Thor: Ragnarok (Blu-Ray + DVD + Digital HD)
Blu-Ray Reviews | Mar 2nd, 2018
Thor: Ragnarok (Blu-Ray + DVD + Digital HD)
Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Cate Blanchett, Idris Elba, Jeff Goldblum, Tessa Thompson, Karl Urban, Mark Ruffalo, Anthony Hopkins
Written By: Eric Pearson, Craig Kyle, Christopher Yost
Directed By: Taika Waititi
Studio: Marvel
Buy On Amazon.com
Thor’s third movie in his own trilogy is by far the best movie out of all of them, and one of the best Marvel movies to date! It’s a blast to watch and I can see myself watching this one over and over and never getting sick of it. If there’s one takeaway from Thor: Ragnarok, it’s probably going to be the movie that a metal band named themselves Devil’s Anus.
Thor: Ragnarok starts out with Thor (Chris Hemsworth) battling the fire demon Surtur and in hopes of preventing Ragnarok and saving Asgard and its people. When Thor returns home, he finds that Loki (Tom Hiddleston) is alive and pretending to be their Father Odin (Anthony Hopkins). Things get really bad when their unknown, older sister, Hela (Cate Blanchett) shows up and claims the throne. Thor and Loki end up getting separated but later reunited on the trash planet Sakaar. Thor encounters a tough Asgardian slave trader Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson) and reunites with an old friend from “work.” Thor has to team up with unlikely foes and others to get back to Asgard to save his people from extinction. But first, he has to escape from the clutches of the quirky Grandmaster (Jeff Goldblum).
The first two movies of Thor were okay and had their moments, but definitely not my favorites in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Chris Hemsworth is a great Thor but the movie themselves were just okay. He was great in the Avengers movies and Hemsworth has the range to be funny, charming and do all the action stuff. It just needed the right approach, the right director and story to make everything shine which it does with this one. Who would have thought a comedic actor and director like Taika Waititi (What We Do in the Shadows) would make this movie such a homerun. Everything about this was just excellent. The acting and everybody clearly having a ball filming it. The comedic approach, the one-liners, the look of the movie, the 80s synth score by Devo’s Mark Mothersbaugh, and most importantly – Jeff Fucking Goldblum! Oh yeah, add in Mark Ruffalo as Hulk and a badass female warrior in Tessa Thompson and you got yourself a winner! Cate Blanchett as Hela was cool too because she was tough to beat. She’s a beautiful actress but when she gets all Hela & gothed up, man she’s downright sexy to me. It’s something about actresses that get all goth or punked up that’s attractive to me. She should dye her hair black more often.
Of course, this site is known for praising Jeff Goldblum any chance we get but he definitely was a scene stealer. He’s not in it as much as I would have liked but when he’s on screen, it’s just pure joy. He’s got all those Goldblum-y things he does, his lines are delivered well and he’s just a national treasure. Hey Marvel, can we get a Grandmaster spinoff movie please? Speaking of another scene stealer, Taika Waititi playing Korg was incredible. So dry with his humor and one-liners, but just a lovable character that I hope we get to see more of in the future.
As much as I liked the cameo from Doctor Strange, it felt out of place in the movie. Still, I didn’t mind it and will be interesting to see how all the characters interact with each other in Avengers. There’s some other cameos in the movie but I won’t spoil those because they are funny when you notice them. Having Thor and Loki on the same side (for the most part) was beyond fun and I was waiting for it to happen. Tom Hiddleston is just so charming as Loki, that you desperately want him to be good. I think that’s part of the reason why I loved the movie so much, was finally being able to see Loki be good for a change. Having Hulk in this was just a big bonus in a way. It just sucks that it took 2 thor standalone movies for them to figure out the right formula for everything.
The special effects were excellent as usual. Motion capture has come a very long way. The fight scene between Thor and Hulk was a highlight, but even certain shots just blew my mind. The flashbacks scenes of Hela vs the Valkyrior could be a lovely painting in someone’s home. I mentioned the score before but it’s worth repeating that it’s quite good. Love the sci-fi, 8-bit sounding style they went for and Mark Mothersbaugh does an awesome job. One song that is used twice is “Immigrant Song,” which normally I would roll my eyes because it’s been done to death in so many movies. For this, it works…since, ya know, listen to the lyrics. I actually think the usage of the song would have been better if they just used it at the end and not the beginning. Would have been such a more badass scene than saying to yourself, “oh..we heard this already.”
The special features include a bunch of featurettes, deleted scenes, a gag reel, audio commentary and other goodies. The featurettes were good and shows us all the fun stuff that happened behind the scenes. Taika is one funny dude, it’s like he’s playing a character when giving interviews about the movie. I need to see What We Do In the Shadows and his other films. The gag reel was funny of course, and the deleted scenes show us a lot more of Goldblum, and some more of Hulk. Some of the graphics isn’t complete for Hulk but you get the idea on the scene. All in all, good amount of stuff to watch and probably about an hour in material.
Thor: Ragnarok is one of the best Marvel movies to date and just a blast to watch. It’s great to see Thor and Loki side by side for a change, and it’s beyond awesome to finally have The One True Goldblum, Jeff Goldblum, in a Marvel movie! I thought I might look weird that Thor had short hair but that wasn’t a problem and I thought it might be weird to have the movie pretty much a comedy, but I didn’t mind at all. In fact, it made Thor a better, likable character and I hope if Thor survives the Avengers: Infinity War movies, he comes back for more.
Features:
Director Intro
Getting In Touch With Your Inner Thor
Unstoppable Women: Hela & Valkyrie
Finding Korg
Sakaar: On the Edge of the Known and Unknown
Journey Into Mystery
Gag Reel
Team Darryl
Marvel Studios: The First Ten Years – The Evolution of Heroes
Deleted Scenes
8-Bit Sequences
Audio Commentary
Video:
Codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Audio:
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1
French (Canada): Dolby Digital 5.1
Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1
Portuguese: Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles:
English SDH, French, Portuguese, Spanish
Bottom Line: One of the best Marvel movies to date!
Running Time: 130 mins
Rating: PG-13
Extras Rating:
Overall Rating:
