Before we get into the review, it is important for you to know what a “character arc” is when it comes to movies or TV shows.
A character arc is the transformation or inner journey of a character over the course of a story. If a story has a character arc, the character begins as one sort of person and gradually transforms into a different sort of person in response to changing developments in the story. Since the change is often substantive and leading from one personality trait to a diametrically opposite trait (for example, from greed to benevolence), the geometric term arc is often used to describe the sweeping change. In most stories, lead characters and protagonists are the characters most likely to experience character arcs, although lesser characters often change as well. A driving element of the plots of many stories is that the main character seems initially unable to overcome opposing forces, possibly because they lack skills or knowledge or resources or friends. To overcome such obstacles, the main character must change, possibly by learning new skills, to arrive at a higher sense of self-awareness or capability. Main characters can achieve such self-awareness by interacting with their environment, by enlisting the help of mentors, by changing their viewpoint, or by some other method.
The MCU is all about Character Arcs, with the best one being Iron Man, but you can even see it in lesser characters like Nebula.
In general, the MCU usually is very good at this, and most of the characters show a lot of growth between projects based on what happened in the movies previously.
This time they failed, though, and that is the biggest issue with Thor: Love and Thunder.
Thor has had a steady and quite interesting character arc. After Endgame considering everything he has been through, the natural progression would have a story that sees him processing all that grief and loss. Still, instead, they simply tried to make a new version of Thor: Ragnarok, and that doesn’t work because that isn’t the same Thor. It is why Love and Thunder seem more like a Ragnarok knockoff movie than its own thing.
Instead of genuinely dealing with his grief, you get a quick workout montage, and less than 20 minutes into the movie, Thor is back the same Thor as he was in Ragnarok.
I won’t spoil how Jane Foster becomes the Mighty Thor but let’s just say they didn’t flesh it out because they wanted to get to all the gags. There are at least 10-20 minutes of worthless comedy that doesn’t quite hit the same as previous Thor movies that should have been truly fleshing out what is going on with Jane’s character for the many years she has been around and how she relates to Thor now.
The same can be said for Gorr, The God Butcher, played by Christian Bale. This could have been a fascinating character, and if given more time to see his interactions with the GODS instead of naked Thor jokes, it would have made the story much better. There is potential to sympathize with Gorr, but he doesn’t really do anything much in the movie, which seems like a wasted opportunity for the film.
Love and Thunder isn’t a bad movie. We have seen better versions of the same film, and seem to be a step backways in Thor’s character arc. I think Taika Waititi is an amazing director, and he revitalized Thor with Ragnarok. Still, if they are going to keep making Thor movies, I think a new director and direction are needed.
Visually the movie is beautiful and the fight scenes are some of the best you have seen in the MCU. There is a fine line with Thor where you don’t want to get so deep in the methodology you start to bore people. I felt they had the perfect balance in Ragnarok but were just a little off with Love and Thunder.
There are some very cool scenes in the movie and a couple of moments when you will chuckle at the humor. It is a perfectly fine MCU movie to watch in the summertime, but it is the type of movie you will watch once and move on. The post-credits scenes don’t set up anything major in the future beyond who will be Thor’s next antagonist if there is a 5th film.
6 out of 10 BSO stars.