Bore: Love and Blunder
Film
Boy oh boy, this one was something else people. As a long time Taika Waititi sympathizer this one was tough to stomach. Looking back at all the wonderful things Waititi has provided, it's kind of one of those "oh, he'll bounce back" moments. But on a melancholic note, will he?
Waititi has created some of my more appreciated films all within the last decade. What We Do In The Shadows is a fantastic mockumentary comedy that eventually turned into a whole FX show, and has been raking in Emmy nominations. Waititi also wrote Hunt for the Wilderpeople soon thereafter, another charming and funny film full of heart. Not long after Waititi joined the MCU with the rather fun and exciting Thor: Ragnarok, showcasing his fun direction, wittiness and penchant for offbeat comedy. Throw in the Oscar winning Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Picture nominated film Jojo Rabbit, and you've got a treasure trove of films all within 5 years for Waititi!
Unfortunately, I wasn't as fond of Thor: Love and Thunder as I was the aforementioned films, especially Thor: Ragnarok. Ragnarok was a wonderful reintroduction to Thor (Chris Hemsworth) as more of a comically tragic caricature of the Nordic God turned Avenger. It was lighthearted yet also quite dark at times, not to mention it had that classic Waititi flair of color and comedy. However, reports leading up to the release of Thor: Love and Thunder had mentioned that whatever you saw in Thor: Ragnarok, this film had it dialed up to 100.
The end result? Well, it's as if the Three Stooges became Avengers and made a movie about it. Albeit certainly entertaining, the latest addition to the MCU and somehow a 4th Thor movie is nothing more than a slap stick galumph for 2+ hours.
First and foremost, the visual effects were garrishly obscene. While Thor: Ragnarok had some exquisite coloring and rather neat scenes on the garbage planet, the latest foray into the MCU's inability to complete a thought concerning visuals is apparent. Thor's first real action in the film is alongside the Guardians of the Galaxy when they try to free a temple from some invading bird-esque aliens. This leads to what I might consider one of the worst visual scenes in the MCU. It is overly cartoonish (in a negative way) and it also erases years and like what 2 films worth of Thor's characterization? There's a Jean-Claude Van Damme leg split, buffoonery and then in a movie where gods are essentially punished for turning their backs on their subjects, Thor (a god mind you), completely destroys a temple he was trying to free. It makes no sense in the context of the entire plot of the film and is a huge comedy gag that fails to contribute anything except set the tone for a wildly pointless time.
The one redeeming factor in this film is none other than Gorr the God Butcher (Christian Bale) who is fantastic! He displays a villain that is ruthless, twisted, extremely dark and tortured in a way where you can actually root for him at some points. My initial hopes were that Thor was slain while stopping Gorr, thinking it would be a great bookend to Hemsworth's character and a fitting welcome to the MCU for Bale. But after ruminating on it for a while, the ultimate redemption of Gorr and the return of his daughter as Thor's adopted daughter, or I guess niece, is a solid finale as well. My one gripe with this was that they brought back Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) to just kill her off in a way that really didn't need to happen 9 years after her last MCU appearance.
With all that being said, I'll end on one more note of terrible MCU planning. Much like in Eternals with the whole "oh we can't interfere with people stuff" so they let Thanos kill half of all life. But they're supposed to be keeping people alive to feed the giant being in the center of the Earth so why wouldn't they care, it really is a whole thing you can check out if you like. Anyways, here in Thor: Love and Thunder, we're supposed to believe that there's this place called Eternity that will grant the wish of whoever gets their first? On top of that Thor knew about this place? And all the gods just happen to know how to get there?? Where was this when half of life was snapped out of existence for 5 years?! Look I understand the idea of this not being a thing so that the Phase 1 plot and what not could continue and we get our story arcs of Thanos and Iron Man dying and what have you. But when you're cranking out 7 movies a month and tying everything together in these ridiculous ways, there comes a time when things need to just make some damn sense.
Yes, I am the resident Film & Froth MCU antagonist, and yes I feel stupid that I keep giving them my money when a new movie comes out. I'm only human people.
Froth
Thinking about the overall balance of comedy, action and some Gorr drama I needed a well balanced beverage. See what I did there? Enter stage left the Counterbalance IPA by Counterbalance Brewing! This little number is a fine brewed beer that has some initial bitterness that's followed up by some real dank feel from your Amarillo and Columbus hops. Combined with some Simcoe, Citra, Centennial and Cascade hops you get some subtle pine and caramel flavors while also bringing in a nice rounded out citrus aroma and taste. Bringing a great color to the table the Counterbalance IPA is really a rounded and well balanced IPA that sits at a cool 6.8% ABV and with 62 IBU its not too overwhelming of a bitterness so even the casual IPA fan can enjoy it! I'd think of this beer as a nice refresher on a hot dry day or as a mind-eraser when you spend 2 hours watching pastel color paint dry.
Counterbalance IPA IPA - American | 6.8% ABV Counterbalance Brewing Company @counterbalance
