rescued” by Valkyrie who sells him to the Grandmaster as a contender in the gladiator arena. He meets Korg and the rest of the gladiators that fight for the pleasure of the Grandmaster. When Thor finally enters the ring to battle the champion he discovers the champion is none other than the Incredible Hulk. Initially pleased with this he lets his guard down until the Hulk bashes him one too many times. The ensuing fight is quite spectacular with Thor learning about his true power.
When he wakes up he hatches a plan involving the Hulk and Valkyrie to bust off of Sakaar (the planet ruled by the Grandmaster) and get back to Asgard to confront Hela. We learn that Valkyrie was present during the last charge of the Valkyries and was defeated by Hela, so she holds some resentment towards the Asgardian Goddess of Death. Eventually enlisting the help of Loki they steal the grandmaster’s personal orgy ship (yes… a ship he uses to conduct orgies) and make their escape from Sakaar up the Devil’s anus ( a collapsing neutron star inside an Einstein-Rosen Bridge). When they arrive, Heimdall is attempting to lead the people of Asgard through the bifrost but they are stopped by Fenris. Thor battles Hela with the help of Valkyrie, Hulk battles Fenris, and Heimdall along with Loki battle the horde of the undead. Thor has a vision wherein he asks his father for guidance and help because he has no power without his hammer. His father explains to him that his power never came from the hammer and that the hammer had just helped him to focus it. Thor unlocks his true power as the God of Thunder and begins laying a beatdown on the undead and Hela. While Hela still proves too much of a match for them, Thor and Loki come up with the plan to start Ragnarok. Loki steals away into the weapons vault and grabs Surtur’s crown and throws it into the eternal Flame. Surtur is returned to his full power and Hela goes to battle to defend Asgard because her power is directly linked to Asgard, and the longer she is there the stronger she becomes. Thor, Loki, Heimdall, Valkyrie, Korg, and the people of Asgard flee on a ship destined for Midgard.
During the after credit scene The Midgard bound ship is confronted by Sanctuary II (Thanos’ Warship).
THEMES
The main theme of the movie is unification. The entire movie is spent trying to bring everyone back to Asgard because that is where they all belong. Heimdall and Odin deliver the most important line of the whole movie “Asgard isn’t a place… Asgard is a people”. This puts everything into perspective for Thor as he was fighting so hard to save his home and his family’s legacy, but he finally realizes that where he lives doesn’t matter as long as he has his people with him. He relinquishes his home to save his people from certain death, and in the process finally learns what it means to be a good king.
One of the minor themes in the movie is revenge, which I mean is pretty obvious when Thor titles his team the Revengers. Every member of the team has history with Hela with the exception of Hulk who is there for muscle. Valkyrie lost her entire garrison in the attack on Hela and has been running ever since; Loki and Thor blame Hela for the death and destruction of their home and being cast out. But for all of their collective anger towards Hela their thirst for revenge is the one thing that unites them (for the most part).
CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT
The character that has the biggest growth throughout the film is Thor, I mean it is his movie after all. That being said if you look at his appearances since the first Thor movie he has steadily become more and more humble in his abilities and his lust for conflict.
Losing the eye also helped him to gain a little perspective as Odin put it in the dream sequence that he has never seen the universe more clearly now that he only has one eye.
Loki also goes through some strong character development in this movie. he goes from being the trickster God to reluctant hero of the people of Asgard. Not only does he help to save the people of Asgard but he also comes back into possession of the Tesseract which was hidden in Odin’s vault beside the Eternal Flame. But throughout the film Loki went from thinking only about himself and his place to thinking about others and the betterment of his people. Thor even expected Loki to pull some sort of trick in the end and make it out which he did, but Thor wasn’t prepared for Loki to come to join him.
OVERALL IMPRESSIONS OF THE FILM
This film is by far one of the better Marvel movies ever made. It reminds me a lot fo the first Guardians of the Galaxy movie with the amazing colour choices and the soundtrack. The Immigrant song by Led Zepplin was the perfect song to use for the movie. When it came on during the final battle when Thor realized his true potential it made me giddy in my seat. There are obviously some things that I would change for the movie, particularly the villain problem. I would’ve had Thor and Loki find some way to actually trap Hela again so that she could potentially come back for another round. I know that we don’t actually see her die, but we see her fall to the wrath of Surtur, and then Asgard is turned into star dust, so I think it’s safe to say she is pretty dead.
I was okay with Thor becoming the king of Asgard but he was not given the Odinforce which would be extremely useful in the upcoming Infinity War. He lost the same eye as Odin and now has a patch to match the one his father had and he has Valkyrie and Korg at his side as well as Loki and Heimdall to bring the people of Asgard to Midgard.
I am not a big fan of mixing comic story lines, but that is just my personal preference. I would’ve preferred to have Asgard remain whole but a barren wasteland controlled by Surtur than have it explode into Space dust. The fall of Asgard is direct reference to the Siege arc in Marvel comics where Asgard fell into rural Iowa. That just seemed to me like they were trying to find a reason for the Asgardians to go to Midgard, and used it as a tool and nothing more. The Siege story arc is one of the best Marvel story lines and leads into Fear Itself and the fall of the God of Thunder.
We know that Phase 4 is going to have a complete new Avengers team and is not going to keep any of the core members, so if this is the case I really hope they don’t hack and paste Fear Itself into Infinity War just so Thor has a “good” death.
All that aside I really did enjoy the film and I would give it a 8.0/10. There are obviously things that can be changed as with every film, but it was a fun ride and the humour was a great addition if at some points a little too much.
The Multiverse 
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