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

4. The Supporting Cast Is Largely Wasted

Like most MCU movies these days, Love and Thunder has a large cast of characters to juggle, and while the likes of Thor, Jane, and the villainous Gorr (Christian Bale) are done solid justice, the same can't be said for most everyone else.

By far the most egregious casualty of the movie's frantic sprint to the finish line is Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson), who gets shockingly little to do here beyond occasionally quip and kick ass.

Anyone tantalised by the prospect of seeing Valkyrie find her Queen - a plotline Marvel talked up shortly after the movie was announced - will surely be hugely disappointed by her role in the story here.

Elsewhere while it's nice to see Sif (Jaimie Alexander) finally back in the MCU, her part amounts to a 60-second cameo that has very little impact on anything, the Guardians of the Galaxy are only here for an opening cameo, and Korg's (Taika Waititi) presence lacks the hysterical, breakout impact of his turn in Ragnarok.

It's a movie where most of the cast just feels along for the ride, collecting a paycheck for a project where they don't really have a whole lot to do.

It's telling that Russell Crowe, who makes a surprisingly substantial appearance as Zeus, gets far more of a showing than most of Thor's established allies.