Avoiding spoilers is increasingly difficult for fans these days. I fell prey to a few, despite only being a week late to seeing the newest Thor movie. I voluntarily read a review from one of those more highbrow sites that bemoaned the movie as. more or less, an overexcited movie about well meaning Golden Retriever in human form bouncing around the universe in a love triangle between him and his two weapons.
I can see it. (Artist here.) Even before I made it to the movie I wondered if the author if that review actually thought his descriptions were insults. Given the impending release of the DC’s League of Super Dogs movie I think the reviewer underestimated our willingness to enjoy the heck out of a bumbling golden retriever super hero.
Thor’s story line has always made him into a god trying desperately to be positive and joyful while facing horrible things. The events of Avengers: Infinity War clearly took a toll on Thor, as was made evident in Avengers: Endgame. Marvel has done well in channeling traits of PTSD through its superheroes, from the Disney+ series to “fat Thor” in Endgame and even earlier through Tony Stark creating Ultron. Stark seemed to embody guilt, Spiderman became sorrow, and Thor came to represent the numbness emotional burnout of a survivor.
This is where Love and Thunder starts, with Thor disassociating all his hurt into just being the barbarian fighter. The only time he seems to come alive, or feel like a person is in battle, and seems to almost completely stop functioning when there isn’t a fight in front of him. I can’t help but sympathize with the feeling of not even existing as a person unless someone has a need to be met.
While Peter and the Guardians of the Galaxy have clearly been trying to help Thor work through his issues it’s clear that he is wearing on them. When they get overwhelmed with distress calls, and Thor spots Sif in one of the calls, they decide to divide and conquer, leaving Thor on his own, which viewers can feel is where he thinks he should be. This leads to Thor discovering Gor the God Butcher, and his quest to slaughter all the gods.
Given the opening scene, where a starving and dying Gor and his daughter finally meet their god, who sneers at him and abandons him, one can totally understand why Gor wants all the gods dead. A parent’s rage is bottomless. I also couldn’t help seeing the parallel between Gor, who is being corrupted by the Necroblade, and Wanda from Dr. Strange: Multiverse of Madness who was corrupted by the Darkhold. I feel that Love and Thunder did a much better job of handling the themes of sorrow and grief. Leaving the theater after MoM left me with a bitter taste in my mouth, and a feeling that the message was ultimately that if you were suffering from a mental illness, like depression, you were a villain.
Love and Thunder slaps all it’s heroes with very real PTSD. Jane Foster is dying of cancer. Like Gor, she turns to a god’s power for a hope of survival. Jane outright calls Valkyrie on her alcoholism as a coping mechanism. And Thor’s “love triangle” between Stormbreaker and Mjolnir is a transparent battle between the old him, who loved Jane with that good natured enthusiasm despite the challenges, and the current him, who shut down all emotions deeper than a kiddie pool.
Every single character of note struggles with their “weapon”, a clear stand in for how they interact with the world around them. Or, in Gor’s case in how their weapon controls them. Christian Bale is brilliant as Gor, as is Hemsworth as Thor (as always. Portman has even said in interviews how he stopped eating meat for the days they had kissing scenes because she is vegan. And that is a huge deal given the training and meals that keeping up the Thor filming body requires.)
In the end Love and Thunder is a film about where we find hope for recovering from traumatic pasts, all wrapped up in a super hero cape with flashy cosmic fight scenes. Unlike even the other MU movies, Love and Thunder embraces the thematic elements of legendary storytelling by being presented as a story being not just presented to the audience, but being told as a story by Kork, which lends to its over the top feel. I highly recommend it, especially if you like watching magical powered golden retrievers bumbling around trying to save the day.