MCU Retrospective, Part 18: "Thor: Ragnarok" feat. "Black Panther"
In this weekly series, Film Yap writer Andrew Carr revisits each installment of the decade-long Marvel Cinematic Universe. Once a week, Andrew will review one film in the series, in the original release order, reevaluating his previously held opinion of the film and giving each film a new score out of 5 Yaps. All 18 films (plus Avengers: Infinity War, upon release) will be compiled into one definitive ranking. Each entry in the "MCU Retrospective" series will include a short review as well as a historical recap about the film's initial conception and release.
A new entry in this series will be posted every Sunday until the weekend prior to the release of Avengers: Infinity War on May 4.
Last week's entry in the series: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 and Spider-Man: Homecoming
Complete list of all entries in the "MCU Retrospective" series!
NOTE: the next and final entry to the "MCU Retrospective" series will be The Yap's main review of AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR. Look for the review this Friday, 4/27!
The Reviews
THOR: RAGNAROK (2017)
It's easily the best Thor film, as if that's a feat. But Ragnarok is certainly more than that. In a very roundabout way, director Taika Waititi was able to deliver on multi-film character arcs for both Thor and Loki at a level that the characters hadn't experienced since the first film. On top of that, he flipped the series from a grim and grandiose Shakespearean fantasy drama into a full-blown improv sci-fi comedy. This attention to both the characters' needs and the series' needs resulted in a solid and wildly entertaining romp. It's not Marvel's best, but it does hang on to the lead pack.
The most notable aspect of this film is its tone. Obviously, it's a huge shift for the Thor films, and Waititi took his trademark quirky style and fused it with muscular, badass sci-fi action. The comedy also feels completely organic the vast majority of the time. If Doctor Strange is the school kid who gets weird looks because he tries too hard for too many jokes, Thor: Ragnarok is the confident class clown who shows him how it's done. A lighthearted laugh-fest wasn't really what I wanted out of a third Thor movie (I wanted a full-on fantasy action epic to accompany the idea of "Ragnarok"), but there is still plenty of action—and damn good action at that—and more character moments and drama than I expected.
The issues with the film's tone occur when it switches tracks back to the Asgard stuff, after frolicking around on Goldblumworld. Some of the "heavier" moments do feel a little bit undercooked, particularly the stuff between Hela and Thor in the third act. The dramatic weight of the actual Ragnarok event is kind of lost because the climactic battle leading up to it doesn't really properly set the tone. Kind of in the same way AoU's finale felt A. too fun and jokey throughout, and B. too clean and nicely resolved in the aftermath, Ragnarok's feels sort of like an afterthought, as though the Planet Hulk gladiator adventure in the first half, and the character interplay throughout, were given all the attention. It just starts to feel a little video gamey and formulaic during the climax, which is a shame given how well-done and clever the rest of the movie is. Still, there's some great visuals and action to be found in the final fight, as well as a nice revelation (twist, I guess?) for Thor in the "Asgard is not a place, it's a people" mantra. Plus, we get to see why Thor doesn't need that measly hammer.
Speaking of the Planet Hulk stuff, it's pretty much perfect, and the Thor vs. Hulk fight is about as entertaining as you could imagine, even if a tad shorter than I would have liked. Visually, the whole movie is pretty stunning; gorgeous Jack Kirby designs ornament an out-there sci-fi backdrop, and the light and dark values look sharper, as they have been since Guardians Vol. 2—as a fan of rich color and dark darks in film, I'm glad Marvel is starting to get away from the flat and even-contrast visual style of the middle films in the franchise, and I hope that trend continues.
Overall, Ragnarok is an undeniably fun and action-packed popcorn flick, with some flourishes of strong character development for its leads. I wish the film had made better use of Hela, but at least Cate Blanchett brought her A-game with a terrifying-but-weirdly-sexy physicality and commitment to the goddess of death. While not really breaking the Marvel/sci-fi-action mold, Ragnarok does it a lot better than most. Also the music is really, really good. Not memorable in the iconic sense, unfortunately, but Mark Mothersbaugh of DEVO gave us something different and energetic with his synth-rock score.
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BLACK PANTHER (2018)
Black Panther's strength comes from two things, which are often absent or not as well-executed in other Marvel films:
its commitment to the immersive, unique, and notably foreign setting of Wakanda and its culture
its determination to say something with its themes that's actually somewhat valuable to the viewers, and not simply the characters.
It does some things right that other MCU movies often don't, like having a villain who not only has a solid motive and compelling personality, but who actually challenges the hero's values—and changes them. But... frankly, I honestly don't see myself revisiting this one much in the future. It's a good film, for sure. It is a moderately compelling adventure that's worth seeing once. Unfortunately, it's just not all that fun or engaging after about the first hour or hour-and-a-half. I thoroughly enjoy the world-building and exotic stylings during the first half, but after the plot really gets moving, it becomes very bland. Killmonger is the shining light of the second half, but unfortunately, he's relegated to an incredibly formulaic and uninteresting final battle.
Additionally, the dialogue gets patchy throughout the second half, and it's quite bothersome how conveniently and quickly the lead-up to the final battle is resolved (basically the point between T’Challa's defeat and his return to face W'Kabi's men). Of course, predictability is somewhat inherent in a franchise film in which you know the hero is coming back for more movies. There are other Marvel movies that have lazy conveniences and predictable plotting in unfortunate places, too. However, they have the advantage of being able to lean on action, clever dialogue, cool visuals, and comedy to sort of keep them "fun" despite the lack of "substance" or creativity in structure. I would say Iron Man 2 is a good example of that—a lazy plot and franchise-focused mentality are overshadowed by utterly fun performances, strong dialogue, and badass action. Black Panther, on the other hand, doesn't really have any of that to fall back on. The action was mostly by-the-numbers or boring (aside from the casino fight, which is fun), there aren't really any cool visuals to be stimulated by after the first half, and the execution of the finale didn't feel particularly clever either. I found myself mentally checking out during the finale until Killmonger's defeat, at which point the character drama pulled me back in.
Unfortunately, this is kind of a confusing film. On one hand, it's ambitious and committed to its themes, full of reflections of our real world problems, which is an admirable feat for a franchise superhero film. Plus, it takes special care to make its villain mean something, not just for the conflict of the story, but as a catalyst for a change of heart in the hero and a lesson for all of us. Those are aspects of Black Panther that simply deserve to be in a great film. I wish I could say the plotting, dialogue, and action pulled their weight to make sure that happened. Still, what we're left with is a solid adventure movie. Maybe not one worth revisiting time and time again, but not a futile endeavor overall.
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The MCU Ranking!
Every week, I take each entry covered for that week and place it in an ongoing ranking, which will eventually include all 19 films.
We're going to both ends of the spectrum this week. On the one, Guardians Vol. 2 teeters between the good and the mediocre of the MCU, and on the other, Spider-Man: Homecoming nearly dethrones the always-legendary Winter Soldier.