With the review embargo lifted for Thor: Ragnarok we are now getting a sense of what critics felt about the film. You can read Jeremiah’s review on LaughingPlace but the mainstream critics seem to be enjoying the film. While they admit that the story is silly and doesn’t make much sense, they praise the humor and the performances in the film. Here is a sampling of what they have to say.
Like the previous two Thor solo movies, this one is pretty much skippable, although it’s not without its pleasures — most notably, the fact that Thor’s not so solo this time around, with cameos/co-starring opportunities for the Hulk, Doctor Strange and a few leftover bits of Tony Stark’s wardrobe (including a retro Duran Duran T-shirt that’s good for a laugh). And while it’s not saying much, “Thor: Ragnarok” is easily the best of the three Thor movies — or maybe I just think so because its screenwriters and I finally seem to agree on one thing: The Thor movies are preposterous.
One of the most surprising things about Thor: Ragnarok is that it forgoes the umlaut in the title — that winking diacritical mark would have been a nifty signal of the movie’s tongue-in-cheek attitude toward its mythology, a comic stance that makes Thor’s third outing his breeziest by far.
Taika Waititi was mostly the right director for the job. Chris Hemsworth is hilarious. Tessa Thompson is going to be a star. And while Ragnarok’s story is an aimless mess, you won’t stop laughing. In other words, it’s a… B
Both the banter and the fighting, it should be noted, are excellent, so whether you go to superhero movies for the glossy escapism or the pulse-pounding action, you’ll get your large soda’s worth. Editors Zene Baker (“Snatched”) and Joel Negron (“The Shallows”) keep the pace lively, with a delightfully self-aware score by Mark Mothersbaugh bolstering and exaggerating the grandeur at every corner. (Between this and “Brad’s Status,” Mothersbaugh has delivered two of the fall movie season’s most striking soundtracks.)