Marvel Studios / The Walt Disney Company
Starring Chris Hemsworth (Thor), Natalie Portman (Jane Foster / Mighty Thor), Taika Waititi (Korg) Christian Tessa Thompson (Valkyrie), Christian Bale (Gorr the God Butcher), and Russell Crowe (Zeus), with appearances by Chris Pratt (Peter Quill / Star-Lord), Dave Bautista (Drax), Karen Gillen (Nebula), Pom Klementieff (Mantis), Sean Gunn (Kraglin), Bradley Cooper (the voice of Rocket), and Vin Diesel (the voice of Groot), Kat Dennings (Darcy Lewis), Stellan Skarsgard (Erik Selvig), and also introducing India Hemsworth as Love, a credits scene that introduces Brett Goldstein as Hercules, and a credits scene featuring Idris Elba as Heimdall
THOR: LOVE AND THUNDER
Directed by Taika Waititi
Produced by Kevin Feige and Brad Winderbaum
Written by Taika Waititi and Jennifer Kaytin Robinson
Music by Michael Giacchino and Nami Melumad
Distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
Run Time: 1 hour and 59 minutes
World Premier: June 23, 2022, at the El Capitan Theater
Opening Weekend Box Office: $144 million in North America
Worldwide Box Office: $699 million
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 65%
Marvel Studios / The Walt Disney Company
Fun Thor: Love and Thunder Facts
Thor: Love and Thunder was first announced on July 20, 2019, at Marvel Studios’ landmark 10th San Diego Comic Con presentation. The film was originally announced for a November 5, 2021, theatrical release date. Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson joined Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige and Director Taika Waititi on-stage and joined him in welcoming Natalie Portman on-stage. She was confirmed to be not only reprising her role as Jane Foster in the film, but also taking on the mantle of Thor in the movie as well, just as her comic book counterpart did in the Marvel comics.
Jane Foster took on the mantle of Thor in the main Marvel (616) Comics Universe in the Fall of 2014’s Thor # 1 (after a tease in Thor: God of Thunder # 25) written by Jason Aaron with artist Russel Dauterman. Jane’s identity was a mystery to readers and in-story characters until Thor # 8 in the spring of 2015. Jane became a member of The Avengers and arguably the focal point of the Thor series until her run as the Goddess of Thunder came to an end in Thor # 705-706 in the Spring of 2018. Jane Foster originally appeared with the powers of Thor and wielding Mjolnir in 1978’s What If? # 10.
On March 10, 2020, actor Vin Diesel confirmed that The Guardians of the Galaxy would be appearing in Thor: Love and Thunder. Thor left Earth to travel through Space with The Guardians at the end of Avengers: Endgame, so this was a logical and welcomed confirmation.
On April 3, 2020, with the COVID-19 Coronavirus Pandemic wreaking havoc on Hollywood productions and the theatrical business due to widespread sickness and Global lockdowns, Marvel Studios announced a new release date of February 18, 2022, for Thor: Love and Thunder. On April 24, 2022, Thor: Love and Thunder was moved up 1-week to February 11, 2022.
As part of Disney’s Investor’s Day on November 10, 2020, Marvel Studios CCO Kevin Feige hosted a Marvel Studios presentation during which he confirmed that Christian Bale would be portraying Gorr the God Butcher in Thor: Love and Thunder and announced a tentative shooting start for January of 2021 in Australia.
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Gorr the God Butcher was created by writer Jason Aaron and artist Esad Ribic in 2012’s Thor: God of Thunder # 1. Gorr was the primary antagonist of Aaron’s first eleven issues of what would become an acclaimed run that lasted 7-years, boasted over 80 main series issues, some spin-off stories, and the epic War of the Realms event.
On January 6, 2021, 10-months into the Global Pandemic, Thor: Love and Thunder commenced filming.
On March 23, 2021, Marvel Studios announced that the release date for Thor: Love and Thunder has been pushed back yet again, to May 6, 2022.
On June 2, 2021, Thor: Love and Thunder wrapped filming.
On October 18, 2021, Marvel Studios announced that the release date for Thor: Love and Thunder had been pushed back once more, this time to July 8, 2022, which put the film six months removed from its original release date of November 5, 2021.
