By Jacob Ervin, Student Reporter
We once again meet Thor, played by Chris Hemsworth, as he struggles to understand his place in the world. “Thor: Love and Thunder,” directed by Taika Waititi, is the latest movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Thor has seemingly recovered from the loss of his parents and brother in the previous films featuring him. He has regained his peak physical form fans are accustomed to seeing, but has become emotionally distant to those around him.
While Thor is still fighting evil across the cosmos with the Guardians of the Galaxy, he has largely become apathetic to the hero lifestyle and appears as if he is just going through the motions — until he learns of a new villain and a plan to attack his home New Asgard on Earth.
The primary antagonist of the film, Gorr the God Killer, is played by Christian Bale. Gorr is a complex character who was once a devout follower to one of the many gods inside the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
By coming face to face with the god he worshiped, Gorr becomes disillusioned to the holiness of this powerful being. After killing his false idol, Gorr sets out on a mission to destroy all of the gods in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, including Thor Odinson.
As Thor rushes to aid his people from Gorr, he meets a new hero wielding his former weapon, Mjolnir. It is none other than Jane Foster, his former girlfriend. Jane Foster, played by Natalie Portman, has taken on the identity of Mighty Thor and has become the de facto protector of New Asgard in Thor’s absence.
Together the two heroes fight Gorr, forcing him to retreat, but not without kidnapping the children of New Asgard first. The heroes have no choice but to go after the children and walk into what they themselves acknowledge to be an obvious trap.
Overall, it is a classic Taika Waititi film, filled with comedy and visual brilliance, but also with suspense and complex emotion.
Through every scene, the humanness of the characters can be felt despite their inhuman-like abilities and appearances. While the movie is without a doubt hilarious at times, it never undermines the direness of the situation for both the children of New Asgard and our heroes. As what has become expected of movies made by Marvel Studios, the use of computer-generated imagery is so life-like you forget the movies are not based in reality.
While Gorr is the physical villain to the heroes, it is clear the real adversary of the film is loss and the lengths it will drive people to. Loss drives the motives of nearly every main character at some point in the movie, villains and heroes alike.
The movie uses the fantasy of hero-storytelling to ask audiences a very real question: How will you choose to respond to loss? With fear and hate, or with love?