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The newest Marvel release, Thor: Love and Thunder directed by Taika Waititi is full of action with humor without leaving every mention to the huge backstory that this universe has. However, there is one key downside: this movie belongs to the fans. Whipper-snap in-jokes, returning players and cross-references to earlier movies create such an extensive intra-narrative mythos that the picture seems almost impenetrable to any but Marvel's superfans. Not a bad thing exactly, but it does make you wonder about Marvel's new style of storytelling.
A Cinematic Event for the Diehard Fans:
Love and Thunder is once again part of the saga, this time following Thor Odinson in a buzz-filled setting. In the movie, Thor (Chris Hemsworth) will have to confront Gorr The God Butcher (Christian Bale), a chilling character who seeks vengeance against all of that is divine. Thor also reunited with Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) -- who now wielded Thor's old hammer, Mjolnir, as the Mighty Thor while she was dying of cancer. Fans get a bounty of Easter eggs, some good looks at how Thor plays with the Guardians of the Galaxy and appearances by fave characters like Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson). Russell Crowe brings humor to Zeus, and each character adds another texture of satire and silly levity that are Waititi's signatures.
This idea is thrilling on its own right, but the script includes so many references and throwbacks that it would confuse anybody who either casually watched or hasn't kept up with the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). This is exciting stuff for fans. This may be disorienting to newcomers, though.
The Problem of Marvel’s Self-Referential Style:
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This is only exacerbated in the MCU, which sounds like it has ultimately found a “late style,” to use an (often) unfair critical term that derides repetition and self-reflection. As film scholar Gerry Canavan has put it, this is a symptom of “hyper-self-awareness” and preoccupation with the franchise's own legacy. The rhythms of the earlier films are nearly in every beat echoed by each new film, innovation almost entirely nonexistent beyond remixes and a mere switcharoo with established character arcs and narrative style. Love and Thunder reflects this trend, including sequences of the more summary kind that are there to jog people's memory as opposed to those looking for fresh information on Thor—the relationship between him and Jane in prior movies. But those flashbacks fail to form an emotional bond for new viewers who have not seen how this couple got here.
Even for a Marvel movie they are more or less all interconnected, this one is perhaps too interconnect for it's own good. The action and adventure are certainly the main draw for those audiences, but to them its deep use of previous knowledge might take away from that experience. Love and Thunder, meanwhile — instead of finding a powerful overarching plot to grab onto — often feels like one of these reunion or “hangout” movies where people just drop by long enough to say hello. That works great for the films this approach fits but prohibits a film you want everyone to be able to see.
Inconsistent Emotional Depth:
Thor: Love and Thunder falls victim to one of its biggest weaknesses, trying to mesh comedy with real emotional elements like love loss illness. The heart & soul of the story should be Thor remembering all he hates about Jane and Janes cancer (which she is cured up running around 5 years later) - THATS WHERE THE DRAMA LIES Though Waititi makes an earnest effort to manage this narrative, the film's otherwise light and ironic tenor frequently detracts from its weight. Waititi has always brought his signature satirical/ironic tone (which helps get laughs but also is a strike against heavier emotional impact) to projects like What We Do in the Shadows.
Love and Thunder, as such, feels even less like a crisis-level threat than we've seen in the post-Endgame Marvel Cinematic Unvierse. When everything in Endgame is universe-shatteringly huge, it becomes harder to care as much when things are more pedestrian. Its tone is that of a lightweight caper, and it includes too many jokes to have much gravity.
A Franchise Becoming Increasingly Prohibitive:
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Marvel have spawned such a vast narrative universe it can be exclusionary to anyone even slightly outside of the core "core". The amount of time required to truly understand every plot point might just be too daunting for the casual film goer. To a certain degree, Marvel has become an "in club" of sorts… for people who get the myriad references and inside jokes that are packed into their movies.
More worryingly is the exclusive nature of that game, which limits what the franchise can be in the future. And that speaks to the Achilles heel as Love and Thunder gestures toward further sequels or offshoots down the road but will audiences in subsequent years be game enough to watch 38 movies before they can get up-to-date on what happens next? This feels like an experiment in niche storytelling – a brave move, but one which may well alienate casual fans.
Conclusion: Marvel’s Identity Crisis
Thor: Love and Thunder is essentially an entertaining film jam-packed with all the Marvel schmaltz. But at the rate things are going, it seems like goodwill towards the MCU's navel-gazing style and its strangely insular club of perpetual "in-people" will soon be exhausted. That might help connect even more narratives across movies, but you have to imagine it can disincentivize Marvel from making their core narrative as accessible as the next Spider-Man movie.
So the question remains, as Marvel commits further to this path: How will these films age? Will audiences thirty years from now look back and laugh at these references, or will the franchise feel like an insiders' club that asks too much "catch-up" homework? Only time will tell. Love and Thunder is currently evidence of Marvel giving the people what they want, whatever how long that proves to be a viable strategy.
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