"Thor: Ragnarok"... It RagnaROCKS!
Because this movie is only over a week old in America, be warned that there are SPOILERS AHEAD. So if you have not seen the movie yet, you might want to click away and head to the theaters. Otherwise, scroll down below at your own risk (and be prepared for a lack of contractions in my wording, because I am not going to use them for this post)...
Thor: Ragnarok is a true example of evolution taking place simultaneously on and off the big screen. In the MCU, the character of Thor is the electricity-based superpowered prince of a race of alien vikings, who carries around a mystical hammer that allows him to fly. In real life, Chris Hemsworth is a ridiculously handsome, naturally charming and witty individual with the body of a god. It should not be difficult to make that specific character interesting when played by that specific actor. Yet neither director of Thor's previous two solo movies (Thor and Thor: The Dark World) were able to efficiently use what they had, allowing Thor to be overshadowed by his co-stars, weighed down by romantic arcs, and leaving the lore of the Nine Realms somewhat unexplored. For those reasons, Thor has not been as popular as a solo property compared to Iron Man or Captain America.
Ragnarok is about ending the old to make room for the new, and Thor: Ragnarok gets rid of everything that was not working for the Thor property beforehand to make room for new stuff that does. Sick of the Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) relationship? Well, she and Thor apparently broke up some time after Avengers: Age of Ultron, and is nowhere to be found in this movie. Sick of how Earth-centered the previous two movies were? Do not worry, because this movie only spends about 12 minutes of screen time on Earth. And in those 12 minutes, Thor and Loki meet Dr. Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), find their father Odin (Anthony Hopkins) hanging out on a Norwegian mountain, discover they have an older sister who happens to be the Goddess of Death, watch their father die and evaporate into magic dust, meet their evil sister and watch in shock as she destroys Thor's treasured hammer Mjolnir! That's a lot of wild stuff happening in 12 minutes!
Most importantly though, if you are sick of Thor being uninteresting, then this is the film for you. Director Taika Waititi is a naturally entertaining person, and encourages his actors to improvise and ad-lib if he considers them to also be naturally entertaining people. If you watch Chris Hemsworth on talkshows, it is evident that he has a natural charm and wit, which neither director of the first two Thor films really allowed him to exploit. In Thor: Ragnarok however, Taika Waititi allows Hemsworth to insert his natural charm into the character of Thor like how Robert Downey Jr. has embedded his personal charm into Tony Stark/Iron Man, drastically evolving Thor as a character from who he started out as.
When Thor first debuted in the MCU, he was the equivalent of a spoiled teenager having MTV plan their Sweet 16 birthday party. He had just been given the keys to a new car in the form of his hammer Mjolnir, and he was about to blow out his candles and be crowned king of Asgard when the Frost Giants crashed his party and stomped on his cake. His dad told him not to retaliate, but he did anyway, and broke a peace treaty in the process. Unwilling to realize that he screwed up, Odin does what any responsible dad would do... he takes the car/Mjolnir away and literally grounds Thor, sending him to Earth without his powers to think about what he did. He spends some time on Earth, falls in love with Jane Foster, learns to respect and admire the drive within humanity, and puts his ego aside to protect humanity from Loki's mischief, becoming worthy of Mjolnir again after sacrificing himself. By the end of the movie, after Loki's hostile takeover is thwarted, Thor is a much wiser and more compassionate prince than he was at the beginning.
Then in Avengers, Thor has to learn to work with people whose egos are as large as his own once was. After verbally and physically clashing multiple times with his eventual teammates, the death of S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Phil Coulson (an acquaintance of Thor from his first film) drives them to work together and become the Avengers. This is where Thor also learns that he does not have to take on his brother Loki's messes alone, and it is okay to ask for help when the threat is great enough.
In Thor: The Dark World, after almost losing Jane, thinking he lost his brother Loki, and saving the Nine Realms from destruction by the dark elves, Thor has two epiphanies. The first is that he does not want to be king of Asgard, and the second is he wants to be on Earth with Jane. Thor has seen what desire for power does to people, and he does not want that responsibility. He just wants to be happy, being with Jane and protecting the Earth (which needs him more than Asgard at that time).
In Avengers: Age of Ultron... eh, not much happens with Thor's character development. Other than learning that he might not be the only being worthy of Mjolnir, Thor's subplot basically sets up an excuse to get him off of Earth before Captain America: Civil War, which is to go on a galaxy-wide search of the Infinity Stones.
