When Marvel Comics Ruled
The Comic Universe Bringing Super-Heroes To Shake, Rattle And Roll Our Placid
Lives-Chris Hemsworth’s “Thor: Ragnorak” (2017)-A Film Review
DVD Review
By Sarah Lemoyne
Thor: Ragnorak, starring
Chris Hemsworth, Cate Blanchett, Anthony Hopkins, Jeff Goldblum and assorted other
crazies who wanted to cash in on the comic book cum film gravy train playing a
cast of characters well known in Marvel Comic Studios world, 2017
I promised Greg Green
our well-thought of site manager that I would not linger on and on about how I
got the assignment for this review of the third leg of this Marvel Comics Thor:
Ragnorak saga since I had what he considered, and apparently what the Ed Board
considered as well, my over-the-top discussion of how I was juked out of my
original assignment to do a six-film Hammer Productions set of reviews of psychological
thrillers from the 1950s done by that low-overhead operation at the behest of
Columbia Picture. All set including having already had two parts published when
one wizened senile old has-been Sam Lowell waylaid me with some desperate story
to Greg about how in some previous time, and maybe another planet, he had done
a film noir series put out by this cheapjack outfit working out of England back
in the 1950s and in the interest of so-called completeness he should do the
series-including a re-write of the two that I had already had published to
create some controversy and add some spice to his viewpoint. Naturally since
Sam, according to Will Bradley, I was not here at the time and there is
something of a gag order around the subject, had been the decisive vote to oust
the long-time previous manager and replace him with Greg he caved in. In my
fury after further consultation with a knowledgeable fellow writer I confronted
Greg and grabbed a nice assignment doing a younger person’s take on the Star War saga package with “first dibs”
for the same reason on the Marvel/DC studios’ collective of film super-heroes
as they came out. I grabbed this one since it seemed kind of interesting and
Thor, Chris Hemsworth, is by any standard a hunk and kind of interesting in a
low- ball kind of way. Since I have been told by sources close to Sam Lowell
that he has some kind of feeble reply to my discussion of his raw tactics in
that first Star Wars review in the works I need go no further and await his
sullen words.
The beauty of this Thor
series is that it is all about family, about who should be the head guy, the
king or some other titled person when the old man, Odin, he of Viking lore fame
and among the top dog gods if you think about where he stood in the firmament
passes from the scene. Let’s face it though even gods, non-Christian gods who I
think are considered eternal, have to leave the scene, have to pass on
especially a crippled old man and who was a little senile too from what I could
see goes beyond the pale-passes to Valhalla or wherever they go when time is no
more. That succession is what they call it is what sets this whole saga afloat and
although we already have been told in the previous episodes that Odin, for
whatever perverse reasons, doesn’t think Thor is ready for prime time
dull-witted Thor keeps thinking someday he will be the max daddy of Asgard.
Personally, I think Odin
has Thor written off as just another hired gun (maybe hired hammer is better
although I am right now loathed to use that word under any circumstances since
I am still pissed off at that weasel Sam Lowell for dong me out of that prestigious
Hammer Productions assignment), a set of strong biceps and all but a little
weak in the smarts department, probably can’t hold the throne except by using
that fucking mallet over the latest evil guy’s head. But Thor is blood and
bloodlines in the real world and Valhalla count for a lot in monarchies which
fortunately we in America dumped a couple of centuries ago-and good riddance. Then
there is sullen Loki, an orphan as we finally find out who is actually smarter
than Thor, as are about half the denizens of Asgard but who is so obsessed with
beating Thor and being the head honcho that like a lot of guys, gals too these
days, he lost his bearings, made some pretty bad decisions the worse being trying
to go man a mano with brawny Thor whose pea-brain might not hold up come decision-making
time but those 10,000 hours working out in the exercise yard carrying heavy
rocks up hills really do give the dude a physical advantage. So that is the family
part and if I don’t mention much about sex or love or stuff that young guys
would usually be crazy to do something about especially with a fox like Natalie
Portman around in previous episodes that is the nature of these pre-teen, teen,
wannabe teen again male-centric plots. Now we have ham-handed Hela, played by Cate
Blanchett who is also we find out from out of nowhere family, Thor’s bitch of a
sister pardon my language, but is so power-crazed, such a junkie, no way can
she take the throne or get within fifty miles of said room.
The family part is key
but there is no reason on this good green earth to even produce one Marvel/DC
film if you don’t have good guys battling the forces of evil in America, on
Earth, in the Galaxy, damn the universe if it comes right down to it. Thus we
are led through this film, this endless film watching the final battle brew
between Thor and his sullen allies and whoever has universe control on their minds-
and will fight to the death over it. Which of course is what fills time. I
still for the life of me cannot figure out why Thor and fellow super-hero (on
his good days when he is off the drugs and doing his twelve-step program) were
going mano a mano with each other except as action filler. Be that as it may we
know two things from a close watching of
this film, actually of the closing credits, the bad guy, the Grandmaster, the
evil genius here, but his name could have been legion in the bad guy book having
messed with the gods is going down, going down hard and don’t feign shock when
part four of this now weak-kneed saga hits the screen in the next couple of years.
[I think I will take a
leaf out of Sam Lowell’s book and do a review of the first two sagas reviewed
by Will Bradley purely in the interest of completeness.]
