Review : THOR RAGNAROK !

My friends know I have read a great number of Marvel Comics in my time. Although I also read a lot of  DC Comics in the day, Superman and Batman never seemed to touch me as much as the Heroes in the Halls of Marvel did. I had a special click with Peter Parker a.k.a. Spider-Man because I felt for a time that I was just as much the nerd as he had been in his first few years. In the early years, THOR shared his existence with the crippled Doctor Don Blake, who would knock his ancient cane to the floor and lo and behold, THOR would appear. Oh, how wonderful those early Stan Lee - Jack Kirby yarns were.

But the series got so much better when Jack Kirby was followed by BIG JOHN BUSCEMA, who wielded a mighty pencil in the late sixties and seventies, aided and abetted wonderfully by various inkers of the times, from the likes of little brother Sal Buscema to Joe Sinnott (with whom he also did a good number of FANTASTIC FOURs in the 1970s), from Ernie Chan (on his magnificent CONAN magazine artwork) to John Verpoorten (as seen in the opening page above).

One of these wonderful yarns was an early depiction of what RAGNAROK would be, the downfall and ultimate destruction of Asgard visualized so impeccably by Big John Buscema, as you can see in these legendary panels of original art ( all copyrighted Marvel Comics ).

The sheer power envisioned here was a wonderful piece of enormous drama, wrought in the depths of sheer imagination and vision, of none other than John Buscema.  

RAGNAROK thus serves as the end of all we know of Asgard and its heroes as Surtur, the merciless God of Fire would burn away all of the past, to allow for a regeneration of new heroes to come forth from the ashes of an old one burned away. If done properly, I felt this could make for a wonderfully powerful film.

Suffice it to say, when we heard that the title THOR RAGNAROK was also to feature the Hulk, I was a bit concerned. It also proved to be true that the story of PLANET HULK ( a story in the pages of The Incredible Hulk that lasted a full year before it came to a conclusion ) was to be incorporated in the film and the choice for TAIKA WAITITI as director was, to say the least, worrying. Yet, an early trailer proved interesting. In the meantime now, the film has been playing for some time and reviews were rather positive, especially so with regards the humor of the film but alas, in my eyes, THOR RAGNAROK is the least interesting of Thor movies so far. 

You see, if you read the comics, it can easily be seen that the world of Thor is probably the closest any Marvel hero gets to Shakespearean staging, most certainly with regards the language uttered. That should not be seen as a drag but as a challenge. A challenge that was well met by Kenneth Branagh when he directed the first film and Alan Taylor when he injected science fiction into the Asgardian lore in THOR THE DARK WORLD.

PLANET HULK would easily have merited a film of its own, when the Hulk is considered. I can't give a shit as to the why Marvel can not do any Hulk movies ( the rights still being in the wrong place for that) but in  my eyes pairing the Hulk with Thor is not the right choice. The Hulk is a creature with a pathos all its own, one that was very interestingly captured in the 1970s television show. Yet in the comics there is so much more that was done with the Hulk, which was very interesting. Peter David had him have Bruce Banner's brain !!!

The choice of injecting PLANET HULK into THOR RAGNAROK, coupled with the overabundance of humor, hurts the characters because this in all aspects reflects missed opportunities. A PLANET HULK film or even mini-series could have been wonderful. A more faithful RAGNAROK could have even outshone the upcoming AVENGER: THE INFINITY WAR. 

The humor in the film serves when it befalls the characters ( Thor telling Loki "Let's do 'Get Help' is priceless, even though it diminishes the stature of Thor greatly ) but in many instances it also falls flat on its face. Jeff Goldblum simply does not come across as a character. Stan Lee, in his obligatory Cameo,  however, is priceless ! May You Live Forever, Stan!

The action plays okay but where for me the film fails is in the choice of the director, one who is not suited for this kind of material. Both Kenneth Branagh and Alan Taylor were up for the grandeur of the material but Waititi is a far too much idiosyncratic director to grasp the pathos of the material.

People who say Thor ( the first film) was too stuffy, don't worry. I'm sure there will be plenty of Twilight-like material for you to find elsewhere but Marvel should take more pride in its  Asgardian heroes ! Do not be afraid to be Shakespearean Stuffy !  There will always be fans of Shakespearean drama and finding this in Marvel, that's what you go to THOR and ASGARD for.

I am pleased to see that the film will lead directly into the next AVENGERS film and look forward to that.  But for me, the influence of John Buscema's legendary art (as seen above) should have been followed much more in this film. It is a great shame that Buscema passed away too soon. I miss you, John. 

As a final note, Hemsworth, Hiddleston and Ruffalo, you guys are great together. Karl Urban, you are great as Skurge. Cate Blanchett, you make a really wonderful Hela ! It's just a shame that lack of the proper direction allowed this film to fall short of its required ambitions. Now, we move on to the next step. In February, we will have THE BLACK PANTHER and in May, AVENGERS - THE INFINITY WAR. And in the meantime, now on Netflix, THE PUNISHER. I will be back on this blog shortly.