Thor: Ragnarok Review: Did They Finally Get It Right?

Marvel's third phase of films has possibly been the best yet behind movies like Captain America: Civil War and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, with one of the most hyped thus far surprisingly being a new Thor movie.

The first Thor was solid, but still not that great and the sequel is seen as one of the more disappointing Marvel Studios films.

Everything we have seen about Thor: Ragnarok has looked like it would finally buck that trend, which is most certainly did.

Without going into too many spoilers that you wouldn't have seen in the trailers already, the movie picks up a couple years after Thor: The Dark World, where Loki had done something with Odin and taken his place, literally.

Thor has basically been gone most of this time though trying to find out about the mysterious dream he had in Avengers: Age of Ultron that teased what is known as Ragnarok, the destruction of Asgard.

The opening kicks off the comedy and action quick, which leads to an even more hilarious scene when he returns to Asgard.

Through a series of events though, Hela, played by Cate Blanchett, enters the picture and destroys Thor's hammer Mjornir in a fight with Thor and Loki. As they try to return to Asgard however, both Thor and Loki get thrown from the portal and end up on the planet of Sakaar, which looks like one big landfill. This leads to Thor getting captured by newcomer Valkyrie, played expertly by Tessa Thompson.

This leads to the introduction of the always hilarious Jeff Goldblum as the Grandmaster of this planet that puts on gladiatorial like fights where people try to take on his champion, which ends up to be the Hulk.

At this point, Hulk has been the monsterous Hulk since the end of Age of Ultron, with him finally turning back into Banner for the first time here.

Finally getting a speaking Hulk beyond a few sentences was great and I can't wait to see more with the upcoming Avengers: Infinity War.

We are also introduced to some other new characters, with the absolute standout being Korg, who just fights in the lower fights after being captured trying to start a revolution with pamphlets.

He is voiced by director Taika Waititi and is a pure joy throughout the film. He is definitely one of my favorite Marvel characters in just his appearance in this movie already.

While this is going on, Hela actually ends up on Asgard and meets the one who evidently took over for Heimdall known as Skurge, played by Karl Urban, who she picks to be her Executioner. This relationship is interesting in the movie and pays off later on.

The only real complaint I have with the movie is that it feels like there are two different plots that feel disjointed almost.

You have all of the Hela scenes on Asgard, while the rest is occuring on Sakaar for most of the movie. They do intersect later on of course, but it did feel a bit strange.

Bringing in Taika Waititi was a brilliant move by Kevin Feige, as he just seems to get what makes a good movie. His direction and choices paired with a hilarious script worked really well together to bring us one of the best Marvel Studios movies to date.

There was talk that he was brought on to lighten up what was a very dark script, which didn't really seem to be the case.

There are some dark moments of course, but the script definitely seems to be on the lighter side with comedy throughout.

The comedy never overwhelms the plot though, with Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Mark Ruffalo and Tessa Thompson all having excellent comedic timing and chemistry.

After two very underwhelming Thor movies compared to most of the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor: Ragnarok hits it out of the park. The movie does still somewhat suffer from that typical Marvel Studios plot structure, but the movie is just so good that it doesn't really bother you at all. Hemsworth and Hiddleston are as good as always as Thor and Loki, with Ruffalo's Hulk/Bruce Banner and the cast of new characters really fitting well alongside them.

Valkyrie and Korg in particular are excellent additions and I can't wait to see more of them in the future.

All in all, Thor: Ragnarok is easily one of my favorite movies of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and 2017 in general.

It is truly the Thor and Hulk buddy cop movie we didn't know we needed and I can't wait to see it again.

Verdict: 4.5/5 Stars

Wanna read more on this? Check these out: 'Thor: Ragnarok' Already Tops Worldwide Box Office Ahead of U.S. Debut (more); Early Rotten Tomatoes Rating For Thor: Ragnarok Shows Lots Of Praise (more); Thor: Ragnarok Projected To Have Bigger Opening Weekend Compared To Past Movies (more); Taika Waititi Talks About The Comedic Tone Of Thor: Ragnarok (more).

And here are some more related articles: New Thor: Ragnarok Trailer Channels Guardians of the Galaxy Vibe (more); The First Trailer For Thor: Ragnarok Is Now Available To Watch (more).