That search leads us to the beginning of Thor: Ragnarok, as Thor is being held captive by Surtur, who will bring Ragnarok upon Asgard once his skull crown is dipped into the Eternal Flame. Thor escapes captivity with Surtur's skull in hand, and returns to Asgard to find a play being held in Loki's honor. Realizing this is memorial overkill, Thor threatens Loki into dropping his Odin disguise, and they go off to find their father, who dies a few minutes after they find him, allowing Hela to escape her imprisonment. Hela destroys Mjolnir, and as Thor and Loki try to escape, Hela pushes them out of the bifrost and they separately fall onto the planet of Sakaar. While her brothers are away, Hela takes over and enslaves Asgard. Thor understands what is at stake, and continuously tries to escape captivity, using his brain and his wit to convince Hulk and Valkerie to join him in the fight for his home. Thor liberates the prizefighters of Sakaar to create a diversion, and he, Banner/Hulk, and Valkerie escape in the Grandmaster's orgy ship. They return to Asgard to fight Hela's army, and Thor loses his eye, along with most of his hope as Hela whoops him.
It is at that point in the movie that Hela is about to kill Thor, and through a daydream, Thor speaks to Odin. Thor tells his father that Asgard is doomed, and that he is nothing without Mjolnir. Odin then tells Thor two important lessons: 1) home is not a place, it is where the people you care about are, and 2) Mjolnir was never the source of Thor's power, it was just the tool he channeled it through. He is the God of Thunder, and he zaps Hela across the rainbow bridge like Emperor Palpatine in Revenge of the Sith. No matter how strongly they fight against her though, Hela keeps coming back, and that is when they realize that the key to beating Hela is not stopping Ragnarok, but rather starting Ragnarok. So they dip Surtur's skull in the Eternal Flame, and he sets Asgard and Hela ablaze as Thor, the Asgardian people, and his liberated army of Sakaarian warriors all escape on a much bigger ship that the Sakaarians stole from the Grandmaster. With everyone willing to follow his lead, Thor realizes that whether he wants the position or not, he is now Asgard's king, wherever Asgard is.
From the start of his arc to the end of Thor: Ragnarok, Thor has grown from an egotistical prince who wanted power without realizing its consequences, to a wise prince who no longer wanted the position because of those consequences, all the way to realizing his destiny of being the king and realizing that so long as people are willing to follow him, he does not need a hammer or a single home to be king. It is character evolution at its finest, and Thor is not the only one evolving.
When we first met the Hulk, he was basically an anger beast living inside Bruce Banner's body. Because the Hulk would only come out at certain times, the Hulk had not been allowed to grow past a baby's level of knowledge. However, between the events of Avengers: Age of Ultron and Thor: Ragnarok, Hulk has been in the driver's seat for a two-year period, learning how to speak in semi-complete sentences and socialize with people who share his love of combat.
When we first met Loki, he was manipulative, power-hungry, and heartbroken by the realization that he was adopted. He becomes slightly more sympathetic with each appearance he makes, especially when his mother is involved, but the manipulative, power-hungry, frustrated side of him is always there. It is not until when Thor and company are about to escape Sakaar that Loki finally comes to the realization that he has been a crappy brother. Thor tells Loki that their brotherhood has been a flop, he leaves him on Sakaar with a high-intensity joy buzzer strapped to his shoulder blade, and that is when Loki realizes how much he sucks. So Loki, alongside the Sakaarian rebels, fly to Asgard to aid in the fight, and supports Thor in his new position of king. Loki has finally grown into the brother Thor has always wanted and needed Loki to be.
Even for characters making their debut in this film, the evolution is noticeable. When we are first introduced to Skurge (Karl Urban), he has no real purpose and is simply collecting random items from the nine realms to fill that void. When Hela takes power, she declares Skurge to be her executioner, essentially giving him a purpose. However, he can't bring himself to kill an innocent Asgardian when asked to do so. As he witnesses Hela's zombie army attacking the Asgardians as they escape, he realizes he is on the wrong side of the fight. Skurge realizes that his true purpose is make sure the ship full of about-to-be refugees leaves with everyone alive onboard it, and he sacrifices himself to fulfill that purpose.
Thor: Ragnarok is both a proper reset to the Thor franchise, and a proper ending to the Thor trilogy that evolves its cast of characters to where they need to be as Avengers: Infinity War nears. It is funny, but all the humor is intelligently placed and delivered. It puts Thor at the center of the movie's focus, while also giving every other character their time in the sun. I highly recommend this movie!
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