(The Disneycember logo is shown, before showing clips from Thor: Love and Thunder)
Doug (vo): It's Thor: Love and Thunder: Spoiler Edition. If you want to hear my review without any spoilers, go and see the Untitled Review Show video. But if you want me to go into more detail about how this film is sometimes really good, but...oftentimes really obnoxious, this is the vid for you. You've been warned. The director of Ragnarok (Taika Waititi) is back, and maybe he gives a little too much Ragnarok in this. I was really a big fan of that movie and thought they really got the essence of what made Thor so much fun and big and epic, but also goofy all at the same time. (Speaks nervously) This one...definitely likes the goofy stuff a lot more. (A shot of Melissa McCarthy's cameo as an actress playing Hela is shown) Like...Christ, a lot more.
Story and review[]
Doug (vo): Thor has gone from dad bod to god bod, as they literally use that joke in the movie. Eh, that's...that's not too bad, I'm not upset yet. And he leaves the Guardians of the Galaxy...to a point where I'm kind of wondering why the hell he went with them at all...and discovers that Jane is back, but not for very long, as it looks like she has cancer.
(Footage focusing on Jane Foster is shown, with some of the footage focusing on her new superhero form)
Doug (vo): I'll be honest, I didn't dislike Jane in the movies, but I can't say I really liked her either. I didn't miss her not being in the last film. But, giving her this disease, I will admit, is kind of instant investment. As soon as you see that, you're like, "Oh, no! I...hope she's okay." So I do think that was a clever addition. It also really justifies her being Lady Thor, or is it just Jane? I don't know how this works. (A poster featuring Sylvie from Loki is shown) There's a Lady Loki, I...I don't know. Whatever you call her, I'm not gonna lie, I wasn't very excited for her in this role, 'cause, again, she didn't leave that big an impact on me. I mean, yes, it could be worse. Kat Dennings could be Thor, although I will say, she's in this, too, and...she's actually not that bad. For all the bad comedy in this movie, she's totally fine in this. But seeing her life force tied to this power and trying to figure out how to utilize it in the little time she has and even trying to figure out what little time she has was pretty interesting. Her powers are also pretty cool. I really love when she throws the hammer, it splits up into a million little pieces, because that's what happened to it before, and then it all comes back together. That's really creative and pretty badass.
(Footage focusing on the film's villain, Gorr the God Butcher, is shown)
Doug (vo): The villain is also not bad. Christian Bale plays this guy who lost his kid and feels betrayed by the gods, and kind of rightfully so. The gods kind of seem like a bunch of assholes in this, and, yeah, that is the idea. You sympathize very quickly with what he wants to do, but are still on the side of Thor, who wants to stop him. Like, everybody's motivations, you do legit get in this.
(Footage focusing on the film's comedic scenes is shown, most notably scenes showcasing Valkyrie, two screaming goats, Gorr speaking with the captured kids, and Thor speaking with Astrid, the son of Heimdell)
Doug (vo): Honestly, all the elements are there, and what happens in the story is fine. If I was just to see this laid out in script form, I'd be like, "Yes, go, do it." But I think this is finally the MCU film where the Marvel humor completely destroys the film. There are just too many...damn...jokes in this, and a lot of them are just not funny. I feel like a lot of people have been making the argument that the Marvel humor is just getting a little too much in these films, and, yeah, I agree, but it's very rare that that's what ruined a film. And I am telling you right now, I would have liked this fine if they just shut up with the jokes. Valkyrie is one of my favorite characters in this series, and her scenes are not only forgettable, but they are annoying. She brings out this little thing like... (Speaks in a goofy voice) "Oh, is it grenade? No, it's a little beatbox! Oh, yeah, let's dance to it! Yeah!" (Speaks normally) Oh, shut up! Hey, look, our ship is being guided by these screaming goats! Oh, that's funny for, like, a minute...no, they last the whole movie.
