THURSDAY NIGHT REVIEW OF THOR: RAGNAROK

Thor only looks serious YEAR OF RELEASE: 2017

The latest THOR is spontaneous and freewheeling, especially while on a planet straight out of Roman Gladiator Arena cinema where, as the trailers spoiled long ago, the anticipated fight between two seemingly indestructible AVENGERS, Thor and Hulk, takes place. Which leads to one of the film's best devices...

Score: **1/2

Thor, without his signature invincible hammer, is nearly as vulnerable as a mortal human albeit a very strong ass-kicker up against an assortment of odds, making for a non-stop planet-to-planet rollercoaster ride...

Visually a hybrid of the intentionally campy FLASH GORDON and the first GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY (itself an 80's homage) while shadowing plot-elements of STAR WARS, LORD OF THE RINGS and with more colorful rainbows than we've yet seen on Asgard — which has been taken over by a deadly, invincible royal sister (looking like Maleficent dressed as a reindeer) that Thor and the mischievous Loki never knew they had — there's a cool retro-techno score to back up the pulsating arcade of explosive action...

And while it's understandable that, with such a fantastical superhero, levity is needed to ground the story, there's a fine line between Fun and Funny. And RAGNAROK, featuring the godfather of glib Jeff Goldblum embarrassingly overdosing on his own style, breaks the line once too often: Superheroes all have powers and/or skills that can, whether built-in or created, turn on and off. But the constantly witty one-liner styling of Robert Downey Jr.'s Tony Stark (ala "Starkasm") has infected Chris Hemsworth's THOR to the point that the third solo film, while enjoyable enough, nearly drowns itself in self-deprecating parody. The prologue, where Thor makes fun of his own supposedly perilous situation while facing a gigantic fire demon, sums up everything. He's not scared at all, so why should the audience take anything he's up against seriously?