Movie Review: Thor: Love and Thunder (PG13 – 118 minutes)

Be sure to checkout the LAMBCast where we discuss this movie top to bottom! https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/lambcast/episodes/2022-07-11T12_45_11-07_00 

Here we are with another fun stand-alone entry into the MCU. It has been just a few years since we last saw Thor, heading off with the Guardians of the Galaxy at the end of Avengers Endgame – presumably to find himself while they searched for Gamora. 

This movie begins where that movie ended but starts with a preamble of introducing us to Gorr – a being on a desolate planet. He seems to be the last of his people, struggling through a desert while praying to his god for salvation. During the process, his daughter dies, and just before Gorr himself perishes, he comes across an oasis and his god, reveling in the defeat of an enemy who wielded the Necro-sword.  This is convenient on several levels because the sword is calling to Gorr, someone who is furious with the gods for forsaking him, leading to the death of his daughter.  Also, it allows Gorr to see just how petty and uncaring his god is. He picks up the sword and kills him, swearing to kill ‘all gods’. 

We catch up with Thor as he is getting back in shape and assisting the Guardians on various missions throughout the Galaxy.  He still feels lost, and when they stumble across multiple distress calls due to Gorr’s actions, the Guardians seize the opportunity to go one way, leaving Thor, Korg, and Thor’s gift of two screaming space goats to head off to assist Lady Sif in a battle.  Sif tells Thor about Gorr, his mission, and that he is heading to New Asgard on Earth next.  As Thor returns to King Valkrie’s New Asgard, he encounters his ex, Jane Foster, now wielding Mjolnir as The Mighty Thor.  Together, they come up with a plan to stop Gorr before he can reach the center of the universe and kill all the gods.

Like Thor Ragnarok, this movie is helmed by Taika Watiti who continues with the loud, colorful, silly tone he set in Ragnarok. There may be some unevenness in balancing the truly over-the-top silly with some more serious and touching moments, but I found it to be delightful and honestly, exactly the type of nonsense I needed right now.  The score is mostly 80s Guns and Roses, the action is great, and I appreciated that this is the first MCU movie to shoot in the previously-Star-Wars-Shows-only Volume. It gives the actors a better sense of the environment for some of the larger sequences. As with Multiverse of Madness, the trick with continuing with the same actors in the same roles over a decade plus of projects is keeping those characters changing, evolving, or just plain fun to play. It did seem like everyone in this movie was having a good time.

Chris Hemsworth continues to portray Thor as a well-meaning dim-witted action star. He’s great in Watiti’s particular brand of crazy and I continue to enjoy his performance. The return of Natalie Portman to the franchise as The Mighty Thor is wonderful and very entertaining. She’s new to being a superhero, but determined to do as much good as she can while there. For someone who has been a little ‘meh’ on genre-type entertainment, it was nice to see her enjoying this adventure.

Tessa Thompson’s King Valkrie is fantastic – while she has very little to do in this movie, she is fun and action-packed, enjoying ruling her people but also missing going on adventures. I do find myself looking forward to her having more adventures – either with or without Thor. Taika Watiti’s Korg gets to do some narrating of the story in addition to helping out the heroes. Is he a reliable narrator? Who knows, but he surely is an entertaining one.

I was surprised by Christian Bale as Gorr – typically someone who seems to not be fun enough to enjoy this type of thing, he dove headfirst into Gorr and is equal parts angry, creepy, and weird. While I did think a little more could have been done to get us to nearly side with him (he does have a point) the movie was not really about that and I did enjoy his performance.

I really wish the commercials had not ruined that Russel Crowe was playing Zeus.  It would have been a fun surprise. He definitely was having a good time and did a fine job but used a questionable accent and made me wonder if surely they could have cast a Greek actor for that role?