Marvel Studios / The Walt Disney Company
On April 18, 2022, Marvel Studios dropped the first trailer for Thor: Love and Thunder, set to the tune of Guns n Roses’ Sweet Child O’ Mine and giving viewers their first glimpse of Natalie Portman’s Mighty Thor.
On Monday, May 23, 2022, Marvel Studios dropped the second trailer for Thor: Love and Thunder, which gave viewers their first glimpse of Christian Bale’s Gorr the God Butcher in action.
On June 23, 2022, the World Premiere of Marvel Studios’ Thor: Love and Thunder took place at the El Capitan Theater in Hollywood, California. Jamie Alexander, Christian Bale, Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Sean Gunn, Karen Gillen, Taika Waititi, Victoria Alonso, Kevin Feige, Tessa Thompson, Joe Russo, and Chris Pratt were among those that appeared at the event.
Thor: Love and Thunder marked Marvel Studios’ 29th feature length motion picture and theatrical release dating back to 2008’s Iron Man. The film was furthermore the first character solo movie from the franchise to receive a fourth installment, and just the second 4th installment ever, following 4 Avengers films from 2012-2019.
Thor: Love and Thunder marks Chris Hemsworth’s 8th appearance as Thor in a feature-length Marvel Studios production following 2011’s Thor, 2012’s The Avengers, 2013’s Thor: The Dark World, 2015’s Avengers: Age of Ultron, 2017’s Thor: Ragnarok, 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War, and 2019’s Avengers: Endgame. Hemsworth has furthermore appeared in two Marvel Studios One-Shot‘s (both directed by Taika Waititi), ever-so-briefly voiced a Frog version of the God of Thunder in Loki: Season One and provided the voice of Thor in several episode of Marvel Studios’ animated What If …? Season One series on Disney+.
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The two Team Thor One-Shot‘s directed by Taika Waititi and produced by Marvel Studios from 2016-2018 were made adjacent canon to the Marvel Cinematic Universe through the casting of Daley Pearson as Darryl. Pearson appears as Darryl in Thor: Love and Thunder, working at New Asgard as a tour guide. It is my understanding that the Darryl that appears in Love and Thunder is a Variant of the Darryl seen in those Team Thor shorts (and in another titled Team Darryl that co-starred Jeff Goldblum), just as the Thor that we saw in those shorts was a Variant to the Thor that we see in Love and Thunder. I take this stance primarily due to Bruce Banner’s appearance in Team Thor: Part One, which makes no sense since he was off world following the events of Age of Ultron. Nonetheless, the appearance of Darryl was a fun call-back to those shorts and this small detail will canonize those shorts as part of the MCU 616-Multiverse in the minds of many fans.
Jamie Alexander’s appearance in Thor: Love and Thunder as the Lady Sif marked her first time as this version of the character in the MCU since 2013’s Thor: The Dark World. Alexander did appear briefly in Loki: Season One on Disney+ as part of a Time Cell that saw Tom Hiddleston’s Loki Variant L1130 forced to relieve a moment from his past by the Time Variance Authority. Alexander also voiced Sif for Marvel Studios’ animated series What If …? Season One on Disney+.
Natalie Portman’s appearance in Thor: Love and Thunder as Doctor Jane Foster marked her first official time working with Marvel Studios since 2013’s Thor: The Dark World. Her character was referenced in Avengers: Age of Ultron and Thor: Ragnarok, and archived footage was used to bring her back for Avengers: Endgame, but this was her official on-set, all-in return to the role.
Thor: Love and Thunder ends with the words: “Thor Will Return”, which is sure to excite many MCU fans. While cherished actors such as Robert Downey Jr, Chris Evans, and Scarlett Johansson have stepped away from their iconic MCU roles, Chris Hemsworth is one of the founding members of The Avengers that has stayed on with Marvel Studios beyond The Infinity Saga, joining Mark Ruffalo and Jeremy Renner (Scarlett came back for Black Widow, but that film took place in the past between the events of Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War). Hemsworth has stated in many interviews that he will continue to portray Thor for as long as Marvel Studios will have him. Chris was originally cast to portray the God of Thunder in June of 2009.
The 2023 book Marvel Studios – The Marvel Cinematic Universe: An Official Timeline confirmed that Thor: Love and Thunder takes place in the Fall of 2025, chronologically landing it after Ms. Marvel and before Werewolf by Night on the MCU (Sacred) Timeline.
