Last year, I finally had my first taste of what viewers love about Marvel films when I came out of Doctor Strange giddy and impressed. But then Spiderman: Homecoming reminded me why I don’t like these films and to this day I fail to see what audiences and critics saw in that load of crap. With director Taika Waititi at the helm, Ragnarok promised to be a different beast, and despite my qualms with the studio I went in hopeful.

Ragnarok picks up sometime after Age of Ultron. Thor has been adventuring while his father, Odin, has been neglecting his duties as ruler of Asgard. When the Goddess of Death, Hela, arrives to conquer Asgard, Thor is flung to another world ruled by Jeff Goldblum. He must escape while rallying a force to take back his home, and all without his precious hammer.

It turns out Taika Waititi was an inspired choice to lead Ragnarok. It’s hilarious – one of the funniest films I’ve seen all year. Usually, the humour in Marvel films grates on me, but that’s generally down to tonal inconsistencies. Ragnarok is first and foremost a comedy. Casting Jeff Goldblum was a stroke of genius, and I was in stitches every moment he was on screen. Waititi himself appears as a motion-capture alien and all his lines are pure gold.

But Ragnarok isn’t without heart. I thought Thor was the weakest phase one Marvel film, and Dark World is the only MCU film I still haven’t bothered to watch. Finally, Ragnarok gives me reason to care about this character. It balances its levity with genuine moments of emotion and stakes. Tough decisions are made with impactful consequences. Something that stood out to me was that we actually see the effect of Hela’s invasion of Asgard on its people, as opposed to say, The Avengers, where Earth is invaded by non-threatening CGI aliens.

Sadly, not every moment is played as straight as it should have been. This was my main issue with Homecoming, where every scene that almost made you feel something ended on a gag that dissuaded you from daring to experience an emotion. Ragnarok avoids this pitfall in a lot of places. When the villain is menacing, she’s menacing. When Hulk struggles with his identity, it’s sad. During the glee of the film’s many exciting action sequences, it’s exciting. Other times, like when one character experiences a loss, it’s punctuated by a joke that makes you shrug and go, “oh well.” The comedic timing works in Ragnarok because most of the story is played as silly and unbelievable – the tone, for the most part, is consistent. But there’s still room for improvement.

There’s also room to improve on the CGI, too. There’s good stuff here, like the mo-cap characters, but it’s not great, especially after the likes of the Planet of the Apes reboot trilogy’s photo-realistic chimp rendering. Then there’s the bad – a lot of glaring, distracting green screen. And even though Ragnarok strives to be more colourful, it never dazzles like a comic book film ought to.

Cate Blanchett’s Hela is one of the MCU’s better villainous offerings, but even she has to sit down with another character to explain her back-story to the audience. A well-written three-minute scene at the beginning could have shown it all. My main issue overall is that Thor is a very passive protagonist for most of the story. He’s chucked about from place to place, forced to do things, locked into many decisions. But it gets better, and he gets better, with an unexpected ending that pays off after its shortcomings.

That’s what I loved most. As with Doctor Strange, there’s much more attention to detail here. The arcs of the characters are carefully thought out, and the storyline makes unexpected turns. And it’s all done without sacrificing the comedy or the exhilarating action sequences. It’s flawed, but far too fun to let these issues bog it down. Ragnarok reinvigorates Thor’s character and story, and almost left me excited for Infinity War. Almost, but not really.

7-8

I still say the most essential film to watch this year is Mother! Here’s why.

Thanks for reading! Don’t forget to check out my other reviews, including my breakdowns of every episode of Game of Thrones season 7.

Image credit: Marvel Studios