ASGARDIAN ABSURDITY

MOVIE
Thor: Ragnarok
Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Cate Blanchett
Director Taika Waititi
Review Ray Chan

The third instalment of the Thor franchise shows clearly that THIS is how it should have been handled from the start: as an action comedy.
    When you think of it, the premise of a drop-dead gorgeous surfer-blond extraterrestrial, who also happens to be a Norse god with a magic hammer, is just too outrageous to be anything but.
    The first film had the mildly Shakespearian vibe that one might have expected from its director, Kenneth Branagh, while the second proved that the lead hero (Hemsworth) was less compelling than his nemesis and mischievous brother Loki (Hiddleston).
   But it wasn’t until 2014’s Guardians of the Galaxy that Marvel came upon a true model for Thor to move forward.
    Guardians offered up a sentient house plant and a talking raccoon, and leaned hard into the absurdity of both. As a result, we now have Thor: Ragnarok, which offers all the gritty elements of an action fest, but is equally inspired as a comic drama.
    The cliffhanger from Thor: Dark World is handled swiftly and summarily right from the start, as if to indicate that the directors wanted to move on in the new direction quick-smart.
    You may recall that Loki had assumed the identity of his father, Odin (Anthony Hopkins), and with it, the throne of Asgard.
    But this situation is abandoned within minutes, and amusingly so, in scenes involving a couple of unexpected guest stars.
    The plot changes tack in a headspin, as Asgard is conquered by Hela (Blanchett), Odin’s firstborn and the Goddess of Death, long exiled and until now forgotten.
    Thor and Loki, meanwhile, end up teaming up with the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), in a sub-plot involving a planet obsessed with gladiatorial contests, overseen by a character named the Grandmaster, hammed up hilariously by Jeff Goldblum.
    Along the way, Tessa Thompson shows up as a disillusioned Valkyrie, and Karl Urban appears as a half-hearted Hela stooge. But the character which steals the show is the film’s director, Taika Waititi, late of What We Do In The Shadows, who maintains his softly-spoken Kiwi accent while playing a tough-looking pile of walking rocks named Korg.
    Kudos also to whoever chose to use Led Zeppelin’s stirring “Immigrant Song,” which was originally written as on ode to the viking gods, in the climactic battle scene.
    Put it all together, and you have just over two hours of entertaining and abjectly silly super-heroism, which proves you don’t need to be grim and gritty to succeed as a film in this genre.

#thorragnarok