Come for the love, stay for the thunder.

Thor: Love and Thunder is the latest movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the fourth entry of the Thor movie series. Taika Waititi returns to direct this movie after his work on Thor: Ragnarok (2017). After the events of Avengers: Endgame (2020), this movie finds Thor back in shape and back in action, traveling through space among the cast of Guardians of the Galaxy. During his adventures with them he begins to question who he is and where he belongs in the world, leading to the journey he takes in this movie. 

The movie opens with a somber introduction of a man whose unanswered prayers to his god lead to the loss of what he loves most. When he is on the brink of death himself, he hears a mysterious voice call out to him. He crawls until he finds the realm where the god he prayed to dwells, this god just finished slaying a creature that possessed a mighty weapon.

When the man asked his god to bring him to the promised land, the god laughs him off and tells him no such place exists for him. Enraged, the man takes up the mighty weapon, named the Necrosword, and slays his god. After this, he takes his newfound power and goes on a killing spree against all gods, adopting the name Gorr, the God Butcher (Christian Bale).

After that, we find Thor (Chris Hemsworth) fighting alongside the Guardians of the Galaxy to save a temple that has been overrun by an alien army. The Guardians are struggling with the fight and are not fans of Thor’s laid-back attitude, nor his showboating when he does contribute to the fight. 

After the fight ends and Thor accidentally destroys the temple he was trying to save, he learns that this alien attack occured because the temple’s god had been slain. Upon finding more information out about other gods being attacked, thanks to the techno help of Rocket Raccoon (Bradley Cooper) he says his goodbyes to the guardians to go on his own quest, as they go across the galaxy to help other places that have suffered from Gorr’s assault as this planet did. Before leaving, Star-Lord (Chris Pratt), tells Thor that he needs to look to the people he loves to find out his place in the world. 

Soon after, Thor encounters Lady Sif (Jaime Alexander) who nearly died during a fight with Gorr, he learns that New Asgard on earth is Gorr’s next target, so he heads to Earth to hopefully intercept this foe. Thor arrives just as New Asgard is under siege by shadow monsters created by Gorr. With his axe Stormbreaker, he, his ally Korg (Waititi) and King Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson) begin fighting them off.

That’s when Thor senses a familiar presence: his old hammer Mjolnir is here, but it’s being wielded by a new owner. He discovers that his former girlfriend Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) is now the master of Mjolnir and possesses the same power, and fashion sense, as Thor himself. 

This new power does not come with good news, as Jane is going through her own struggles that put her in a dire situation that even the power of Mjolnir might not be able to fix. During the fight, Gorr abducted many Asgardian children, so Thor and his friends must make for the land where all gods dwell, Omnipotent World, to attempt to rally an army of gods from the leader of the gods, Zeus (Russell Crowe) in attempt to fight Gorr, before he kills them all. All this takes place while Thor and Jane attempt to find themselves and solve their respective issues. 

The movie definitely keeps the same style as Ragnarok; the soundtrack is made up mostly of classic rock and the comedy is definitely consistent with Ragnarok. It has some great looking shots, but also struggles a bit at times visually, with some awkward CGI and green screening. Overall the story isn’t anything complicated, just a fun romp with some character development happening alongside the action. The final act felt a little messy with how it ties up certain plot points. Some endings were hard to get excited about and some elements are implemented awkwardly. 

Overall this movie is a fun time – if you enjoyed Thor: Ragnarok or other films by Waititi, you’ll likely enjoy most of this movie. Hopefully it builds to interesting Thor content in the future of the MCU; the ending leaves some plot threads with great potential to use later, including the movie’s two post-credit scenes. See Thor: Love and Thunder in theaters now.