Before I saw this movie I knew I was going to have a good time and that it was going to be much better than the previous two and I was right. Time for me to dissect and go in depth with this movie with little spoilers as I can.
Ragnorak is definitely the best out of all the three.
First movie was way too corny. It's literally Thor being a arrogant douchebag then his dad strips him of his super powers to teach him to how be a real hero with the help of Natalie Portman and they fall in love at the end. It's too similar to Spiderman 2 with Tobey Maguire losing his powers and really learning that great power comes great responsibility and that he has to give up Mary Jane even though they end up together.
The second movie was better than the first in every way and had a real direction without being corny like the first except in the story the antagonist evil diabolical plan wasn't so end-of-the-world as what people would expect and there is not much character to him. Also the film integrates Natalie Portman to try to make her an important role to the story and it feels more like a Michael Bay Transformer movie where it is supposed to be about the Autobots vs. Deceptacons but a lot of the screen time goes to the human characters. Maybe the comparison was a little too harsh but Thor: Dark World didn't go overboard with it unlike Michael Bay.
Thankfully with Thor: Ragnorak there are no human characters and the setting on Earth is only around several minutes long because it's supposed to be about Thor, the god of lightning from Asgard. Moving on to the strength and weakness of this movie.
Strength
Amazing Visuals
Everything looks beautiful and COLORFUL in this movie making it eye candy especially Cate Blanchett.
But everything is so colorful with with the places, characters, costumes, personalities, everything.The interaction between Thor and Hulk makes you chuckle a lot.
Gotta love the bromance between these two characters.Great action.
One of the best fights was simply Thor vs. Hulk. Every fight scene was good. Also the fight scenes are more focused and less messy. You don't have both sides fighting everywhere and in this movie they keep it focused like the scene where everybody is fighting on the bridge and you know exactly what is going on with every character making it convenient to watch cause they are not all over the place like Civil War.Characters
Every character comes together perfectly and they all play their part in the movie.
Every character is either funny or badass or both and they all have a interesting backstory like Hulk, Valkyrie, and the relationship between Hela and Odin.
Every character has that fun personality that brightens the movie even more like the Grandmaster.Everything comes together perfectly in this movie.
I really enjoyed the film from the beginning to the end. Story is executed in a simple way and the ending/climax of the film is unique like Doctor Strange climax with Dormammu. When the cliffhanger showed up that's when I had the same feeling with the previous Marvel movies where I wanted more and see what happens next.
Weaknesses:
The Main Villain.
We all heard that Marvel Cinematic Universe has the least memorable villains or I call antagonist. MCU has 17 movies in and the ones that I like are from the top of my head; Ultron, Bucky the Winter Soldier, Ego, Obadiah Stane, and Vulture being the best antagonist. They all are solid but when compared to the Joker from The Dark Knight they don't stand a candle to him. Thor: Ragnorak suffers the same weakness like majority of MCU films with a memorable/focused villain because you have fire demon Surtur, Hela, Hulk(somewhat since they battle each other), and The Grandmaster.The story is not very focused.
To me they shouldn't call this movie "Thor: Ragnorak" instead they should call it "Thor: Ragnorak and Planet Hulk". The title feels a bit false to me since a big part this is more of a buddy film when you have Thor and Hulk teaming up to escape from Sakaar. The movie Thor: Ragnorak feels like two mini movies combined together to make one movie.I wanted to see more.
This is not really a weakness but I feel like I need more.
People draw comparisons from this movie to Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (GotG2) because they both take place in outer space. Here is my compare and contrast. Thor is a LITTLE more fun and has better humor than GotG2. I hope this doesn't piss people off when I say Thor is better than GotG2 in both of those ways but hey I got to be real with myself. With the humor GotG2 tries way too hard especially with the Taserface scene. Also while there is a TON of comedy GotG2 should be more emotional since the theme of it is family with Peter's father and Yondu but I will go even more in depth that when I write a GotG2 review. With Thor there is plenty of adventure and it sticks to the main character in almost every scene while GotG2 goes from Peter to Ravagers to Rocket to Groot to Nebula to etc. Not saying that is bad but Thor: Ragnorak is more focused and I prefer it like that since you don't have to jump from this character to that character. It's also why I have more fun in this movie than GotG2. What the two movies have in common is the same structure where the main story is in the beginning and end while the middle is more of a side story where something happens that causes the protagonist to get sidetracked and the protagonist have to get back to the main objective. Another important thing that the two have in common is the soundtrack that blends in perfectly with the scenes.
Did this movie have a high replay value?
Definitely!!! I can watch this movie another few more times and still be down to watch it again just like how I did with Captain America: Civil War.
This movie definitely knows its own strength and weaknesses and focuses more on its strength. The movie takes on a lighter tone than it did with Thor: Dark World and fills it up with humor and fun. Even though the story is not very focused and not entirely all Ragnorak, the mini story like the Planet Hulk that come together to make the whole movie works fine and the overall story felt more convincing than Dark World. The strengths of this film makes the weaknesses feel very minor. I can finally say that the Norse mythology really does fit in to the Marvel Universe.
Thor: Ragnorak is a great addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Even though there are 17 movies it does stand out in its own way and has its own individuality simply because it's a fun movie and it is also UNDERRATED. Normally Thor is the weakest in the Marvel films but not this one. If you love a movie that is superheroes or action than you're definitely going to love this one.
I hope you guys enjoy reading my review. I put a lot of time and thought into typing this. Tell me what you guys think and let me know. Let me know if I gave too much spoilers or not.