Overall, I really enjoyed this movie – yes, there are a couple of holes plot-wise (not enough that I cared about them) and yes, the tone may have been over-the-top silly (again, I don’t care, that is what I wanted from this movie), but it worked for me.  Once again, I find myself so grateful that we are in a time we get new genre entertainment so regularly and there is so much of it that there is something for everyone!  I also particularly loved that Watiti made this feel like a movie he made with a bunch of his friends and family. The kids in the movie are made up of the kids of the cast and crew – which may have been pandemic-shooting safeguards, but also gives some fun moments.  There are some scary moments as Gorr sends some shadow monsters after the children of New Asgard, and some sad moments when Gorr loses his daughter and gives in to the seduction of the necro-sword, but overall, the movie is fun and silly and the perfect run time to sit and enjoy with your popcorn. 

9 out of 10.

Yes, stay through the credits. Apparently there are no decent wig-makers in Vahalla, but hey, what can you do.

Movie Review: Jurassic World Dominion (PG13 – 147 minutes)

 

I truly love the original Jurassic Park from 1993. I will never forget the amazement in the theater of seeing real-looking dinosaurs on screen. Thanks to Stan Winston and his practical effects and the astounding visual effects by Industrial Light and Magic – the movie contributed to a lot of accepted dinosaur looks and sounds. We all think we know what a TRex sounds like, because of that movie.  I enjoyed both sequels, to varying degrees and was unsure when they launched a reboot/sequel idea with Jurassic World.

I did enjoy Jurassic World, mainly because the most compelling characters in the movie were the dinosaurs. I maintain that Blue was the best character in the movie with the most compelling story arc and the hero entrance and of the T-Rex at the end was just spectacular.  I hated the second entry, Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom, which seemed to be made by someone who did not care about dinosaurs at all – which is fine, for anyone not making Jurassic movies.  While Jurassic World played into the love and awe we felt at the original, Fallen Kingdom threw all that aside by causing pain and terror to the dinosaurs and people in the movie. Having such a strong reaction to that movie, I was unsure I wanted to see another one, but was grateful that Colin Trevorrow was back at the helm.

This movie begins with humans attempting to deal with the after-effects of Fallen Kingdom – dinosaurs are now loose in our world and living with them side by side is proving difficult. There is a sanctuary built in Italy by Biosyn, the company run by Lewis Dodgson who we briefly met in the very first movie.  Remember how Nedry got the shaving cream can from him to steal dino embryos and help his company catch up with Ingen’s science?  Owen Grady seems to be working on collecting dinosaurs and sending them to the sanctuary, and Claire Dearing is working to stop the quickly rising black market breeding and trading of dinosaurs. Oh yeah, and together they are trying to raise the girl from the second movie who was the clone of the daughter of the secret business partner of John Hammond (what?). In the woods near their home, Blue has made herself a home and a baby (ohmygoodness the tiny baby raptor is the cutest!!). 

In addition, a swarm of giant locusts has started sweeping across the globe, completely wiping out crops and multiplying so quickly it could cause some serious damage – but remarkably not attacking crops grown from Biosyn seeds.  Our dear Dr. Ellie Sattler is researching the locusts and collects Dr. Alan Grant from a dig to head to the sanctuary to do some digging around where their old friend Dr. Ian Malcom has already begun some investigating.  On top of this, Owen and Claire and others we’ve met in these new movies head to Italy because a group of shady poacher-types has kidnapped both the clone girl and Blue’s daughter, and Owen is going to get both back.  Along the way they stop in an underground black market dino-dealing and dino-fighting ring where they meet some new cast and some returning cast (they really did put everyone in this movie).  Eventually everyone (EVERYONE) ends up in Italy just in time for a very exciting conclusion to this franchise.

I am very happy this was directed by Colin Trevorrow – it does have the same sense of appreciation and awe of the original films as Jurassic World did.  I liked all the sequences of people respectfully attempting to live with dinosaurs and I appreciated all the practical effects - Far more robotic dinos in this movie.  The black-market sequence was both entertaining and unnecessary…honestly, that is the perfect description for the majority of this movie. I liked the introduction of a couple of new dinosaurs that we hadn’t seen yet, once again leading me to say that the dinos were the best characters in this movie – well, almost the best.

Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard are just fine as Owen and Claire, I like the operation they have set up, out in the woods where they can raise their adopted clone daughter and keep an eye on Blue and her daughter.  Pratt is getting so good at playing generic leading-man-action-hero-guy that they have all started to feel the same, not necessarily a problem. Howard was a little more fun and seemed to understand that you don’t have to take this so seriously. Isabella Sermon plays Maisie Lockwood, the clone introduced in the last movie. She does a fine job, and I liked her scene of helping some construction guys gently move some apatosaurs out of their way.  That said, she and her entire storyline could have been removed from this movie and I think we would still be okay. 

Also returning from various version of the new trilogy are Justice Smith as Franklin Webb, Claire’s sidekick from the last movie, and Omar Sy as Owen’s sidekick from the first movie. Both are essentially cameos that seem to be there just to remind you they were in the other movies.

In terms of new cast, DeWanda Wise was super fun as pilot Kayla Watts. She seems to be all about black market dino transfers, but then has a change of conscious and works to help our heroes. I was very excited to see Dichen Lachman pop up, but as much as I enjoy her – her black-market dino-trading baddie was also unnecessary. I suppose she introduces a pack of raptors trained to pack hunt whatever she targets with a laser, but again – unnecessary. Campbell Scott steps into the slimy shoes of Dodgson and my goodness, what a creepy bad guy.  You can’t wait for him to get eaten.  Mamoudou Athie joins as Ramsay Cole, a guy working for Dodgson. He’s great, again, but all his scenes could have been done by B.D.Wong.

Speaking of which, B.D.Wong’s Dr. Henry Wu shows up once again looking for redemption.  Honestly, it would have been more interesting having him be the big bad that our heroes find in Italy, running the company and going full mad scientist – looking to create human/dino hybrids. Instead he’s quietly sitting in a lab working to eliminate the locusts.  Again, he’s great, but why not let him go a little over-the-top?

The best part of this movie is getting to see Jeff Goldblum, Laura Dern, and Sam Neill back as Drs. Malcolm, Sattler, and Grant.  They clearly understood the assignment, are not taking anything too seriously, and are having a great time.

I still think Blue is the best character in this new trilogy, although she had less to do this time around.  She basically established her new life in the beginning, and then seemed to request Owen’s help once her baby was taken, and then demonstrating some gratitude at the end when Beta was returned to her. Oh yes, I will spoil that for you – Beta is fine. Also, the T-Rex gets some well-deserved love too. After being the hero of Jurassic World, she is the hero again here, despite nearly getting felled by a Giganotosaurus. She gets some accidental help from a Therizinosaurus – an herbivore with a deadly manicure.

Overall, I certainly enjoyed it, but there were way too many humans in it and not nearly enough of them got eliminated by dinosaurs.  In the very first Jurassic Park, we meet a whole group of very interesting humans and only a handful make it out of the movie. Here, we meet a whole group of not-very-interesting humans and nearly all make it out.  Also, way too many unnecessary plot lines in a movie that was way too long - two and a half hours. Cutting some of that would have brought this to a tidy two hours. Take out the locusts, the black market bits, most of the new cast, and focus on giving us more with the returning cast and awesome dino-chase sequences. I will say – so many dinosaurs!  Which I loved. Lots that we had seen before and some species we have never seen – which makes sense, because new species are being discovered constantly. I love the inclusion of feathers on many of them, and I particularly loved seeing the Dilophosaurs return, wonderful – but nothing beats baby Beta. In case you want a full list of them – I’ll recommend this site: https://a-z-animals.com/blog/meet-every-dinosaur-featured-in-jurassic-world-dominion-30-total/

6 out of 10 – Too many people, but plenty of dinosaurs! An exceptional entry into the unnecessary nonsense genre!