#NowWatching “Thor: Ragnarok”

For its third anniversary.

In many ways, “Ragnarok” is a triumph of the Marvel Studios machine.

One of the big selling points of the MCU is that it’s supposed to be “fun”, and I think that - pound for pound - “Ragnarok” is one of the most fun movies in the franchise.

(It’s also one of the smartest.)

It’s notable that everybody working on “Ragnarok” is having a lot more fun than they had on “The Dark World.”

This includes Anthony Hopkins, who seemed to wonder through “The Dark World” looking for the catering staff.

In “Ragnarok”, Hopkins is having a ball. Which is great.

“I don't have a phone but you could have sent me an electronic letter. It's called an email.”
“Yeah. Do you have a computer?”
“No. What for?”

It helps that “Thor: Ragnarok” is genuinely funny, like actually funny rather than just arch and ironic and sarcastic.

The quippy MCU style suggested by “Iron Man” and honed by “The Avengers” has become the standard for humour in modern blockbusters.

Like “Guardians of the Galaxy”, “Ragnarok” works because it has its own distinct voice and sense of humour.

It’s legitimately hilarious.

“What do I always say? ‘She is the...’” — and it starts with a ‘B’...?”
“Trash.”
“No. Not trash. ... Were you just waiting to call her that?”

More Marvel movies need to cast actors like Jeff Goldblum as characters like the Grandmaster.

“Hey big guy, sub’s getting real low.”

If you’ll allow me a nerdish, danish complaint about “Ragnarok”, it’s the fact that it effectively takes a proper “Planet Hulk” film off the table.

Not that it was ever on the table, due to rights issues with Universal.

Besides, “Planet Hulk” is not the kind of movie Marvel Studios make. For all the talk of how “faithful” the MCU is (it’s not really), it has a fairly narrow band that it’s very good at.

“Planet Hulk” would require an earnestness to its space opera I’m not sure the MCU could do.

A proper “Planet Hulk” film would have to feel something like “John Carter.”

And there is frankly no way that Disney is going to let anything like that happen again.

So, yeah. Just like you’ll never see “Born Again” or “Demon in a Bottle”, you’ll never see “Planet Hulk.”

I am in the minority in not being a huge fan of how the Hulk is handled in the MCU, in that the character is fundamentally rooted in character conflict and so much of the MCU is opposed to the idea of actual, meaningful character conflict.

He’s just there and green and big.

So I don’t mind the use of Hulk in “Ragnarok” too much.

Unlike “The Avengers” movies, it doesn’t try to foreground a version of Banner whose arc is “maybe being a walking weapon of mass destruction is something to embrace.”

Instead, it gives the character a nice, small arc.

And, to give “Ragnarok” credit in its use of the Hulk, it is at least an extremely truncated version of the thematic heart of “Planet Hulk.”

What if there was a completely fantastical world out there where the Hulk was more useful or comfortable than Banner?

By the way, unlike - say - “Endgame”, “Ragnarok” is smart enough to realise that the only world where the Hulk would be more useful than Banner is a hellscape dystopia.

As opposed to, for example, a diner populated by adorable children crowding around for selfies.

“You’re on a planet surrounded by doorways. Go through one.”

Everybody pays attention to the humour and the gags in “Ragnarok”, but it’s easy to miss how much fun Taika Waititi has directing a superhero film.

Slow motion, wide shots, hero shots, cranking, zooming, etc.

Given how much of “Ragnarok” feels like it was improvised and character-driven, it’s impressive how quietly skilled Waititi is at the “standard superhero stuff.”

He very clearly understands the cinematic language with which he is playing. Which is easy to miss.