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My Thor: Love and Thunder Review
Having seen the Rotten Tomatoes score and having heard the negative rumblings of a lot of people due to the 15-day gap between the world Premiere and the theatrical release of Thor: Love and Thunder, I almost feel like I have to come out of the gate here defending the fact that I loved this movie. As I’ve written countless times on this site, opinions are subjective, and to each their own and whatever, but Thor: Love and Thunder checked all of my boxes as a Marvel Studios fan, an MCU fan, a Thor fan, and as a fan of Jason Aaron’s incredible comic book run, which (among many other things) introduced the Gorr character, gave readers Jane Foster’s Mighty Thor, and introduced the idea of Mjolnir being sentient (which Taika Waititi plays with in this film).
This film had lots of humor. It had lots of heart. It had a lot of action, a lot of drama, and some very strong performances, some of which rank right up there amongst the MCU’s best! For me, it was charming, thought-provoking, and yes, silly at times, that I will admit, but just as was the case with Thor: Ragnarok, I dig Taika Waititi’s humor and directorial style, so none of those kinds of things were issues for me. I fully expected to both laugh and cry in this film, and that’s exactly what I did, so I was not disappointed.
I did have some other hopes and wants for this film. I wanted to see Gorr the God Butcher done right. I wanted to see Mighty Thor done right. I wanted Taika to bring the crazy. And I wanted to finally see Valhalla. I got all of those things in this film! Some of the things that I didn’t get were Gorr killing Zeus, Sif, and Thor, a cameo from Thena of the Eternals, and appearances by characters such as Beta Ray Bill, the Frog of Thunder, and Amora the Enchantress. However, not getting some things that I come up with in my head, be they fandom wishes or personal theories or whatever, rarely affects how much I enjoy a film when it comes time to watch it. Something like Gorr killing the likes of Sif and Thor sounds good on paper if the goal is to make Gorr the kind of monumental villain that will long live in infamy, but realistically, Thor’s death in particular wouldn’t have served this particular narrative and not killing him or Sif off means maybe we can see more of them in future projects, which of course is no bad thing! As for the select character appearances that I didn’t get, maybe I will get those in the future … maybe not. That’s just pure fandom and wishful thinking, and again, there was plenty going on in this film without the introduction of more new characters.
I will admit that I would have liked to have seen more of The Guardians of the Galaxy and that I would have liked to have seen more of Valhalla, and yes, of course I would have liked to have seen some version of Tom Hiddleston’s Loki, but that’s due to my love for certain characters and the fact that I simply cannot get enough of them. In the end, did the story that Taika Waititi was trying to tell need Loki? No. Did it need The Guardians beyond the little bit of them that we got? No. Did it need Throg or the Enchantress or Beta Ray Bill? No. It didn’t. Taika told the story that he wanted to tell with the characters that he wanted to tell it with. Whether or not that worked, depends on the viewer, but it worked for me.
Thor: Love and Thunder deals with some very heavy things, just as Jason Aaron’s comic book run did. Perhaps the heaviest of these things is the topic of faith … or rather, the topic of lost faith. Losing your faith is something you either have or haven’t experienced in life. I have. This makes Gorr the God Butcher an immensely relatable character for me. The questions that he raised in the comics and the questions that he raises in this film are the kinds of things that I once upon a time voiced in a genuine effort to simply get answers that made sense from the people that I expected would have them. It went much deeper for me in a lot of ways, but the foundation was generally the same: Why does God allow bad things to happen to good people? Why does God allow suffering? Why doesn’t God answer my prayers? Etc.
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In the comics, Gorr is labeled a heretic and a blasphemer by his people for his questions. In the film, he would come across as much the same to a person of faith. Given my upbringing and religious background, I know that this sort of thing can be a real turn-off for certain viewers. A lot of people don’t want to be put in a position of defending their faith and they certainly don’t want to be put in a position of defending their God because their God is perfect, and His acts aren’t to be questioned and their faith in their God is essential to a blessed eternal life. It’s easier to just walk away than it is to engage in a debate that often turns hostile due to the passion of either side. When you strip it all the way down to its roots, there really isn’t anything one side can do or say to change the mind of the other, so it isn’t very constructive. There is a difference between debate and conversation though, and conversation can be constructive, and that’s really what I think Taika tried to do with this script: create conversation.
