Thor: Love and Thunder

For being a god, Thor (Chris Hemsworth) sure has a lot of s**t to work through. For example, when you’re an all-powerful immortal, what is the meaning of life? This and many other questions are answered in Thor: Love and Thunder from director Taika Waititi, who co-wrote the film with Jennifer Kaytin Robinson.

Thor: Love and Thunder has a lot of good things going for it, and I’m all in on this ride. As a longtime Marvel comics reader, I’ve never been a fan of Thor, the comic, but one storyline that stood out to me recently was Jason Aaron and Esad Ribic’s Gorr, the God Butcher. Christian Bale brings this character to life in the MCU. Gorr is the last man living on his dying desert planet, and his final act was cradling his daughter as she passed away while holding out hope that their god would come to the rescue.

After burying her, Gorr finds an oasis, where the planet’s Flower God (Andrew Crawford) is lounging away with his harem with not a care in the world. Gorr asks the Flower God why he never came to help and is quickly dismissed as he had plans to start over from scratch. The angry Gorr finds the God-killing weapon known as All-Black the Necrosword (or did the sword find him), and kills the Flower God. Now possessed by the power of the Necrosword, Gorr is on a vendetta to kill all the Gods across the universe.

“…possessed by the power of the Necrosword, Gorr is on a vendetta to kill all the Gods across the universe.”

Meanwhile, Thor is having problems of his own. He’s bored and just sits on a hill lamenting his life until he is required to save the day. When the Guardians of the Galaxy, led by Starlord (Chris Pratt), need Thor’s help, he comes in at the last minute and singlehandedly saves the day along with the prerequisite speeches about his greatness and how they all “worked” together. Unfortunately, his lackadaisical worth ethnic infuriates Starlord and the other Guardians, and before Quill can fire him, Thor quits.

Thor: Love and Thunder then sees Thor return to New Asgard on Earth only to learn they are under attack by Gorr. He’s surprised to discover who is there rescuing the Asgardians — the Mighty Thor, Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), and the newly rehabilitated hammer Mjolnir. If you’ve read the “Lady Thor” story, you know that Jane has cancer, and transforming into the Mighty Thor protects her from its effects, but when she returns to her mortal state, the cancer advances, ultimately bringing her to the point of death.

During the battle of New Asgard, Gorr kidnaps all of the Asgardian children with the help of the shadow creatures Gorr summons through the Necrosword. Thor, Mighty Thor, Korg (Taika Waititi), and Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson) embark on an adventure to rescue the children of Asgard and foil Gorr’s actual plans. Along the way, Thor needs Zeus’ (Russell Crowe) lightning bolt to help defeat Gorr in a whole other hilarious side adventure.