Did Taika Waititi Fix Thor? Waititi’s Recent Comments…*Sigh*
Taika Waititi is at Sundance promoting an upcoming film and given he’s associated with the Marvel universe, he was asked about Thor and if he knows anything about Avengers: Doomsday and he said some comments (as per usual) that didn’t sit right with a lot of people. Let’s get started!
My Thoughts
Taika Waititi is such an interesting director because when he broke onto the scene with Thor Ragnarok and people loved him and loved the film. He brought such this fresh and fun energy to the Thor franchise, something that it very much needed after Thor: The Dark World was a bit of a dud. He followed that film up with JoJo Rabbit, a film that I’m not crazy about but he won an Oscar for it. For a few years he was this beloved talent in Hollywood that everybody was excited to see what he was going to do next. So much so that in early 2020 Lucasfilm hired him to write and direct a Star Wars film (that apparently he just turned in a script for). Since the release of Love and Thunder and the press tour leading up to, the whole perspective on Taika Waititi has changed. People have since become annoyed by him and are sort of just sick and tired of him. His recent quotes at the Sundance film festival haven’t really helped.
One of the things that people have been praising Ragnarok for ever since it came out was its humor and its fun energy. I’d agree with that, Ragnarok is a very funny film, one of the funniest films in the MCU. There’s so many great jokes and sight gags that put a smile on your face every time you watch it. But there’s always been some people that push back against that and don’t like that it’s so comedic. They think it’s too comedic and they changed Thor’s tone not for the better. Pretty much everybody agrees that Love and Thunder is a complete dud and misfire. There’s some people that defend and like it more than most, but the vast majority of people were very disappointed by it. Me and several other people have it listed as the worst MCU film. It’s a film that feels like a parody of Thor, it took everything that worked about Ragnarok and cranked it up to 11 but not in a way that made it more entertaining or fun. It created a film that’s too annoying and too goofy with it also being a film that has a more serious and dark villain and explores great philosophical quotes about evil and gods’ power in the world.
When he says that him making Thor more comedic was for the greater good for the character and the franchise is so stupid and clueless of him to say. He’s the writer and director of the film, he probably likes that movie more than the average person. But, he has to know that the general reception to the film wasn’t great and that people’s criticisms of the film were that it was too goofy and too silly. It feels like he’s trying to defend a movie that simply doesn’t deserve defending, because everything he’s saying is completely wrong. One of the big criticisms of Thor as a character in general is that he was written so inconsistently. From Thor to Age of Ultron, it’s pretty consistent in terms of tone and remaining true to who Thor is. From Ragnarok onward, it feels like he’s written totally differently. As much as I enjoy Ragnarok and think that film was able to lean into Chris Hemsworth’s comedic talents, Thor is that film that doesn't feel like the same character that we last saw in Age of Ultron. The Russo Brothers went for a darker take with Infinity War that once again doesn’t feel like that Thor we saw in Ragnarok. The Big Thorbowski has grown on me over the years but what they do with Thor in Endgame, doesn’t really work and feels totally out of left field with what they do. You move into Love and Thunder and it feels like Chris Hemsworth is playing a parody of Thor and not the actual Thor that we know and love from the MCU. With the seconds we got for Thor in Doomsday, it’s Thor going to what he was like in Infinity War.
I find Taika’s comment to be false, I don’t think making Thor more comedic was for the better, I actually think it hurt the character. The issues that I just stated about writing Thor inconsistently started with Taika and Ragnarok so once again I find Taika’s quotes to be so stupid and not understanding the faults of Thor or him as a director. I’m happy that the Russo Brothers seem to be going back to serious Thor in Doomsday, I think they’ve done the best job with Thor in the MCU. I believe Infinity War is the best that Thor has been. I don’t know if you could tell but I’m not crazy about Taika Waititi as a person especially with his recent comments for a couple of years now.
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