Thor: Ragnarok

The tone of this film is set within the first ten minutes when we find Thor trussed up being questioned by the demon Surtur. The dangling Thor’s conversation stalls when he spins away and he puts a lot of effort into getting back in to position. It’s not a new joke but it’s well done, and funny.

Thor escapes and making his way back to Asgard finds that someone else Skurge (Karl Urban) is manning the bifröst and that Odin is watching plays about Loki’s triumphs: all very odd.

The big bad this time is Hela (Cate Blanchett) Thor’s elder sister and goddess of death has been released and plans to take over Asgard, and everything else in the universe. This she sees as her right having been banished after Odin decided to change his destruction and invasion policy to a more inclusive and benevolent one.

The initial confrontation with Hela is a disaster, with Thor and Loki escaping through the bifröst, they separate. Crashing out of it, Thor is dumped on to the trash planet of Sakaar lorded over by Jeff Goldblum’s the Grandmaster.
Captured, rather easily, by drunk Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson) Thor is sent in to the arena where he confronts the all-conquering Hulk. They escape from Sakaar and set off to Asgard to confront Hela.

That is the basic outline and to say too much more would spoil it both as a spectacle and a comedy. Having said that you can expect the big SFX but they wear thin. Which is why the comedy element is so welcome. Some is sharp, some really not so, luckily knows what he is doing and New Zealand director Taika Waititi has blended these elements in successfully.

There’s a few nice cameos and frankly letting Jeff Goldblum loose with the campest of camp roles was only going to result in him stealing every scene he’s in. It’s also incredibly colourful generally heading towards Guardians of the Galaxy territory.

Tom Hiddleston and Chris Hemsworth, as Loki and Thor respectively, revel in the extra space they have and Waititi, who has his own roles as the motion captured Surtur, and Korg a creature made of rock, whom he voices too. The only ones who are in keeping with the moods of the previous films are Heimdall (Idris Elba) and Odin (Anthony Hopkins).

Hela is an evil so and so but Cate Blanchett’s rather hammy performance seriously detracts from the menace of the character. There may be some who’ll grumble about The Hulk’s development which sees him become a more rounded character now, with some of his destructive nature neutralised. But what it does confirm that Mark Ruffalo has now nailed this part.

The music ranges from the bleeding obvious - Led Zeppelin’s Immigrant Song - to the far more imaginative use of the melody from Pure Imagination, otherwise the soundtrack by Mark Mothersbaugh is fine foil for film’s colourful hues and palette. All taken this is a thundering rollercoaster of effects, puns, gags, colour and quite juvenile fun.