“Thor: Love and Thunder”: Sweet Child of Ours.

Thor: Love and Thunder has made its world debut and I’m glad to say that it did not disappoint. Here we have a feel good, hard hitting, emotional roller coaster of nostalgia all out great film to unpack, so let’s unpack it.

Love and Thunder starts with a satisfying pick up right where we last saw Thor. He is still an enjoyable addition to the Guardians of the Galaxy or as he referred to them at the conclusion of Endgame, the “Asgardians of the Galaxy”, and after a lot of working out he has gotten himself back in shape from hilarious and enjoyable identity of “Lebowski Thor” famously crowned in Endgame. While fighting alongside the Guardians and still trying to find his way in the universe, Thor’s past comes calling him home, setting in motion the events of the film.

The plot of this fourth entry in the Thor series revolves around the infamous Gorr the god killer, portrayed by Christian Bale journey to eliminate gods across the universe due to a fatal loss he took from a god he once served, and now he has set his sights on Thor’s home, the mighty Asgard. While Gorr is on his god killing mission that forces Thor to return to his roots, Thor’s old love interest Jane Foster who we have not seen in the present since the second Thor film has also returned with a case of cancer that plagues her health down a deadly path. After many failed attempts at curing her cancer, Jane travels to the “New Asgard” and finds the broken pieces of Thor’s former weapon of choice, Mjolnir, which reconstructs itself in her presence and empowers her as she joins Thor in his quest to defend Asgard from the villainous Gorr.

Thor round four is such a gem because the ongoing of its plot brings every aspect of Thor’s individual journey back together full circle. From Jane and her fellow companions who are also friends of Thor who were there from the beginning, those friends being Darcy Lewis and Erik Selveig, and Thor’s later friends including: Valkyrie, Korg, Miek, and the Guardians of the Galaxy. We also get a gratifying return of Lady Sif, who fans will surely hope to see more of in the future after having not seen her since Thor’s second entry and in the post credits scene we get a very satisfying cameo from Heimdall, who’s soul now rest in the afterlife of Valhalla after giving his life in Infinity War. Every character does their part in assisting Thor and the beloved Jane Foster on their journey to save Asgard. This film also does a great job at introducing new entertaining characters like Zeus portrayed by Russell Crowe, based off the mighty god Greek mythology, fans will also look forward to seeing more of him in the future as well.

In addition to the great performance of Natalie Portman as the ailing human turned Mjolnir wielding Jane Foster, the performance that stole the show the most for me was Christian Bale as Gorr the god Butcher. Many fans were very curious to see how Bale would do playing a Marvel Villain exactly one decade after he hung up his cape as the great DC comic hero of all time, Batman in the Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight series and he definitely delivered. He did a great job playing a villain who we were able to empathize with the struggle of, much like other Marvel Cinematic Universe villains including: Thanos from Infinity War, Killmonger from Black Panther, and Helmut Zemo from Captain America: Civil War.

The icing on the cake in this film for me had to be the soundtrack. I love how “Sweet Child Of Mine” from Guns N Roses was the film’s theme song and I definitely sang it the whole way through when it came as the end credits rolled at the end of the film and I like how random the early 2000s Hip Hop and R&B bangers “Family Affair” from Mary J Blige and “Goodies” from Ciara played midway through the film. Love and Thunder is definitely a great new entry to both the MCU and the journey of Thor. It is heartfelt, gratuitously satisfying, and filled with lots of laughs and defining confrontations. As the ending of the film states, Thor will return and we couldn’t be happier.