Thor: Love and Thunder

Being the first fourth entry of an individual superhero series in the MCU, Thor: Love and Thunder sees the Norse god of thunder reunite with his old love, a cancer stricken Jane Foster who has gained Thor's powers from Mjolnir, to take on a god killing alien. Taika Waititi returns to direct, cowrite, and costar as Korg while bringing back and upping his over the top comedic style. While a lot of Waititi and Jennifer Kaytin Robinson's script does work in terms of storytelling, some of it gets weaker due to having way too many jokes that either distract or clash with certain dramatic scenes. The same feeling is felt with Taika's direction as even though he has a really fun and energetic technique, the gags he employs happen too often. Never missing a beat since 2011, Chris Hemsworth shines as he always does playing Thor with a good balance of drama and comedy. Alongside him are Natalie Portman portraying Jane with great tragedy as she suffers from cancer but trying so hard to hide the pain, Tessa Thompson having a lot of fun as Valkyrie, and Christian Bale in a dark and terrifying performance as this entry's villain Gorr the God Butcher. For the most part the visuals are really good and often stunning, but due to so many projects the MCU has been doing lately and needing just as much VFX it does start to show in small parts that do look poorly and rushed. Similar to the previous entry, this one also has a kick-ass soundtrack and score reminiscent of 80s fantasy films and using music by Gun N' Roses and others of that era that go with what's going on throughout the movie. This does not reach the heights of Ragnarok or the first Thor, but Thor: Love and Thunder is still better than Dark World and is a lot of fun despite its overuse of jokes and the tone going all over the place. Over all: 87%

2022 top list so far:

1. Top Gun: Maverick

2. The Black Phone

3. The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent

4. The Northman

5. The Batman

6. Lightyear

7. Dog

8. Everything Everywhere All at Once

9. X 2022

10. Scream 2022

11. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

12. Thor: Love and Thunder

13. Jurassic World: Dominion

14. Sonic the Hedgehog 2

15. Uncharted