Thor: Love and Thunder is going to be a hard movie to rewatch. The first half of this film is so corny that it almost single-handedly ruins Thor and the MCU in its cheesy overkill. But the second half… the second half is really quite good. It shreds the majority of the cheese and takes things seriously and suddenly the movie works. But it’ll be a bit of a chore to get there.

So Love and Thunder brings us back to a rehabilitated Thor (without the dad bod) who is busy trouble shooting galactic problems with the Guardians of the Galaxy. Meanwhile, Christian Bale plays a dude named Gor the God Butcher who is busy butchering gods. So Thor and Thor and Corg and Valkyrie have to set off to save the universe (or maybe just the gods… of which there are a bunch).

After Eternals and then the Moon Knight show (and a little of Ms. Marvel), the MCU is going hard on the Gods. I guess this is all part of the comics – or at least the Thor side of the comics – but it feels really alien compared to the first 25+ MCU flicks. I’m not sure I’m super onboard but, at the same time, I have no idea where it’s going. At least it makes the Ancestral Realm from Black Panther not feel so outlandish any longer.

Regardless, this movie is so completely over-the-top insistent that nothing be taken seriously. It’s like they saw the reaction to the happy fun-time comedy in Thor: Ragnarok and decided that that’s all anyone liked. But it’s so un-serious and so corny that it wore me out. It made me not give a damn about whatever their quest was. If they weren’t taking anything seriously, why should I?

And then they have the first REAL scene with Christian Bale… and it’s great. Christian Bale really sinks his teeth into this villain and is genuinely creepy and unsettling. And given how light and jokey the first half of the film was, we could have used more of this insane character to actually lend ANY weight to the film.

But things keep getting better as the movie progresses. And even if I rather liked the conclusion, it sure feels like some short cuts were taken. Maybe some scenes were cut or maybe too much of the movie was filled with jokes. Because it’s really quite moving and yet it feels rushed and only half-explained. But the final scenes are super charming and deliver a killer title card for the film that I didn’t see coming.

The film also uses a lot of Guns ‘n Roses music in the same way Ragnarok used Immigrant Song. But Immigrant Song fit due to it being about Vikings and Norse mythology. Sweet Child ‘o Mine and Welcome to the Jungle much less so. It felt like they’d – again – taken the wrong message from Ragnarok. And then the end of the movie hits and, goddamn it, suddenly some of those tunes worked. And it was really kind of beautiful.

So… what am I saying here? The movie worked or it didn’t? Yes…. and it’s going to be a slog getting through it in the future. Or, hell, maybe it’ll be an easy adjustment once our minds are prepared. But, for now, this film is mid to low tier MCU. Maybe there’s a better edit out there though that could save it.

Score: 82