Welcome to our Reference Degustation where we take you through a four course menu of Taika Waititi tastetations. First course – Thor: Ragnarok.

Stretch those Sparkle fingers for our freaky circle rendezvous with Thor this week.

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Director: Taika Waititi

Writer: Eric Pearson, Craig Kyle & Christopher L. Yost

Released: October 2017

Budget: $180,000,000

Worldwide Gross: $853,983,829

Actors: Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Cate Blanchett

 

Thank you to our patrons for contributing to the themes throughout our Taika Waititi Reference Degustation.

 We did watch the first two Thor movies to inform our watching of Thor: Ragnarok.

Themes

Directing

This was the better Thor in the series. Elevating the story where every seamless shot, nails comedic effect, may seem cheesy but it all works. There are a lot of fundamentals to directing, the grandiose nature of Asgard and how we transition in Sakar. Taika is a whole entity of energy. Like that fun teacher in school, either way the work will get done but you will enjoy yourself more with Taika at the helm. There’s a base level to Marvel movies and this follows the same formula. He brought familiar talents on a global stage.

Tone

Quirky/eccentric tone: We wouldn’t allocate this specifically to Taika as Marvel movies tend to not linger on emotionally heavy moments. This is consistent throughout Marvel. An emotional boner stopping. It was the intersection of the popularity of Marvel and the marvelousness of Taika Waititi. There were still offbeat moments in the first Thor so that tone was brewing before Taika. Although the tone came to a crescendo in Ragnarok. There’s so much Americanisms we all are used to so it was nice to have Kiwi/Aussie humour in a box office movie.

Comedy as a way of dealing with harsh realities: As noted the format did not allow for addressing harsh realities.

Story

Belonging: Literally the throughline of this film. Always keeping it simple and finding the emotional attachment.

Characters

  • Childlike Wonder (Precocious kids, The lovable fool): Thor and Korg are the lovable fools.
  • Father son dynamic: Odin and Thor. Odin and Loki. Odin kept a lot from his sons. Had it not been for Hela, they were never to know.
  • He makes a cameo: Absolutely as Korg!
  • Real people as fantasy figures: Not met.

Breakdown and Analysis

  • When you’re watching something you will realise it is not for you. Example of Odin saying “You only have one eye but even with both eyes you could only see half the picture”
  • Archer goes to space section. Norse Lore of Odin, Hela, Thor, Loki.
  • A more meaningful story especially away from the unnecessary love story. We get to focus more on who Thor is as a person. When he first gets exiled but he found himself more in Ragnarok.
  • The first Thor is very straightforward hence making it the weakest in the series. It needed to find it’s flavour. Thor was early in the MCU so it was probably a decision to play it safe and get more fun as it grew in popularity.
  • The hammer had more character development than Thor in the early films. The hammer did more pounding than Thor.
  • Chris Hemsworth came into his own as Thor. He is fully in his element. There was cohesion about everything he did. Thor and Korg had the best scenes.
  • Loki and Hela were not dealt with great care and it feels like they just come off bad just because.
  • Loki already had resentment because Thor was naturally very capable. KT did not buy into the evil component of Loki and saw him with human struggles. With a scrutinous eye, there were moments of vulnerability with Loki.
  • There is a rich story between Odin and Hela that was not addressed. Odin is old and decides he is a righteous man. Hela did what was needed and of course she was right to be confused that Odin changed his tune. Civilizations were not won through fanfare and good will. They were won through power. Rollo from Vikings and Abbas from 4 Blocks are perfect examples of 2IC that are there for the violent actions that are taken even further as there is a discerning leader making the decisions. Through Hela’s sparse dialogue there was hurt which was understandable because she was just doing what she was told. There was a lot more to Hela than her just being evil.
  • It was clear that Valkyrie was going to join the team so the back and forth between her and Thor got very tedious. As per Oti, the classic tortured hero.

Unrelated but vital points

  • KT only wants Mark Ruffalo in two instances. As the actual Hulk and in Spotlight.
  • Watch the History Channel Vikings.
  • Not all superhero movies are for kids.
  • KT’s favourite Hemsworth is Kenan Thomspson from SNL.