One of the greatest mental and emotional tools that we possess as humans is empathy, and Taika tries desperately to get us as viewers to empathize with Gorr’s situation. That doesn’t mean we have to agree with him or even to relate to him … it’s a simple effort to understand why he is who he is, and why he became what he has become.
Gorr lived a life of great suffering combined with devout servitude. His young daughter died in his arms, thirsty, hungry, frail, sick, and exhausted. His prayers to his god went unanswered, despite him fully committing his life to this entity. Along the way, Gorr became pretty sure that his god had either abandoned him or had never actually existed in the first place, but he buried these feelings within himself and even resented himself at times for suffering these thoughts and emotions. After burying his daughter however, Gorr discovers that his god (Rapu) really does exist and is horrified to discover that Rapu isn’t all that good and isn’t at all concerned with the mortal lives of his followers, least of all Gorr and his dead daughter. All of this is discovered by Gorr after he answers the whispered call of the Necrosword; an ancient and powerful weapon capable of slaying gods. With Rapu mocking Gorr’s suffering and ultimately, even Gorr’s existence, while basking in his own esteemed glory, a repulsed Gorr takes hold of the Necrosword and slays Rapu. Having seen his god for what he was stirs within Gorr a hatred for all gods, and he vows to hunt them all down and kill them all.
So, yeah. Not a lot of people’s vision for how things will go down on the glorious day in which they finally meet the deity that they have devoted their respective lives to, and the uncomfortable circumstances as well as the unflattering presentation of a supreme being here is something that probably threw a lot of people off, while serving as a big turn-off to others.
Me? I thought it was a great scene and a great introduction for Gorr!
Marvel Studios / The Walt Disney Company
The other really heavy thing this film deals with is cancer.
This is something else that one has either been affected by, or hasn’t, and I know a lot of people have.
I have. I lost my father at a young age due to cancer; witnessing the grueling and torturous process that eventually ended his life. It was traumatizing and tragic and for me, took a huge toll on my own personal faith.
Cancer sucks. I hate it. Watching someone that you love die, sucks. And I hate that too.
Jane Foster was afflicted by cancer in the comics, and it was this affliction that led to her becoming the Mighty Thor. It was ultimately revealed that the use of Mjolnir was speeding up Jane’s cancer and hindering her body’s ability to fight against the virus. This made for a lot of emotion and went a long way towards establishing Jane as a hero and juggling all of that in a movie really high on jokes and humor was going to be an uphill task, but I thought Taika pulled off the hat trick, creating a film that stayed true to Gorr’s story and stayed true to Jane’s story, while making for a very funny movie.
Marvel Studios / The Walt Disney Company
There was a lot for me to potentially relate to and a lot to potentially appreciate going into this film, and again, it checked all of the boxes that were most important to me.
In specifically praising this film, I have to start with Gorr. Christian Bale was incredible. I had hoped he wouldn’t be funny, and he wasn’t. He was cruel. He was scary. He was ruthless. He was creepy. And he pulled all of these things off with a deep conviction that allowed the character to appropriately serve as the hero in his own story. Bale stole every single scene that he was in! Could this movie have been better served by more Christian Bale as Gorr? Absolutely. Because he was amazing! However, Bale made the absolute most of every second that he was on the screen, and I really loved his take on the character. One of the MCU’s best!
Next, I have to praise Natalie Portman! Not only did she get herself into remarkable shape for her return to the MCU, but she also played Mighty Thor with passion and enthusiasm and that little bit of child-like wonder that the character boasted in the comics, and it all came together perfectly! I loved the look of her costume, I loved the way Mjolnir would split into destructive individual pieces and then come back together, and I loved the chemistry between her and Chris Hemsworth. A lot of people accused Portman of sort of phoning it in during The Dark World, and right or wrong, that was certainly not the case here! Natalie made for a badass Goddess of Thunder and how truly likable she was throughout this movie made her character’s fate all the more difficult to handle.
