Can’t stop thinking about Thor Ragnarok
Fenrir-sized spoilers under the cut
Man, this movie had BALLS.
In addition to, like, doing massive amounts of cleanup after the mess left behind by second installments in both the Thor and Avengers properties, dishing out fully-realized character arcs and wrapping it all up in surprisingly functional comedy, it was actually ABOUT something. It had something to say.
I am mostly crediting the director here, and maybe unjustly so, but it is still telling that having Taika onboard has produced a film that does such bold commentary on the vile nature of expansionist colonialism, even touching on what appears to be historic revisionism (read: whitewashing) by having Hela expose Asgard as EXACTLY what it is: Odin’s closet of skeletons laced with riches that were reaped from enslaved nations, an empire built on buried mistakes and horrors of war.
Where Taika really comes in and shines though, in my opinion, is the film’s inherent pursuit in not only making these statements, but also having the balls to follow through on them. Both Odin’s twisted version of Asgard that past movies have lauded, and the Grandmaster’s clockwork of gladiatorial slavery are unceremoniously RAZED to the ground at the end of the film. Ragnarok. A clean slate, where the establishments that enabled corrupt rulership are torn down, but the people survive to resettle and start anew.
It is profound, for a film of such goofy overtones, to be absolutely vivid and present and INVESTED in hammering its message home like this. Text over subtext, something no MCU film has never really nailed this hard.
I liked Thor in this film too. I like how his role was re-contextualized in light of Odin’s deepening shithole of a past. I can almost picture the old man, having just enslaved Hela and woken up from his nightmarish pursuit of conquest, thinking how swell and redeeming of him it would be to raise two sons, one from Asgard and one stolen from Jotunheim, equals in chances at inheriting his throne. The desperation he must have felt to think that idea up and nestle in the false comfort of the decision. Probably had an entire ceremony organized where every single citizen of Asgard would line up to give him a pat on the back.
Ironic how fate had punished for that decision ever since. In his realization of the one true good his progeny could bear, he surrendered himself to his sins and implored Thor to do better. To start pure, to be stronger than him. And then, he dies too; because in this film, no one gets away with their shit, no matter how bad they feel about it. Karl Urban’s little role was a beautiful microcosm of that.
At the end of the movie, as Thor becomes the king of immigrants leaving both of their smoldering, corrupted worlds, he finally takes the throne that he hid away from; but one that faces away from the people, leading them forward, instead of looking down at them from above. The symbolism, maybe just a little lost in the comedy of it, is striking if not on the nose.
I just love this movie so much. I won’t even go into the wonderful character work for just about every protagonist. That deserves its own writeup. But man; Taika Waititi is a treasure.
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