Thor: Love & Thunder Review - 5 Ups & 5 Downs

by Jack Pooley

1. The Emotional Beats Mostly Work

Thor Love and Thunder Jane Foster
Marvel Studios

For all of its flaws, Love and Thunder's primary emotional threads - that is, Jane's cancer and her romance with Thor - are handled better than anything else in the movie.

Yes, they could've both used more time to breathe, but thanks primarily to Portman's strong performance and her enhanced chemistry with Hemsworth, this actually delivers a mostly satisfying payoff.

The decisions made won't totally please everyone, for sure, and Waititi's comedic style sometimes actively works against the drama, but it succeeds far more than it doesn't, in turn causing fans to reconsider Jane's place in the MCU in a genuinely poignant and affecting way.

Considering Jane was an absolute nothingburger of a character prior to this, that's quite the impressive achievement.

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Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes). General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.