In praising this film, I cannot leave out Chris Hemsworth. I mean, he is Thor at this point, just like RDJ was Tony Stark and Chris Evans was Steve Rogers. This is a role that will define his career when all is said and done, and it’s wonderful to see that he is still enjoying his ride as the God of Thunder through the MCU. Chris looked like he was having fun during so many moments throughout this film, and when a character that you like is having fun, you’re having fun as well as a viewer, and everything from his uncanny comedic timing to his emotional scenes with Portman worked, and I just have to call attention to the absolutely incredible physical shape that Chris Hemsworth got himself into for this film. Just wow! It was also really neat to see Chris’ daughter land such an important part in this movie! Such casting will potentially allow for his MCU legacy to live on long after he hangs up the Hammer, and I’m all for that, because little India was pretty great here!
Gorr’s origin story was what opened this film, and I thought it made for one of the most compelling openings in MCU history. It reminded me a lot of the first Guardians of the Galaxy film and how that was a very funny movie that opened with the emotional death of Peter Quill’s mother Meredith. I was crying long before the fun heavy metal logo montage, from having watched Gorr lose his daughter, lose his faith, and slay his god. I found this to be an extremely complex sequence that in so many ways perfectly set up what was to come with this film.
Marvel Studios / The Walt Disney Company
From there, catching up with Thor was fun in its own ways. Korg’s narration of Thor’s journey before and after Endgame was as perfect as it was in the trailers. It was a nice way to catch viewers that don’t follow this stuff as religiously as I do, up with Thor’s MCU arc over the past decade-plus, and I had a lot of fun with it. And where Thor is, is in a place somewhere between peace and continued soul-searching. He has learned a lot of valuable lessons, and he has come to terms with who he is and who he wants to be, but he has also suffered a lot of loss, and that still lingers within his soul. Thor seems to have been enjoying his exploits with The Guardians of the Galaxy, and has obviously grown quite fond of Peter Quill, specifically. Thor still wants to be a hero, and perhaps more noteworthy, Thor still wants to be needed. And he is, and we get to see him bask in that a bit in these early scenes. Thor loves being the hero!
After Thor (and The Guardians) defend a planet in need, Thor opts to part ways with The Guardians and considers settling into retirement, but that changes when he learns of the carnage that Gorr is unleashing upon the Universe. This takes Thor directly to the Lady Sif, who has been left for dead by Gorr. Having lost an arm, Sif informs Thor that Gorr’s next target will be Asgard.
Asgard is of course now on Earth in Norway, ruled over by King Valkyrie, who has become a sort of celebrity. Asgard has become a major tourist attraction, and this scene is loaded with all kinds of little Easter-eggs, from the aforementioned appearance of Darryl as a tour guide, to the Asgardian play recounting the events of Thor: Ragnarok in brilliantly entertaining fashion.
From there, the film gets us up to speed with Doctor Jane Foster, revealing her struggle with cancer. There are nice cameo appearances from Darcy Lewis and Erik Selvig here (very logical and meaningful inclusions that I appreciated) and these set the stage for Jane being wooed to New Asgard, answering the call of Mjolnir much like Gorr answered the call of the Necrosword earlier in the film. Nice little parallel there!
Thor returns to Earth and New Asgard in the midst of an invasion by Gorr. This scene spectacularly showcases Gorr’s ability to summon / forge monsters from / out of the shadows, and these beasts do much to strike fear in the hearts of the Asgardians. Much to Thor’s surprise, Jane arrives upon the scene, fighting in defense of New Asgard, wielding Mjolnir as the Mighty Thor! He is (as seen in the trailers) taken aback by Jane’s appearance and status and what was not seen in the trailers was a really well-done montage of Thor and Jane’s past that showed some of the moments they’d shared together off-screen and revealed why it was they broke up, which was more or less due to Thor’s fear of losing her, and Jane’s feeling that she could not measure up. This montage also revealed that Thor had long ago tasked Mjolnir with forever protecting Jane. This was good stuff.
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This scene also revealed that Thor donned the golden helmet we saw in the trailers as a way to match Jane’s look. This was the last we see of the helmet, which was fine with me, because I was not a fan of that particular look for him. More importantly, this scene gives us the first altercation between Gorr and Thor and it’s downright mesmerizing! The battle ends with Gorr stealing away all of the Asgardian children, which quickly raised the stakes of everything that was going on.
Thor now knew what he was up against and after meeting with the abducted children through the gifts of the child of Heimdall (Axl) he then united with Korg, Jane, and Valkyrie for a mission to recruit more gods to their cause. This takes them to Omnipotence City to meet with Zeus.