(The sound of the screaming goats is heard in various shots)
Doug (vo; annoyed): Shut up, shut up, shut up! Oh, my God, Christian Bale is being mad creepy to these little kids, they must be so afraid...oh, wait, the kid wants to be called something else because he saw a band.
Astrid/Axel: I'm now known as Axel.
Thor: Astrid...
Astrid/Axel: Axel.
Thor: Astrid...
Astrid/Axel: I said Axel.
Thor: Astrid...
Astrid/Axel: Axel!
Doug (vo; annoyed): Oh, my God, shut up! Shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up! I hate this! Shut up, be a Thor movie, shut up!
(While various clips continue to show, we are also shown clips from Thor: Ragnarok)
Doug (vo): I'm sorry, I was actively annoyed throughout the majority of this movie. I don't know how Ragnarok balanced it out so much better than this. Again, I think the idea was, it was still a Thor movie, and the jokes came from the characters. I like seeing Thor and Loki interact with each other, I like this weird Jeff Goldblum alien that, yeah, it's still Jeff Goldblum being Jeff Goldblum, but he's still a villain, he still has this threat that's kind of like Mojo from X-Men, it makes sense. Even though he's a goofy character, he's moving the story forward. In this, everything just comes to a complete stop for some unfunny jokes. Once in a while, I'll get a giggle, but they're too few and too far in between.
(Footage focusing on Thor and Jane is shown)
Doug (vo): Now on that note, when this actually is a Thor movie, it is a pretty decent Thor movie. Like I said, I did surprisingly care about what happens to Jane in this movie. And when Thor and her aren't doing their stupid rom-com "who broke up with who?" bullshit, I find I really do care about them when they discuss actual relationship stuff and their mortality and how much time they have, all that's really interesting.
(Footage focusing on the final battle with Gorr in shown)
Doug (vo): Even the climax of this film had me smiling ear to ear. Thor has to give his power to these children, and they all go and kick some ass and have little lightning abilities. And, yeah, you would think this would be the lamest part, but they actually really have fun with it. And again, I imagine myself being a little kid watching this, and I would just find this so cool. And it looks epic and badass, and this is the kind of fun I'm looking for. But it's almost like they took the ideas and energy of Ragnarok and combined it with that terrible humor from Dark World. But the humor isn't just in little sections of the film, you know, like the moments with Kat Dennings, it's stretched out throughout the entire flick. And it was just too much for me. And it's a shame, because the stuff they do right, I think is legitimately done right.
(Clips focusing on Jane's death and her entrance into Valhalla are shown)
Doug (vo): Jane does eventually die, and you do feel legitimately bad. And, yeah, there's an after-credit sequence that, at first, I thought, "Oh, my God, are they gonna bring her back? Was it all for nothing?" And...no. She goes to where a lot of the other gods die, and...it feels right. It feels like a legitimately nice ending for a character that, honestly, I didn't have much interest in before.
Final thought[]
Doug (vo): Had this movie kept that tone going and tying in to the visual style that also looked fantastic and big and epic, but, yeah, a little goofy, I think we could have had possibly the best Thor movie. But I don't know if it was the director or Disney or the writers or even just people improvising stuff on set, but the humor just absolutely nuked this film for me. You can tell everybody's trying, nobody's half-assing it here, but I think they just tried to lean too hard into a good thing. With that said, what were your thoughts? Because I guess this movie didn't do that great at the box office. Like, it didn't do terrible, but it did not do the numbers they were hoping. Is it the humor? Is it that just people are getting sick of Marvel movies? Maybe just the character Thor? I'm not really sure, so I kind of want to know your thoughts on it. Did you think it was great and you don't know what the hell I or other people are talking about? Do you think that this was just doing the same old stuff in the best way or even elevating it to new material? Let me know, because some time has passed, and maybe your opinion on it has changed since then. Whatever your thoughts, all I can say is, I personally expected more Thor from Thor.
(A scene showing Thor rushing into battle is shown)