Thor 4 Love and Thunder Parent Review written by the Unicorn on July 10th, 2022. This post contains affiliate links, you can find out more on our policies page or in the disclaimer at the bottom of the blog.
Know Before You Watch
Movie: (Thor 4) Thor: Love and Thunder
Rating: PG-13
Age Suggestion: 11+
Running Time: 1 hour and 59 minutes
Release Date: July 8, 2022
Warnings: Contains violence, kidnapped children, health issues, conversations around death
Quick Thor 4 Love and Thunder Summary
Post Avengers: Endgame, Thor Odinson has been hanging out with the Guardians of the Galaxy as he struggles to understand who he is in amidst losing many of those who were close to him. That all changes when New Asgard is threatened and his ex-girlfriend Jane Foster walks back into his life, helping him to rediscover his purpose.
Thor 4 Love and Thunder Parent Review
-Is Thor: Love and Thunder Appropriate for Younger Kids? *Mild Spoilers*
There are a fair number of scary things in this movie, namely Christian Bale as Gorr the God Butcher. Early in the film, he kidnaps many children. However, due to the light tone of the movie, the children are never in real danger. There is also a lot of death, as you might expect with a villain named the God Butcher. Gorr comes off as a horror movie villain through a few scenes, but it doesn’t reach the terror level of Doctor Strange 2. There are also some very serious health issues that are dealt with. This could be triggering to some younger and older viewers.
Continue reading for more of our Thor: Love and Thunder Parent Review
-Acting and Characters in Thor 4-
The acting in this movie is fantastic. Chris Hemsworth continues to play Thor brilliantly. Tessa Thompson was great as Valkyrie, but I do wish they had given her more to do. However, her Phantom of the Opera sweatshirt was awesome! Seeing Natalie Portman as Dr. Jane Foster was so fun, and she did a great job with her arc. Korg was as hilarious as ever, plus Russell Crowe was so funny as Zeus. Christian Bale was truly scary at times as Gorr the God Butcher, but he did well with some more vulnerable moments as well. The characters arcs didn’t feel as well rounded in this installment of Thor’s story as Thor: Ragnarok, but were still fairly good.
-Script and Story in Thor 4-
The script is the weak spot in this otherwise pretty great movie. There’s too much happening to make any part of the story feel as great as it could’ve been. The most disappointing example of this is Jane’s story. I was super excited to see this comic storyline adapted, but it didn’t get enough focus for it to make it as impactful as it could’ve been.
Thor’s story felt like it was retreading what both Ragnarok and Endgame covered, but it didn’t feel fresh enough to warrant telling such a similar story for the character. I am excited to see what they do with him next though. Probably the best story is the development of Gorr. He starts as a peasant on the precipice of death, then becomes the God Butcher, and then at the climax of the film, finds out who he truly is.
Thor has an idealistic plan for his retirement that gets smashed with the appearance of a new villain. Valkyrie, Thor, Jane and more take on the god butcher to once again save the galaxy. Will the new villain, Gorr, succeed in taking out all of the gods before our team can take him down? Will Thor stick with the Guardians? And how is Dr Jane wielding Thor’s hammer?!
-Film Quality-
More and more MCU projects are getting called out for poor CGI, but this has some pretty good CGI in it. I love Taika Waititi as a director, and his fingerprints are all over this film. I love the bright colorful style, and it has such a nice contrast to Gorr’s world of all black and white. Also, as we’ve come to expect from Guardians of the Galaxy and Ragnarok, the Thor: Love and Thunder Soundtrack is very enjoyable! Overall, it’s a great film!
–Favorite Moments in Thor: Love and Thunder-
One of the things that the director Taika Waititi had promised about this movie from day one was that it was going to showcase Valkyrie in a queer relationship. We did not get that. We got references to her being queer which was nice, but not entirely what they had promised. There are other small moments that are gay that I won’t spoil, but it’s a reminder that Marvel (and Disney as a whole) is still lacking a 3-dimensional gay character.
There has been a lot of discussion and debate around the small LGBTQ+ moments in other recent Disney franchises, like Lightyear and Star Wars, but the reality is there is still a lack of representation of queer characters for kids to look up to. If you don’t agree with having queer characters in a movie, that’s fine (as long as you aren’t being hateful). However, there are kids and teens out there, who feel completely alone, and who need a queer superhero to look up to. I enjoyed this film, and I recommend seeing it if you are a fan of Marvel movies, but don’t confuse these small moments as great representation.
-Love and Thunder Parent Review Conclusion for Thor 4-
I super loved when Thor imbues all the Asgardian children with power. This not only acts as a nice comedic moment as a little girl blasts shadow monsters with her super powered bunny, but also is a great moment of empowerment for the kids. And while there are a lot of super fun and light moments in this movie, there are also some scary ones to be aware of. It’s a fun Marvel movie. And while it wasn’t super unique in either the Marvel universe or Thor storylines, I’m glad there was a Thor 4 and I hope he gets to stick around the universe for a while.
Thor: Love and Thunder Discussion Questions
1) What did you think of Gorr the God Butcher? Why do you think he made the choices he did?
2) A big theme of this movie is love. Who in your life do you love? What is something you can do to show them that you love them?
3) As King of New Asgard, Valkyrie has a lot on her shoulders. What do you do when you are overwhelmed to help yourself calm down?
4) There are a lot of 80’s songs in film, are there any that stood out to as favorites? Is there a song that you think could’ve worked well with the themes of the movie?
5) There are a lot of emotional things that happen in this movie. What hit you the hardest?
Meet the Author- Kate
Kate is a young disabled writer based in Colorado. She’s obsessed with anything Marvel, Disney, or theatre. She can normally be found performing and singing dramatically in the car.
Instagram: @kit_kat_kate_cat TikTok: @kathrynthecat
Thanks for reading out Thor 4 Love and Thunder Parent Review. Here’s what to check out next:
Marvel movie reviews and discussion guides:
–Avengers: Endgame
–Captain Marvel
–Black Panther
–Ant Man and the Wasp
–Spiderman: Into the Spider-verse
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