Christian Bale’s Gorr the God Butcher is being compared to both Heath Ledger’s Joker and Danny DeVito’s Penguin in Taikia Waititi’s “unexpectedly personal and heartfelt” new Thor film
It sounds weird to say this in the year of our Lord 2022, but – the MCU needs a shot in the arm. Sure, the MCU-adjacent Spider-Man: No Way Home blew everyone away just seven months ago, and yes, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness made shy of $900m last month. But it still feels like we’re a long way away from the heights of the Avengers saga which ended back in 2019, and with each movie since opening up a different can of plot worms, we’re no clearer as to where exactly “Phase 4” is headed. Fans are starting to get restless, to the point where Marvel boss Kevin Feige feels the need to come out and reassure everyone that they do, in fact, have some sort of plan.
Thankfully, Thor: Love and Thunder sounds like it could actually be the thing to, if not propel us forward, at least throw us back to the glory days of 2017-2019. A slew of press saw Taika Waititi’s second Thor outing for the first time last night and – though it should be said that it’s mostly the easy marks who get invited to these early screenings – most were hugely impressed by what they saw. As expected, it’s being touted as “hilarious”, and special praise is being reserved for the “superb” Natalie Portman. And then there’s Christian Bale, playing new villain Gorr the God Butcher, who draws comparisons to both Heath Ledger’s Joker from The Dark Knight and Danny Devito’s Penguin.
Not everyone was quite as effusive – journalist Eric Italiano argued that, because Phase 4 has no overarching villain as yet, the whole thing felt a little bit stakeless. And Clayton Davis called Bale’s villain “very standard”.
You can’t win ‘em all.
Thor: Love and Thunder is out in UK cinemas on 8 July.
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