Thor: Ragnarok (2017)

Here's the thing about Thor: Ragnarok: I wanted to love it. The consensus around this film is overwhelming. Taika Waititi swooped in, ditched the dour Norse mythology, cranked up the neon, slapped "Immigrant Song" on the trailer, and supposedly rescued a franchise that was gasping for air. And I get why people responded to that. After the grey, po-faced slog of the earlier Thor films (and I say that as someone who has a soft spot for Thor), a bit of colour and irreverence felt like a breath of fresh air. But having now watched Ragnarok and let the hype settle, I'm left wondering: is there actually anything underneath all that noise?

My honest answer is: not much. The film is so relentlessly committed to being fun, so determined to wink at the camera and undercut every dramatic beat with a gag, that it never lets anything breathe. Tension dissolves the moment it arrives. Stakes evaporate before you've registered them. It's like watching a fireworks display in a blender. Visually overwhelming, briefly dazzling, and then gone, leaving you with nothing to hold onto.

Which is a shame, because there are genuinely good things here. Jeff Goldblum's Grandmaster is gloriously, unabashedly camp, the kind of performance that exists entirely in its own dimension and is better for it. Tessa Thompson brings real cool and charisma to Valkyrie, a character who deserved more screen time and a film worthy of her. Mark Ruffalo gets to do something interesting with the Hulk/Banner split, and there's proper comic timing in those scenes that I wasn't expecting. The retro synth score is genuinely catchy, the one-on-one fight between Thor and the Hulk scratches an itch that's been there since the first Avengers film, and Waititi's fingerprints are all over the oddball humour in ways that occasionally land beautifully.

But too much of it feels like a parody of a superhero film rather than an actual one. There's a difference between a film that's playful and a film that's scared of itself, and Ragnarok sometimes feels like the latter. Every time it edges toward something with a bit of weight, it flinches and goes back to the quips. Waititi clearly has genuine comedic instincts (anyone who's seen What We Do in the Shadows knows what he's capable of when he's firing on all cylinders), which makes it all the more frustrating that so much of this feels performative rather than felt.

Technically, it's polished to a shine. Nobody's making a shoddy film here. But polish and craft in service of what, exactly? One tone has been swapped for another, and in the process, any emotional grounding has been left behind entirely. The brightness and the noise start to feel less like confidence and more like distraction, like the film knows it doesn't have much to say so it just turns the volume up instead. I've felt similarly about other MCU entries that prioritise spectacle over substance, and Ragnarok sits comfortably in that bracket for me, alongside the likes of Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) as a film that should feel like an event but plays more like a ride.

It's not a bad film. I want to be clear about that. It's watchable, occasionally very funny, and it moves at such a pace that you never quite get bored. But there's a hollowness to it that the vibrant colour palette can't disguise. When the credits roll, I found myself unable to point to a single moment that genuinely moved me, surprised me, or stayed with me beyond the spectacle itself. A flashy, forgettable entry in a franchise running on fumes.

Two and a half stars.

Rating: ★★½  | Year: 2017  | Watched: 2025-08-17

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Where to watch

Watch in the UK
Stream: Disney Plus
Rent: Apple TV Store · Rakuten TV · Amazon Video · Google Play Movies
Buy: Apple TV Store · Rakuten TV · Amazon Video · Google Play Movies
Physical: Amazon UK · Zavvi

Watch in the US
Stream: Disney Plus
Rent: Amazon Video · Apple TV Store · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Buy: Amazon Video · Apple TV Store · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Physical: Amazon US

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Related on Movies With Macca

More from Taika Waititi: What We Do in the Shadows (2014) · Next Goal Wins (2023)
More with Chris Hemsworth: Thor (2011) · Men in Black: International (2019) · Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) · Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
More from the 2010s: Wonder (2017) · Beautiful Boy (2018) · The Witch (2015) · What We Do in the Shadows (2014)
More action: A Better Tomorrow (1986) · The General (1926) · Hand of Death (1976) · Daredevil (2003)
More science fiction: Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) · Fantastic Planet (1973) · Nightmare City (1980) · The Long Walk (2025)