Hot Take: Thor Ragnorak - The Most Entertaining But Worst Thor Movie

I know I will get a lot of flak for this, as it is my impression that Thor: Ragnorak is the favorite of the Thor movies. In this article I will explain why it is my least favorite (and yes, I have seen Thor: Love and Thunder)

The first Thor movie set the tone for the character and story as Shakespearean, as should be expected in a movie directed by Kenneth Branagh. I don't mean this to be snobby in any way because I like silliness as much as serious, but there was a sophistication to the writing, the story-telling, and certainly the acting that placed it on a whole different level than previous superhero movies. It had Anthony Hopkins in it for crying out loud. Putting it simply, it stood out.

Thor: The Dark World gets a lot of flak, and I'm not sure why. I genuinely liked it. The common thread I hear is that Malakith was disappointing compared to his comic book version, but I have no frame of reference, so he didn't bother me. Even with its criticisms, The Dark World maintained the established tone of Thor in the MCU. This tone was even maintained in The Avengers and Avengers: Age of Ultron.

My first thoughts while sitting in the theater for Thor: Ragnorak were "what happened to Thor?" He went from an almost Shakespearean hero to a silly, wise-cracking one- he was just like almost every other hero (except Cap. Does that dude ever laugh?). There isn't anything inherently wrong with being silly and wise-cracking, and a lot of the humor in Ragnorak was funny (although admittedly I found some of it to be a little juvenile and obnoxious). The problem was, it went against the established tone Thor already had, and lacked the same substance that I was used to from those movies. Thor used to be my favorite MCU character, and now he was just irritating me.

My second problem was the inclusion of Planet Hulk. This made the film feel disjointed and split up to me. It was like it was two storylines trying to come together and not being able to. The Grandmaster was funny, and "get help" was obviously a funny addition as well. What I would've hoped, though, was they picked one of the other. Do the Ragnorak storyline OR do Planet Hulk. Including Planet Hulk alongside a hugely serious and devastating time in Asgard's history felt like it dulled the impact.

My third problem is the biggest: Hela. Now I'm not saying that there can't be female villains, but too often the way they're portrayed falls into misogynistic traps. Where a male villain is sympathetic, complicated, and often right about their argument even though they're wrong in their methods, female villains will be portrayed as simply psychopathic, crazy, and too powerful to be reasoned with. It's not often you see a tortured soul underneath her- that you see her humanized. This was true of Hela. To aid in making my point, it's helpful to compare her to a character with a similar storyline: Eurus, Sherlock Holmes' mentally ill sister in the final episode of Sherlock series 4. Both characters were unhinged and dangerous, locked away, and their existence denied and lied about to their siblings. They then resurface and cause havoc. Here's where Sherlock told a well-rounded story that didn't fall into misogynistic traps and Thor: Ragnorak did not:

When Sherlock finds out Eurus was locked away and hidden from him, he's pissed at Mycroft and his parents. They've potentially made the problem worse, and they lied to him his entire life. Thor and Loki not only don't get mad at Odin for creating Hela and then locking her away, and now leaving them to deal with the mess, they continue to idolize him. Remember how pissed T'Challa was at his father for killing his uncle, abandoning his cousin, and lying about it for years? Where was that in Ragnorak?

As Eurus' story unfolds, we find that she is a very troubled person who was incapable of connecting and empathizing with people even though she wanted and needed that so desperately. She is suffering, and she's scared, and acting out in a dangerous way, because she's ill. Hela, as I mentioned earlier, is only demonized and never humanized. It would be ridiculous to assume that being raised by Odin the way she was didn't take a toll on her mental health, but we never got to see that. She was just a demon that needed to be killed.

Which brings me to my last point. The solution with Eurus wasn't to kill her like a demon who needed to be stopped. It was to treat her with the love and kindness she was starved of, and to connect with her in any way she was capable. She stayed in the mental health facility, but Sherlock played violin with her to try and connect with her and show her love. Hela was not given that. Loki committed plenty of atrocities, and he was given that. Why not Hela?

In short, Thor: Ragnorak may have been entertaining, but I don't feel like it had a very strong story.

As always, none of the images belong to me.