Lewis’ paraphrase - finds not the slightest echo here. The great, tragic heroism of the Norse/Germanic worldview - “The giants will beat the gods in the end, but I am on the side of the gods,” in C.S. There’s no air of foreboding or doom, no sense of elegy or loss or noble sacrifice. If Ragnarok doesn’t matter in a Thor movie, what could you possibly put onscreen ever again that would matter?
#THOR RAGNAROK WOLF MOVIE#
There’s a computer-generated wolf that’s unreasonably big, but hardly an apocalyptic giant.Ībove all, the movie takes as a mantra a line of dialogue that in context basically amounts to “Ragnarok doesn’t matter.” Think about that. Another major character is maimed, but it’s shrugged off. In an image straight out of Kung Fu Panda, a major character does die, but not in battle. There is an option, though, that could have some emotional power - if the film didn’t undercut it in every way possible.
#THOR RAGNAROK WOLF FULL#
Obviously going Full Ragnarok isn’t an option. Odin, Thor and Loki fall in battle the great wolf Fenris consumes the sun and everything on the face of the earth and the creation of the cosmos is reversed as the Earth sinks back into the watery chaos from which it emerged. It is the doom or twilight of the gods and the destruction of the world as we know it by the world-destroying giants. “Ragnarök” in Norse mythology is an apocalyptic event of immense consequence. Meanwhile, in all this lighthearted diversion, something important has been lost. The movie actually opens with Asgardian players performing a burlesque parody of past events - a spoof that comes close to setting the tone for what follows. The jokes are mostly funny, though at times it feels a little too much like an episode of The Orville as opposed to real Star Trek. Waititi does what is required, which is largely to keep things Fun (or “Fun”), with lots and lots of riffing on previous Marvel movies, especially Joss Whedon’s Avengers films.
Waititi’s gentle, deadpan sense of humor is evident throughout the film, but especially in the soft-spoken, Kiwi-accented rock-monster Korg, whom Waititi fans will recognize as the director’s avatar even if they don’t know that he’s voiced and performed via motion capture by Waititi himself. To capture the desired Guardians-esque vibe, Marvel turned to New Zealand director Taika Waititi, whose Hunt for the Wilderpeople was one of last year’s best comedies. (I’m not saying Michael Keaton wasn’t having fun in Spider-Man: Homecoming, but his character was understandably angry and cautious, and not really about kicking back and enjoying himself.) But for the main heavy, Ragnarok introduces Cate Blanchett as Hela, the Norse goddess of death and perhaps the first Marvel villain since Loki who seems to be having any fun.
Tom Hiddleston’s Loki is back, because of course he is. This is both a mark of the massive success of the Guardians films, with their colorful, whimsical design and self-mocking humor, and of the relative failure of the first two Thor films, especially The Dark World, to find a vibe of their own. Officially, Thor: Ragnarok is the third Thor movie, but in spirit it’s closer to being the third Guardians of the Galaxy movie. (They belong to a class of obsessively trivial ancient beings called the “Elders of the Universe,” though this may or may not apply in the big-screen Marvel universe.) You won’t learn this in Thor: Ragnarok, but the two characters are “brothers,” at least in the comics. If he seems somehow familiar, perhaps he reminds you of a character in Guardians of the Galaxy who fits the same general description: “The Collector,” played by Benicio Del Toro. In Thor: Ragnarok Jeff Goldblum plays a flamboyant, decadent, sadistic connoisseur of extraordinary specimens, including slaves, known only by a nominalized common noun, “The Gamemaster.”