Thor: Love and Thunder had all the makings of the best Marvel Studios movie ever. Heavily inspired by Jason Aaron's Thor run and featuring both The Mighty Thor and Gorr the God Butcher, the sequel has a lot going for it.
Among those plus points was Thor: Ragnarok director Taika Waititi. He'd successfully reinvented the God of Thunder in that 2017 blockbuster and fans were excited to see what came next. Unfortunately, the result was a movie which largely disappointed fans and let down both its new and returning characters.
Waititi, who was given perhaps too much freedom with Thor: Love and Thunder, has largely shrugged off the complaints. Chris Hemsworth, however, has addressed them head-on and doesn't shy away from acknowledging where the movie fell short.
Talking to Vanity Fair, the Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga star made it clear he still hasn't forgiven himself. "I got caught up in the improv and the wackiness, and I became a parody of myself," Hemsworth admits. "I didn’t stick the landing."
The movie was too silly, becoming a full-blown comedy which saw even Russell Crowe prancing around the place as Zeus in what may go down as one of the MCU's biggest wastes of an actor.
Reflecting on his time as Thor, Hemsworth admits he'd grown frustrated with playing the character before Thor: Ragnarok. "Sometimes I felt like a security guard for the team," he says of Joss Whedon's Avengers movies. "I would read everyone else’s lines, and go, Oh, they got way cooler stuff. They’re having more fun. What’s my character doing?"
"It was always about, 'You’ve got the wig on. You’ve got the muscles. You’ve got the costume. Where’s the lighting?' Yeah, I’m part of this big thing, but I’m probably pretty replaceable."
For what it's worth, his co-star Robert Downey Jr. disagrees. "First off, Thor as a character was super tricky to adapt - lots of implied limitations - but he and Ken Branagh figured out how to transcend, make him somehow relatable but godlike," the Oscar winner says. "Hemsworth is, in my opinion, the most complex psyche out of all us Avengers. He’s got wit and gravitas, but also such restraint, fire, and gentleness."
Hemsworth will likely return as Thor in the next Avengers movies. Will that be his final appearance as the God of Thunder? The actor may be ready to move on from the MCU, but if another reinvention beckons, Love and Thunder may get a sequel.
Remember, with $760.9 million at the worldwide box office, it wasn't that far behind Thor: Ragnarok's $865 million haul (and even a drop of over $100 million was a good result in the post-pandemic era).
Do you think Marvel Studios can get Thor back on the right track after his last solo outing?