Thor: Ragnarok

2/4

Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Cate Blanchett, Tom Hiddleston, Mark Ruffalo, Tessa Thompson, Jeff Goldblum, Anthony Hopkins

Rated PG-13 for Intense Sequences of Sci-Fi Violence and Action, and Brief Suggestive Material

The Achilles' Heel of the MCU is what makes it so insanely popular: all the movies feel exactly the same.  It makes it easier for Marvel executives to sleep at night, since there's considerable reward with virtually no risk.  And obsessed fans will be happy since Marvel Studios takes enormous pains to fill the movies with in-jokes and Easter eggs.  Not to mention a Stan Lee cameo.  MCU fans will love this movie, since it (presumably) has everything they want in a MCU movie.  But for everyone who isn't a member of that group, you're not going to miss much.

Thor (Hemsworth) has returned to Asgard after taking the crown of a nasty demon/god/some king of monster.  There, he finds that Loki (Hiddleston) is alive and well but that his father Odin (Hopkins) is in exile.  When found, Odin reveals that he is dying, and that Thor's sister, Hela (Blanchett) is on her way to take over Asgard and control the cosmos.  She gets Thor and Loki out of her way by sending them to a planet on the edge of the universe where Thor will have to fight the Hulk (Ruffalo) in gladiator-style combat for the pleasure of the Grandmaster (Goldblum).  Now they have to figure out a way to get back to Asgard and get a Asgardian exile named Valkyrie (Thompson) to help them take down Hela (Blanchett).

Honestly, the only reason I was excited to see this movie was the hope that I would see Cate Blanchett kick some ass.  It's always fun to see a high class thespian let their hair down and have some fun, and this is no different.  Blanchett gets to participate in some high energy action sequences and toss off some delicious one-liners.  Unfortunately, she's strictly a supporting character, and the film turns into a generic Marvel movie whenever she's off screen.

MCU veterans Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Mark Ruffalo and the others slide easily back in their roles, but they're stuck in a movie that is overlong and appears to have been scribbled by a few comic book nerds on their lunch hour.  There's more humor than in other Marvel movies, but little of it is actually funny.  The audience was laughing, but I wasn't.  That would imply that I actually cared about anyone in this movie, which I didn't.

In the end, this is another Marvel Cinematic Universe movie.  It doesn't shake the boat, and it gives fans and studio executives exactly what they want.  No more, no less.

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