Thor: Love and Thunder

[School of Movies 2022]

Back when this was announced there was all kinds of excitement. Thor, much like his buddy Hulk was a character it seemed like Marvel took a while to get a handle on, relative to the duo of immediate home runs with Iron man and Captain America. The first film was a relative success, he contributed greatly to the chemistry of The Avengers, but then underwhelmed in The Dark World and felt vestigial in Age of Ultron.

But Taika Waititi and Chris Hemsworth's 2017 Ragnarok reinvention revealed a hilarious and savvy rogue still with his roots in the earnest early performances. This was followed by two wildly popular Avengers outings which harnessed a palpable rage and grief (though not without a problematic amount of fat-shaming). This evolving dimensionality made it seem like it was worth a victory lap, bringing Waititi back in. The spotlighting of Jane Foster and Natalie Portman's unexpected returned to the series adapting Jason Aaron's recent comic run. 

It seemed very likely we would get an evolution of what the world saw Thor as. Especially considering the villain this time was largely sympathetic, as a simple man entirely let down by a pantheon of absurdly privileged complacent gods...

And then we watched the movie.

Guests:

Nama Chibitty @namathenerd

Austin Wilden @WC_WIT of Wits-Writing