Thor: Ragnarok Review - 9 Ups & 4 Downs

1. It Is Incredibly Funny

Even with Waititi directing, it wasn't immediately obvious that Ragnarok would be a straight comedy. Given the weighty drama involved in the Ragnarok mythology (as well as in Planet Hulk), it seemed to be widely accepted that we'd still get a fairly serious film with lots of comic beats.

How wrong we were.

Ragnarok is a comedy sci-fi, pure and simple. Yes, it has moments of drama and more serious elements, but this is Waititi in full comedic flow and the result is a film unlike any other MCU movie in tone. It's significantly more developed as a comedy than Ant-Man and the Guardians movies, and aims squarely at making you laugh beyond anything else.

Unfortunately, there's very much a sense that that will be divisive, but the gags here aren't shoe-horned in for laughs in an otherwise serious framework, so it feels far more organic and far less distracting than most dissenters would probably say about the other movies.

Now on to what doesn't quite work...