Thor: Love And Thunder Review: Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman Have Too Much Fun In Sequel, While Christian Bale Is Underused As Villain

Thor: Love and Thunder (PG13)

Starring Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Christian Bale

Directed by Taika Waititi

When Taika Waititi took over the reins of Thor: Ragnarok, he overhauled the God of Thunder (Chris Hemsworth, always game to be silly), gave him a sense of humour and turned him into the God of Blunder. Waitit’s second MCU tour sees the Viking deity back in goofball mode, reunited with Natalie Portman’s newly-superpowered ex-girlfriend Jane Foster (a flashback sequence set to Abba’s ‘Our Last Summer’ is priceless) and, er, ex-hammer Mjolnir (its reappearance hilariously sparks feelings of jealously in Thor’s current weapon of choice Stormbreaker) as they take on Christian Bale’s intergalactic party crasher, Gorr the God Butcher, an emaciated boogeyman who’s a cross between the Grim Reaper and Nosferatu. Tonally, Love and Thunder is a high-wire act, teetering delicately on the fine line between pathos and parody, and sometimes it tips over to the latter — especially in moments involving the Guardians of the Galaxy and Russell Crowe’s bizarrely hammy, Italian-accented (!) Zeus. Ragnarok was such a lark that it swept Loki’s bad behaviour in Avengers under the rug; here, the fun factor is so overwhelming that it dilutes Gorr’s threat into an afterthought — his appetite for destruction deserves more screen-time…in another movie. You know who else needs more screen time? The Asgardian stage actors played by Matt Damon, Luke Hemsworth, and Sam Neill — give them a Disney+ spin-off, stat! (3/5stars)

Photos: Jasin Boland

The Princess (M18)

Starring Joey King, Dominic Cooper, Olga Kurylenko, Veronica Ngo

Directed by Le-Van Kiet

Banish all preconceived notions of this being a fractured fairy tale in the vein of Ella Enchanted. Far from it, the Hollywood debut of Vietnamese director Le-Van Kiet (Furie) is a female-empowering medieval fable where Joey King’s eponymous maverick royalty slashes, shoots, stabs and skewers her way through an army of baddies and saves her kingdom from baddies Dominic Cooper and Olga Kurylenko. Imagine The Raid set in the Dark Ages, with the shaky cam-heavy brutal action unfolding in a castle instead of a decrepit tenement. The Old Guard’s Veronica Ngo steals a few moments as the feisty monarch’s shifu.  (2.5/5 stars) On Disney+

Photo: TPG News/Click Photos

Blasted (M18)

Starring Axel Bøyum, Fredrik Skogsrud, Eirik Hallert

Directed by Martin Sofiedal

The works of Edgar Wright (noticeably The World’s End) cast a big, big shadow over this Norwegian sci-fi comedy about a bachelor party gone awry when the blokes stumble upon an alien invasion in Hessdalen, a foresty UFO hotspot that’s likened to Norway’s Area 51.  It’s a pretty oddball story with the oddballs — including a pregnant sheriff (oops, it nicked Fargo as well) — fighting the bioluminescence body snatchers with, er, laser tag guns. (Don’t ask.) It’s your standard Netflix movie — disposable and isn’t nearly as funny as it ought to be. It probably helps that it isn’t in English. Probably. (2.5/5 stars) On Netflix

Photo: TPG News/Click Photos