There is so much going on in this scene, (butt) the main thing that I took away from it was that Omnipotence City looked glorious and that Russell Crowe’s Zeus was an absolute dick! The entire personification of Zeus is a callback to Rapu at the beginning of the film. Zeus is that kind of god; uncaring, entitled, arrogant, repulsive … this is a god that is far more concerned with orgies, elaborate power displays, and his own riches than he is with the lives of mortals, or any sort of threat to the gods. Zeus believes that the best way to avoid death and destruction is to avoid situations that lead to death and destruction, and Zeus is perfectly content living off the godly grid.
Zeus is of course a very well-known God. He is part of the Greek Pantheon, just like Angelina Jolie’s Thena in Eternals, but Thena is not the only godly callback here, as we also see Dionysus and Artemis (also of the Greek Pantheon), and Bast (portrayed by Akosia Sabet). Bast is of course sacred to the Wakandan people. Other deities we see are two Celestials (also seen in Eternals), what appears to be a statue of The Great Protector (seen in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings), Minerva (of the Roman Pantheon, which drew great inspiration from the Greek Pantheon, with Minerva being linked with Athena by many cultures), Quetzalcoatl (an Aztec creation god), a Kronan god (created for the movie), and the unforgettable Bao, the God of Dumplings.
Zeus is one of the more famous gods out there due to the rich mythology surrounding the Greek gods and their cultural importance. Zeus is presented here as a manipulative, sexually driven, glory-hound and he is completely unlikable. The notion of all-powerful, yet extremely unlikable deities is something that Marvel Studios toyed with in Eternals with The Celestials and again in Moon Knight with Khonshu and Ammit (I really wish Khonshu would have been featured here, but at the same time, I don’t think he’d have fit in very well with the other gods). Zeus is worthy of being feared, absolutely, but is he worthy of praise and worship just because he demands it? Well, that’s entirely up to you and your own philosophy, but I like that Marvel Studios keeps raising the question, because I believe it’s a conversation worth having in our efforts to understand what it means to be human. The presentation of Zeus may have been off-putting for some, but I just embraced the hate and rolled with it. I really enjoyed Chris Hemsworth in this scene. I was shocked by the presumed death of Korg, which thankfully was just a tease. And I cheered when Thor (seemingly) slayed Zeus. Overall, this was a really fun, colorful, and entertaining sequence.
Marvel Studios / The Walt Disney Company
With Zeus’ sacred thunderbolt having been seized, Thor was now in possession of a formidable weapon, and he set out to confront Gorr once more, with Jane and Valkyrie by his side. En route to the Shadow Realm, Thor and Jane share a really beautiful moment aboard Thor’s flying Viking ship being led by his wonderful goats. The colors of the sky, and the Space Dolphins add to this very touching scene in which Jane tells Thor that she has cancer.
From there, a really great fight ensues, full of suspense and some very intense moments. Through his meeting with Zeus, it had become apparent to Thor that what Gorr was seeking was the Key to Eternity, which would afford him with a single wish which would be granted unconditionally, and it was apparent to Thor that Gorr would use his wish to wish away all gods. The Key that Gorr was seeking ended up being Stormbreaker, as Gorr needed to summon the Bifrost to reach Eternity, which could be found at the Center of the Universe. The battle with Gorr ended with Gorr claiming Stormbreaker after injuring Valkyrie, prompting the Thor’s to retreat.
Back on Earth, Thor and Jane shared another really nice moment in which Thor learned that wielding Mjolnir was killing her, and this provoked him to declare his love for Jane and insist that she sit the next fight with Gorr out.
Thor then sets off to face Gorr and it’s a monumental fight that takes place at the Center of the Universe! Christian Bale continues to shine here, and we get several more Marvel cosmic Easter-eggs, including statues of Eternity, Death, Eon, Infinity, The Watcher, The Living Tribunal, and The One Above All (cloaked in what appeared to be Celestial armor). Ultimately, Gorr gains the advantage over Thor, and sensing this from Earth, Jane decides to wield Mjolnir and assist the love of her life, consequences be damned!
Jane plays the part of hero to near perfection, but she is ultimately unable to keep Gorr from Eternity.
