By Anton Massopust III

“All gods are selfish gods! All gods must die!” – Gorr, the God Butcher

In the latest Marvel adventure, we pick up right after Avengers: Endgame. Thor (Chris Hemsworth) has gone into outer space to find himself with the Guardians of the Galaxy. He finds out that there is a being who has the power to kill gods named Gorr the God Butcher (Christian Bale) who has himself a very powerful weapon – a legendary sword of that can kill gods, but it also makes the bearer mad, corrupting the user.

Thor decides to return to Asgard where he fights off Gorr, but Gorr’s monster captures the children of Asgard. Thor’s beautiful ex-girlfriend Dr. Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), who is now Lady Thor, wields the power of the broken hammer and has somehow put it back together in her own version of Thor’s power.

Gorr takes Lady Thor, and King Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson) to go on a quest. They first try to go where all the gods are hiding. Thor tries to convince Zeus (Russell Crowe) to form an army to destroy the God Butcher. Zeus refuses because he believes the gods do not stand a chance and right now, they are safe. Valkyrie steals Zeus’s lightning bolt and our heroes eventually make their way to the Shadow Realm to stop the God Butcher before he can reach eternity and make one wish that will come true.

First of all, I’m a Marvel fan and I love everything they’ve done with this universe in the movies, but I think there were way too many jokes, and it was a bit silly at the beginning. But once we go to the Shadow Realm to face down the God Butcher, things get really interesting.

Christian Bale just practically steals the movie as Gorr the God Butcher. We’ve forgotten how good an actor he is. Natalie Portman takes the character directly from the comics and struggles as Jane Foster who has cancer. Her power comes with a price. She is terrific as Lady Thor.

So, there’s some good stuff here, but I could have done without a lot a lot of the jokes and I think if they made this movie more serious and more about the main threat, it would have been a better film. It is definitely worth seeing if you’re big Marvel fan, and especially if you love Thor: Ragnarök, you’ll love this. And definitely stay to the end for the extra credit scenes. Go see Love and Thunder.