“Thor: Love & Thunder” hit theaters earlier this month as the first film featuring one of the original Avengers since Endgame. The much hyped Taika Waititi film led by Chris Hemsworth and featured the return of Natalie Portman promised to be the fun-filled follow up to 2017’s “Thor: Ragnorak.” Instead, it was yet another example of Mavel missing the mark since the Infinity Saga finale.
Since the release of “Avengers: Endgame,” there have been 14 new entries to the Marvel Cinematic Universe across film and Disney+ series. While some like Loki, Moonknight, Wandavision and Spider-Man: No Way Home have been fantastic inclusions to Marvel’s ever-growing lore, much of the MCU’s Phase 4 has been met with a collective groan.
Phases 1-3, collectively known as the Infinity Saga, all had the central thread of the Inifinity Stones and Thanos weaving in and out of the story. It provided a cohesive narrative experience for fans to follow through 22 interconnected films. Since then, however, it has been a hodgepodge of stories thrown together with no since of direction.
Sure, there have been some connections between projects, most notably with Wandavision leading directly into the “Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.” And, sure, “Loki” set in motion multiversal shenanigans that led to the now-iconic Spider-Man generational crossover. But, all-in-all, there is no cohesive story holding all of these stories together.
Kevin Feige, the man behind the Marvel Cinematic Universe, said in an interview with Total Film in June that the big picture for the next saga of the MCU will become more clear in the coming months.
“I think there have been many clues already, that are at least apparent to me, of where this whole saga is going,” Feige said. “But we’ll be a little more direct about that in the coming months, to set a plan, so audiences who want to see the bigger picture can see a tiny, tiny, tiny bit more of the roadmap.”
So, there is a plan? That’s news to those of us trying to keep up.
Meanwhile, “Thor: Love & Thunder” delivers a really good two-hour story hidden behind a really bad gag reel. Not only that, it retcons the character into being nothing more than comic relief who has sweet pillow talk with a hammer. It’s the perfect representation of how ridiculously thrown together this current phase of Marvel movies has been since the beginning of Phase Four.
“I Am Groot,” “She-Hulk” and “Black Panther: Wakanda Forver” close out the year for the MCU. Here’s to hoping that Disney’s cash cow can course correct before finally hitting the proverbial iceberg and goes the way of the Titanic.
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“Thor: Love and Thunder” is in theaters now. The synopsis reads:
Marvel Studios’ “Thor: Love and Thunder” finds the God of Thunder (Chris Hemsworth) on a journey unlike anything he’s ever faced – a quest for inner peace. But Thor’s retirement is interrupted by a galactic killer known as Gorr the God Butcher (Christian Bale), who seeks the extinction of the gods. To combat the threat, Thor enlists the help of King Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson), Korg (Taika Waititi) and ex-girlfriend Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), who – to Thor’s surprise – inexplicably wields his magical hammer, Mjolnir, as the Mighty Thor. Together, they embark upon a harrowing cosmic adventure to uncover the mystery of the God Butcher’s vengeance and stop him before it’s too late. Directed by Taika Waititi (“Thor: Ragnarok,” “Jojo Rabbit”) and produced by Kevin Feige and Brad Winderbaum.