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With Jane dying, Thor watches helplessly but not hopelessly as Gorr prepares to make his wish. Thor urges Gorr to reconsider his path, and Gorr shares with Thor the story of the loss of his daughter, and Thor suggests that Gorr can use his wish to bring her back rather than destroy all gods. And in the end, it is a god through which Gorr finds hope and that hope is found through the God of Thunder; a god the likes of which Gorr had never encountered. A God that is worthy of his faith!
Gorr therefore wishes for his daughter to return to life and Thor vows to parent the little girl named Love. In the meantime, Jane dies … I loved all of this. I mean, it was sad and what not, but it was beautiful and moving and inspiring, and I really appreciate Gorr’s arc ending here with him bringing himself to be able to have faith after all, despite all of his hatred and all of his rage. It was far different from Gorr’s fate in the comics, but it was perfect.
Jane’s arc was pretty much the same as it was in the comics. She died after one last heroic ride with Mjolnir, and I just have to reiterate how so very good Natalie Portman was throughout this film. Though Jane’s death was sad, she went on to enter Valhalla in one of the credits scenes and it’s pretty cool for her to end up in Viking Heaven where she will spend eternity in paradise alongside the other Norse gods. The same was the case in the comics (at least temporarily).
As for Gorr, he died while Eternity granted his wish. Little Love would be raised by the God of Thunder. Together, they are Love and Thunder, and I don’t care, I thought that was a really beautiful way to bring the whole story together! There is plenty of room for sweet moments like this in the MCU (Ms. Marvel was full of them, and that was that show’s greatest strength), and again, I thought it was perfect. I almost even envied the end of Gorr’s spiritual journey.
The main thing that Thor: Love and Thunder set up for the future was the reveal that Zeus survived Thor’s assault and was tasking his son Hercules with taking the God of Thunder down. It seems like this could be leading to some kind of War of the Gods, which would make for an amazing film!
Marvel Studios / The Walt Disney Company
Thor: Love and Thunder was a movie that was about fun, faith, hope, love, and loss, and like life itself, it was sort of a cycle of all of these things from start-to-finish. Taika Waititi and Marvel Studios took viewers on a roller coaster ride that was full of emotions, and it all looped back around by the end of the film in a unique way that made for quite the experience!
Is this film for you? I would love to say that yes, if you love superheroes and you love Marvel and you enjoy the MCU, that you’re going to love this, but I can’t say that, because there is SO much more to this film than just those things. This is a multi-layered movie. You have to have an open mind when it comes to religion and the fact that other people out there believe different things than you do. You also have to be willing to empathize with the many people out there that for whatever reason, identify as atheists or as agnostic. You also have to have a sense of humor and enjoy comedic films. There are a lot of jokes here, and if that isn’t your thing, you’re not going to enjoy the movie. Also, if you don’t like heavy metal, this movie may not be for you (there is a lot of Guns n Roses, specifically). If you don’t like goats or hearing them scream, this movie isn’t for you. If you don’t like the idea of a female Thor (and a lot of people don’t), clearly, this movie isn’t for you. Last but not least, if homosexuality offends you, this movie probably isn’t for you either, as Valkyrie is a lesbian, Miek dresses like a girl, and Korg is revealed to have had two dad’s and to be gay himself and he falls in love with a fellow male Kronan.
On the other hand, if you’ve loved and you’ve lost, and you like to have a good laugh or a good cry, and you have an open mind concerning the beliefs and lifestyles of other people, I believe there is a lot to appreciate about this film for a person like you!
There certainly was for me.
Marvel Studios / The Walt Disney Company
Highlights of Thor: Love and Thunder:
Christian Bale as Gorr the God Butcher
Natalie Portman as Jane Foster / Mighty Thor
Chris Hemsworth is Thor
Taika Waititi as Korg
Thor’s Goats!
Story Time with Gorr!
Humor and Heart
All the Metal!
Omnipotence City
The Shadow Realm
Love
Tessa Thompson as Valkyrie
Thor’s Loki Tattoo!
Marvel Studios / The Walt Disney Company
Notable MCU Concepts and Characters Introduced:
Gorr the God Butcher and his daughter Love. Jane Foster as Mighty Thor. Zeus and the gods and goddesses of Omnipotence City. Eternity and the Wishing Well at the Center of the Universe. Physical Valhalla.
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