Taika Waititi's THOR: RAGNAROK

Movie review by Dennis D. McDonald

There’s no question about it: THOR: RAGNAROK is a nonstop cavalcade of fun, action, comedy, and spectacle.

And yet…

I left the theater feeling let down.

There is much welcome quirkiness here.  The movie shares enjoyable tongue-in-cheekness with Waititi’s previous movies What We Do in the Shadows and Hunt for the Wilderpeople.

But there is just too much going on in Thor: Ragnarok. For example, there are too many fan-service-mandated characters. For example, I’m still trying to figure out what Dr. Strange was doing there. The movie is almost like the old-fashioned holiday “cavalcade of stars” specials on 20th-century network radio and TV. Stars of the day would just “drop by” and sing a song or two. They were on just long enough to receive “special guest billing” – and to pick up a check.

Admittedly, I’m not a big Marvel Universe fan. And, I do like there is so much humor in Thor: Ragnarok. But overall the movie and its ending are just too grandiose and overpopulated for its own good. I would have been happy just to focus on Thor’s family troubles and leave the rest of Marvel out of it.

Review copyright © 2018 by Dennis D. McDonald