#(hecking /this close/ to fully writing up a 12 page essay on exactly how ragnarok is messy and fails every storytelling fundamental)

[uniiiquehecrt]

OH BOY LET ME TELL YOU THE SHORT VERSION OF THE STORY MY FRIEND ;;V;;

There are A LOT of things wrong with Ragnarok and Love and Thunder, but all of it boils down to the following two things:

Taika Waititi (eg: being a bad directoral fit for Thor movies... not just because he's seemingly a director/screenwriter far more suited towards satirical comedies, but because he fundamentally does not understand thor or loki as characters, and absolutely DOES NOT respect the previous Thor installments that made Thor relevant in the first place. Both attitudes of which show deeply ingrained in both of the films he's directed, and iterations of the brodinsons that show up post!ragnarok)

The Guardians of the Galaxy Effect (aka: post!GotG, and harbingered a bit by the success of Avengers and Iron Man, the MCU decided to shift all of their effort into making 'quippy' characters who rely on sarcasm and bathos as their main forms of communication... Despite the fact that not every character views and reacts to the world in the same vein as Tony Stark, and GotG was SPECIFICALLY written to be a superhero group comedy, not a High-Sci-Fantasy, Shakespearean family drama piece like Thor.)

Despite Thor: the Dark World's Financial Success in debut despite going against films like About Time, The Best Man Holiday, and various other films that would be competition for Thor's viewership, Dark World was effectively nitpicked to high hell by press for what I can only describe best as 'loki favoritism', ( "Only when Tom Hiddleston is on screen, as Thor’s dark-souled stepbrother, Loki, does any real drama take hold. [...] Which makes you realize [Loki is] just about the only character in the movie who has an inside." - CNN Entertainment) despite the film being Thor's film, NOT Loki's. Doesn't matter, though, that this film is objectively soundly written as a Thor film from a screenwriting perspective, because if Loki's not at the forefront it's apparently not engaging. (the marketing of this movie did NOT help matters, though. It's not a surprise to me, in hindsight, that the fangirls went rabid at the side character's supposed lack of presence or involvement, I suppose.)

And the above points about Dark World and GotG are important because those two factors DIRECTLY PROMPTED Marvel and in particular Chris Hemsworth into wanting to switch directions for the character. The fanbase and critics (who i'd imagine very rarely know anything about what makes a good, sound, well-written story, smh) burned Chris badly enough that he's basically been rejecting what makes Thor such a special character in the first place. ...And it didn't exactly do him any good.

I'm personally trained in screenwriting, so I intend to step-by-step break down the fundamental elements of Ragnarok to better explain precisely WHY I feel so strongly that Ragnarok is a complete MESS of a film that's poorly written. Tbh I might take a crack at Thor (2011) and Dark World just for fun to contrast. The biggest failings of TDW and 2011 is not their screenwriting, it was how many key scenes fell onto the cutting room floor in the post-production edit rather than the pre-production and shooting stages.

At the end of the day Ragnarok in particular (and L+T but I haven't touched that one directly yet; it makes me too livid...) is fundamentally flawed right down to its core and I'd need an entire other, very long, and more strongly worded post to properly break down precisely what is wrong with it. (but for example: thor has no character development in that film, and taika's attempt to express a theme is directly contradicted in the climactic, power-within moment, there is no midpoint shift and by all means, Ragnarok is actually Loki's film, not Thor's. Despite this, Loki's character development from Dark World is conveniently sidestepped and swept aside as if it never existed. So they retread ground already paved in TDW, and Loki ends up dying in Infinity War without a proper resolution or real, mutual reconciliation with his brother as a result... It's insulting.)

If you want to, for now, learn more about Ragnarok in particular there are some WONDERFUL people out there who have broken down why Thor from Dark World is so beautifully well done. @beheworthy / @quirkyrogue in particular has some amazing essays I'm personally fond of already written breaking down Thor as a character, The Dark World, how Ragnarok in particular utterly destroyed everything so wonderful about Thor, and so on and so forth. If you have a couple of minutes I would absolutely recommend her posts. They're well written, succinct, and can explain things incredibly well, especially if you're not totally well-versed in Thor's movies prior!

You can find some of my favorites of hers here

How Taika Waititi Ruined Thor Thor: Love and Thunder and How Not to Write Films Thor: Love and Thunder and Character Regression Infinity War is the Movie Thor: Ragnarok Should Have Been and These Two Mini-Metas about Dark World Scenes bc yeah man I feel this these ones have always been my favorite too BLAST THE EDITING FLOOR.

Anyways these are absolutely beautiful reads that I completely agree with at every turn.

#infinity war also deserves a shout out but it's not included bc ragnarok comes in between #the most awful film of his franchise besides l+t don't even get me STARTED on that one #and by that i mean let me rant and be salty like gd

Now I’m interested because I’ve always heard Dark World or Love and Thunder as the worst of the Marvel movies.

Only watched the Dr. Strange ones. And Infinity War/Endgame.