This piece contains some MAJOR SPOILERS for Thor: Love and Thunder, so please exercise caution if you haven't watched the movie yet.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe has long had a history of making audiences experience a gauntlet of feelings with incredible emotional moments that were too much for some fans, as well as incredibly exciting scenes that left fans jumping out their seats in joy. It’s safe to say the latest addition to the long-running franchise has done it again with the surprising Thor: Love and Thunder, at least for me.
As I watched Chris Hemsworth’s fourth solo movie as the God of Thunder, I couldn’t help but be overcome with so many feelings, which included hilarity due to some of Taika Waititi’s best written and delivered lines, pure excitement on account of those eye-catching action sequences and utter sadness on more than one occasion. Now that time has passed and my emotions have calmed down a bit, I feel like it’s a good time to go back and break down five feelings I had while watching the Marvel movie.
Thor: Love And Thunder Feeling #1 - Hilarity
Much like he did with Thor: Ragnarok, director Taika Waititi found a way to insert a ton of laughs into his second Marvel effort, and the jokes work for the most part. Sure, there are times where the constant barrage of one-liners and small asides distract from the overall story, but the lion’s share of those jokes had me audibly laughing in my chair. There is just so much that works about Waititi’s unique sense of humor, especially with a character like Thor and an actor like Chris Hemsworth.
I couldn’t contain myself whenever Korg (voiced by Waititi) would mess up Jane Foster’s name by calling her everything from Jane Fonda and Jodie Foster when telling the story of Thor. That story, by the way, was the perfect way for the movie to carve out a ton of exposition without adding too much to the film’s overall runtime. But it wasn’t just Korg that had me rolling with laughter, as Thor himself had some incredibly funny moments, especially when he made Stormbreaker jealous after discovering a reassembled Mjölnir.
Thor: Love And Thunder Feeling #2 - Happiness
I’m not ashamed to say Korg brought so much joy to my life whenever he was on screen in Thor: Love and Thunder because I have always loved that character and have long thought he should get his own Disney+ series. When he shared his origin story about his Kronan dads met inside a cave and held hands over a volcano for a prolonged period to give birth to him, I couldn’t help but feel the love he felt for them and his life as a whole. Then later on when Korg found love himself and had a partner of his own named Dwayne (a possible nod to Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson), I was just beaming with happiness.
Another incredibly happy moment came in the second Thor: Love and Thunder end-credits sequence, which showed Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) being welcomed to Valhalla by none other than Heimdall (Idris Elba). Foster, who essentially sacrificed herself to help Thor defeat Gorr the God Butcher (Christian Bale), was finally free of her pain, and we, the audience, finally got to see Heimdall after his own act of sacrifice in Avengers: Infinity War.
Thor: Love And Thunder Feeling #3 - Sadness
Thor: Love and Thunder is hilarious and has a lot of happy moments, but they are needed to balance out the pure and utter sadness that is prevalent throughout. The movie wastes no time hitting you over the head with a hammer of pure sorrow with one of the most upsetting introductions we've seen for an MCU villain. In the opening minutes of the movie, Gorr and his daughter, Love (India Hemsworth), are hanging on to life in a barren desert before the young girl perishes, leaving the future villain alone. I’ve cried in multiple Marvel movies over the years, but not like I did upon seeing the makeshift grave the grieving father constructed. I was absolutely gutted.
Death is prevalent throughout Thor: Love and Thunder whether it’s with Gorr planning his revenge to avenge his daughter, Jane Foster succumbing to cancer or King Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson) shedding more light on losing her partner in the battle referenced in Thor: Ragnarok. This should be expected from Taika Waititi, who famously balanced life and death, and happiness and sorrow, in his Academy Award-winning movie Jojo Rabbit.
Thor: Love And Thunder Feeling #4 - Excitement
Even though I shed a few tears during Thor: Love and Thunder, the movie was so exciting that I was sitting on the edge of my seat waiting to see what would happen next. One of the most exciting scenes of the whole affair came early on when we finally got to see the Guardians of the Galaxy in action for the first time since the epic Avengers: Endgame battle, and was it a sight for sore eyes. Seeing that ragtag group in battle had me so excited for what’s to come for them when Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 opens in theaters in May 2023.
There were other exciting moments sprinkled throughout (the battle of New Asgard and arriving in Omnipotence City quickly come to mind), but a scene I can’t stop thinking about is the battle in the Shadow Realm. The movie, for the most part, was full of color and style, but the screen turned to black-and-white when Thor and his crew brought the fight to Gorr in the final act. This got even better whenever Thor would swing Stormbreaker to bring brief flashes of color back to the fight.
Thor: Love And Thunder Feeling #5 - Fear
Thor: Love and Thunder doesn’t come close to the horror elements in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, but this isn’t to say I wasn’t terrified throughout the movie. This was especially true in the battle at New Asgard when Gorr stole the Asgardian children, and then later on when he acted like the worst birthday party performer ever.
In fact, just about everything about Gorr was unnervingly terrifying throughout Thor: Love and Thunder. Motivated by the death of his daughter, for which he holds the gods accountable, Gorr had nothing to lose in his quest to wipe out the gods and reach the gates of eternity. There is nothing more terrifying than a motivated villain with nothing to lose. Oh, and the corrupted power of the Necrosword just adds to that.
All in all, Thor: Love and Thunder struck lighting and found a great balance (as all things should be) with its combination of tones. I laughed, I cried and I bit my fingernails down to the quick on this wild and fulfilling ride. I just can’t wait to see how any of the upcoming Marvel movies match this.
