Hela Cool

Thor: Ragnarok (2017) is a different beast from the Thors that came before. I love Kenneth Branagh, but his Thor was kind of a disappointment. He was hired to bring an operatic or Shakespearean feel to Thor, and it wound up kind of boring. Dark World followed in its footsteps. Ragnarok, directed by Taika Waititi, goes in a completely different direction.

It starts in the middle of things, with Thor (Chris Hemsworth) giving a little soliloquy to a skeleton, while trapped by some sort of demon. It's silly and cute, and you can tell right off, this is not going to be dull. After he defeats the demon (duh), he heads up to Asgard, and finds that Odin (Anthony Hopkins) is off somewhere. He and Loki (Tom Hiddleston) find him on Earth, and he dies. Well, he's been poorly for the last few movies, so no big surprise.

The surprise is Odin's daughter, Hela (Cate Blanchett). She was from an older generation than Thor and Loki, and has been secretly exiled. Now she intends to rule Asgard and all the worlds. And she has black patent leather outfit and awesome Kirby headress to pull it off. When Thor and Loki try to fight her, she crushes Mjolnir and tosses them into space, where they get siphoned into an interdimensional funnel onto a garbage world. I just wish they had used the expression "Sargasso in Space."

A bounty hunter type, Tessa Thompson, picks up Thor, puts a shock collar on him and takes him to the Grandmaster, to be a gladiator in the arena. Now, the Grandmaster is Jeff Goldblum, at his Jeff Goldblumiest. Loki hit the planet early and he's Grandmaster's new buddy. Then Thor gets a haircut and it thrown into the arena - and his opponent turns out to be "a friend from work", the Everlovin Hulk (Mark Ruffalo). Hulk has been on the planet for a while, and likes it. He gets to SMASH, then hang out with Thompson. So Thor will have to get Hulk on his side, and with Loki's help, break out of the garbage planet, and get back to saving Asgard.

One of the things that surprised me about this Thor is that it didn't reboot the Thorverse. It wasn't just the same actors, but also the same design for Asgard. It carries on with the story arc of Thor's evolution from an arrogant self-centered godling to real hero. It includes a cameo of Dr. Strange, and some hints about the goings-on in the rest of the Marvelverse. So it wasn't such a great departure.

But, because it's directed by Waititi, it's also full of fun, silly slapstick and deadpan humor. There are goofy side characters, including a rock person voiced by Waititi himself. There are jokes, like the friend from work line. There is fun. Ever since Guardians of the Galaxy, or maybe Deadpool, it has been ok to have fun in a comicbook movie. It doesn't have to be all portentous and grimdark. I'm not sure I want that in all my movies, but I loved it here.