(Non-Spoiler Thor: Love and Thunder Review) So, I saw Thor: Love and Thunder last night and I'm not sure there is too many movies out there I've had as much mixed feelings on than I have had with this one. The movie was truly the tale of thirds. From the get-go, I found the first 1/3 of the movie to be downright terrible and borderline unwatchable due to its stupidness, goofiness and lack of verisimilitude. The first third of the movie is Taika truly off the hooks with zero guard rails, and the movie suffers for it. In fact, anything with the Guardians in it seemed to completely disregard anything their relationship with Thor had built up through Infiniti War and Endgame, and was some of the worst parts of the movie. I love the Guardians, so I hate even saying that. Also, where was any acknowledgment of Thor's character growth through all the movies prior to this? It was almost like Thor was back at square one again, and a resented this movie for it. Moving on to the middle third of the movie, I found it to be half downright stupid still and half starting to build some substance and heart within it. This all then leads into the last third of the movie, in which I actually found myself fairly enjoying. I'll be the first to admit that I was prone to really dig the last third of the movie, as a lot of the cancer stuff in the movie is hitting really close to home right now. I even found myself crying a bit, which I rarely do in a movie anymore. It wasn't just the cancer stuff that worked, but much of the other stuff started to pay off finally as well. Anyway, I will say the ending worked for me, but I could see how many people may be completely lost and unresponsive by that point.
Ultimately, the saddest part for this movie is how easy it would have been to fix this movie. I think most people will agree that the best parts of this movie are Lady Thor, Gor, and the Thor and Jane relationship. All three of those things were truly great, but the problem is that we just didn't get as much of any of them as we all would have liked. Instead, half the movie was wasted, and I mean wasted, with Taika trying too hard to be Taika, when most that time could have been spent expanding on the meat of this movie. I don't even criticize the short run-time because I see a great 2 hour movie in there. You just need to take out certain unneeded junk and add in more of what makes the movie good. This movie is the perfect example of how directors can get a bit too ambitious when left fully to their own devices sometimes. A bit of studio interference reining in Taika could have made for a better movie.
Anyway, this in no way spoils the mid-credits scene, but I will say for those people who like a certain thing, they will greatly enjoy the mid-credits scene. The end-credits scene was alright, but the mid-credits was better.
