The whipsaw from death and suffering to idiocy is staggering, with Jennifer Kaytin Robinson credited alongside Waititi for a script that seems like it was pasted together after gerbils ripped up a bag of words. “You know what they say: Never meet your heroes,” says the Viking. He is surrounded by lackeys - some called Zeusettes - and frustrates Thor, even stripping him of his clothes, to the delight of many in the audience. “The gods will use you but they will not help you,” he snarls.Īnother punch of the bizarre comes from Russell Crowe, who plays Zeus as a vainglorious tyrant with a Roman outfit (a riff off “Gladiator”?) and an atrocious Mediterranean accent. Bale is so creepy and so committed that you can feel his hatred melt your popcorn. A once-pious man who prayed in vain to the deities, he has now decided to wipe them out after having a personal setback. Our villain this time is superb: Christian Bale plays the deliciously named Gorr the God Butcher. He has no eyes for Mjolnir - or does he? “We good? I know it’s a little weird having my ex-weapon around,” he asks his axe in a deliciously loony scene, basically reflecting a love triangle between a Norse god and two metal armaments. He wields the enchanted axe Stormbreaker now. Thor, of course, has moved on - not with his romantic feelings, but with his favored weaponry. She’s working on a catchphrase, like “Eat this hammer!” But now Foster - played by Portman - has his old magical hammer, Mjolnir, and has become a superhero of her own, the Mighty Thor.

One problematic character back is Jane Foster, Thor’s ex whom he still pines for eight years after they broke up and she skipped the third film. Also back are Tessa Thompson as Valkyrie and Jaimie Alexander’s Sif. His ability to pronounce superhero things dramatically and then become a goofball is endlessly endearing. Waititi is back as the co-writer, director and the voice for the stony Korg, with Chris Hemsworth as our space Viking, a man who really needs to get more credit for taking Thor over the years from glum to hysterical.

Thor love and thunder