There are serious Flash Gordon vibes here and in my world that’s a very, very good thing. Much like that 1980 classic, this is relentlessly colorful. It’s also paced like a rocket, refuses to take itself seriously, has a quirky music score (by Mark Mothersbaugh, who mixes retro-tone synthesizers with big orchestral stuff) and fulfills one of the great promises of superhero movies these days, which is that it goes to other worlds. I mean, we have these ultra-realistic CGI computer nerd effects now. The wildest panels and craziest characters that Jack Kirby ever drew can now be translated to film. Meanwhile, a lot of these movies just use CGI to destroy about seven hundred city buildings and make Iron Man not look stupid. Not nearly enough of them get cosmic and go to other planets or at least bring some unique visual aesthetic.
Who knew that the third Thor movie of all things would take such a confident step toward the weird and wild?
It makes sense though. Part of the business of comic books is taking old characters and giving ’em a good goose every now and then with a fresh creative team who can take their stories to new places. Plus, Thor is a boring character in the previous movies. He’s a Norse God whose precious fucking flying hammer that only he can lift gets him out of every tight spot. Also, Mr. Muscles action heroes like him are presently out of fashion in movies so they can’t go full sword-and-sandal with him. However, as Marvel’s resident hero from another world, he’s a perfect vehicle for high-flying fantasy. He’s not attached to Earth. You can rocket him five galaxies away with ease.
So, that’s what this film does and it’s entertaining as hell. I loved it.
The story pretty much IS Flash Gordon. Here, our blonde god of thunder Thor (along with Tom Hiddleston’s Loki) winds up stranded in a strange world that looks to be some kind of cosmic junkyard. There, Thor is a comical fish out of water and every time he thinks he’s figured out something, the movie turns the tables on him. To make matters worse for him, his hammer gets destroyed early in the movie, taking away his crutch.
The world is run by a campy dictator, Jeff Goldblum the Merciless, who’s partly an overgrown little boy and partly a Roman emperor-type who gets his jollies by staging gladiatorial death matches for massive crowds. Thor gets captured, caged and forced into this business.
The Hulk is somehow there, too, which would be a terrific unexpected surprise, but the trailer gives it away, so I guess that I can give it away.
It’s a great idea because it goes light on the Asgard shit. Nobody cares about Asgard. Asgard reminds us of stuff we had to read in high school that we don’t remember.
There IS some Asgard shit, but it’s pretty good due to the performance of the ever-reliable Cate Blanchett as Thor’s psychotic Goddess of Death sister, Hela. Blanchett plays it to the old school Disney villain hilt as she takes over the realm and imposes despotic rule.
Meanwhile, director Taika Waititi seems to have grown up on all of the same 80s fantasy films that I did. He likes lasers, spaceships, weird aliens and bright color schemes. He doesn’t see one thing wrong with a giant Neverending Story wolf all of a sudden showing up. He also sees nothing wrong with making this film every bit as much a comedy as it is an action spectacle. He’s a true Generation X-er who remembers this crazy idea that we used to have that this superhero stuff could be fun and dazzling to the eye and have characters whom we enjoy watching.
What a lunatic.