Thor: Ragnarok is the film that saved Thor. After two entries that had established the character without quite knowing what to do with him, Taika Waititi arrived and did something that seemed almost reckless: he threw out the established tone entirely, leaned into the absurdity of the premise with gleeful abandon, and made the funniest film in the MCU's history. The result is a film that is simultaneously a loving demolition of everything that had come before and a fresh reinvention of a character who had been in danger of becoming the franchise's most underserved lead.
At a Glance
Director: Taika Waititi
Runtime: 130 minutes
Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Cate Blanchett, Tessa Thompson, Mark Ruffalo, Jeff Goldblum
Release: 2017
Critics Rating: ★★★★½ (4.5/5 stars, a gleeful reinvention that proves Waititi understood Thor better than anyone)
Audience Rating: ★★★★½ (4.5/5 stars, the MCU at its most joyful)
Plot
Thor discovers he has a sister, Hela, the goddess of death, who has been imprisoned by Odin for millennia and is released upon his death. Hela destroys Mjolnir, banishes Thor and Loki to Sakaar, and sets about conquering Asgard. On Sakaar, Thor is forced to compete in a gladiatorial arena where his opponent is the Hulk. The plot is deliberately loose and episodic, prioritising character dynamics and comic invention over narrative momentum, and it works because Waititi's command of tone is so confident that the film never loses its energy. The screenplay is the loosest of the Thor films structurally, but that looseness is a feature rather than a flaw: it gives the cast room to breathe and the comedy room to land.
Characters
Ragnarok reveals Chris Hemsworth as a gifted comic actor. His Thor is looser, more knowing, and more fun than the earnest warrior of the earlier entries, and the film is smart enough to let him be funny without sacrificing the character's underlying sincerity. Cate Blanchett is magnificent as Hela, bringing a theatrical menace and physical authority to a villain as visually striking as any in the franchise. Tessa Thompson's Valkyrie is one of the MCU's great character introductions: a warrior with a buried history and a sharp wit, introduced with an economy and confidence that makes her feel fully formed from her first scene. Jeff Goldblum's Grandmaster is essentially Jeff Goldblum at maximum Jeff Goldblum, and the film is richer for it. Hemsworth and Hiddleston's dynamic has never been better, finding a warmth and affection between the brothers that the earlier films had only gestured towards. Ruffalo's Banner is given more to do here than in any previous appearance, and Waititi's own performance as Korg is one of the film's most inspired comic creations.
Meaning / Themes
Ragnarok is a film about the difference between a place and a people, and about the necessity of confronting the dark chapters of a nation's history. Hela's return forces Asgard to reckon with the violence and conquest on which its golden age was built, and the film draws an explicit parallel between Asgard's imperial mythology and the way nations construct heroic self-images that obscure uncomfortable truths. Thor's eventual decision to allow Ragnarok to happen rather than preserve a corrupted institution is one of the MCU's most radical narrative choices, and it gives the film a thematic seriousness that its comedic surface might initially obscure.
Direction
Waititi's direction is bold and imaginative, with a visual style that draws on 1980s science fiction aesthetics and gives Sakaar a neon-drenched, retro-futuristic identity unlike anything else in the franchise. The production design, led by Ra Vincent, is outstanding, creating environments that feel strange and vivid without becoming incoherent. Mark Mothersbaugh's synth-heavy score is one of the MCU's most distinctive, perfectly calibrated to the film's irreverent energy and a significant departure from the orchestral grandeur of the earlier entries.
Waititi's tonal control is the film's greatest achievement. Ragnarok is consistently funny in a way that no previous MCU film had managed, and the comedy is specific and character-driven rather than generic. But the film is not merely a comedy: the destruction of Asgard, the revelation of its imperial history, and the losses Thor sustains along the way give the film an emotional weight that the comedy never undermines. The Led Zeppelin needle drop during the arena sequence is one of the great moments in the franchise's history, a piece of confidence that announces exactly what kind of film this is going to be.
Ragnarok was a critical and commercial triumph, earning some of the strongest reviews in the MCU's history and becoming one of the franchise's highest-grossing entries. Its influence on the MCU's subsequent tonal direction has been real: the film's success accelerated the franchise's shift towards comedy and self-awareness, a shift that subsequent entries have handled with varying degrees of success. Ragnarok remains the high-water mark of that approach.
Final Verdict: An anarchic delight and the MCU's funniest film by a considerable margin. Taika Waititi reinvents Thor with gleeful confidence, Chris Hemsworth finally gets to show what he can do with the right material, and Cate Blanchett delivers one of the franchise's great villain performances. Ragnarok is exhilarating cinema from start to finish.