This morning while breakfasting we watched newly released on Disney+ Thor: Love and Thunder. It is much better than both its trailers and reviews suggest.

Then we read news of the death of Queen Elizabeth II. We would have recommended watching this film anyway, but it feels especially poetic on this day.

Many factors and the efforts of many individuals contributed to changes in how western civilization views and treat women over the past century.

But most agree that a woman on the British throne helped to cement the notion that women aren't less capable than men.

We may never know if Her Majesty saw this film, but would guess that she'd be delighted by characters like Tessa Thompson's Valkyrie.

King Valkyrie, no less.

Not that there's anything wrong with the title of Queen, of course, but Elizabeth lived to see an age when in entertainment we crown women as kings.

The Movie

Love and Thunder isn't thunderously loved if Rotten Tomatoes is to be believed, where it sports a critics score of 65% and a viewer score of 77%.

Its trailers and teasers confounded us.

Many felt not quite hitting the mark comedically.

The Thor meeting Jane scene was way overused.

But at least one of the trailers was good.

Having seen it we've unravelled the mystery.

Thor: Ragnarok is a work of comedic genius married perfectly with an epic Marvel tale.

For whatever reason, Marvel decided to scale back the comedy factor in Love and Thunder.

There are still some very funny jokes and Ragnarok style scenes (eg. the opening) but proportionally this film is much more superhero action / drama.

Our guess is that when producing promos they tried to focus on the comedy elements to appeal to everyone who loved Ragnarok but there's not a lot of comedy content in this film.

The result was that one too often repeated scene and other promos which just fail to make it off the ground.

And of course there's our old friend, expectation.

Both based on it having the same director, Taika Waititi, and those comedy focused promos, everyone expected another Ragnarok.

Wall to wall laughs.

Love and Thunder doesn't deliver.

Stepping away from those expectations, it's a great Marvel film with a sprinkling of Taika comedy.

Jane as Thor is fun and her story adeptly told.

Being impossible not to compare it to Ragnarok, which we'd score a 10, we'd give Love and Thunder a solid 9.

Thor: Love and Thunder is available now to stream on Disney+.

[ Main Image: Thor Love and Thunder - Tessa Thompson. Credit: Marvel via IMDb.com. ]

References

Rotten Tomatoes. Thor: Love and Thunder. (viewed September 9, 2022)