Watching Thor: Love And Thunder (TLT) in a theater packed with mesmerized critics, I felt reunited with the colorfulness of life. By all means, TLT would give skittles a run for its money in terms of colorful rainbows. Yet, Disney’s bond with Taika Waititi as a director and writer has turned Thor into a Top 1 Fan-Fave for a lot of people. What was once a Shakespearean type character is now a sweet and goofy, but still arrogant and slightly more existential persona. Out July 8, in theaters, Thor confront one of the biggest fears of love…. Its loss.
First, I must say Natalie Portman kills it. Thor 4 brings out every one’s inner child, as both the audience and even its actors. There is a vibrancy and joy to Portman, as Jane Foster, that makes this performance absolutely distinct from her repertoire. Moreover, I feel like we finally get to meet and understand the woman whose mind and heart was so powerful The God of Thunder put down his Mjolnir and went domestic. She is so fierce as Lady Thor. Yet, in some ways, that is the point of this film: a funny, heart-warming analysis on “the one that got away.”
Most people have, at least, one person you loved that you wonder…. “Why did they fade away?” You do not know when exactly it happened, but, somehow, they went from essential to your life into non-existent. If there is one thing Taika can do, it is write and direct a love story that capture a core ingredient of romance: its silliness. Most of us dream of a partner that accepts our weird, shares in our craziness, and laughs at our quirkiness to create a life with us. Thor and Jane had that, and it took 4 films for us to finally FEEL it.
Of course, the film is action-packed and the visuals could Rainbow-Brite jealous. Yet, what surprised me most was its emotional sucker-punches. Even Christian Bale’s take on Gorr: The God- Butcher is a gut-wrenching emblem on faith, and how the blindness of believing something above us can protect or provide for us more than ourselves. Faith and fear can be tricky energies, even confused for the other, but whether it is loving a god, religiously, or loving your ex, romantically, the movie focuses on how our insecurities are born from a fear of the inevitable: loss.
By the end of Thor: Love And Thunder, Taika managed to make us feel an old adage that we, often, hear as sappy: it was worth to love than never love at all. Letting go of something great because you fear it will not last forever is part of Tessa Palmer’s Valkyrie and even Korg have such endearing character growths. They embody how we all shut down our hearts because we know, anyone whom enters it, will, eventually, leave our side. Still, If Jane and Thor prove one thing: love never dies. People become eternal because of how we carry them in our hearts like, our exes. In My ASMR Reiki Movie Review, I talk about this while selenite cleansing your heart chakra to let love in again.
