This movie has been out for a few weeks already, but for those of you who haven’t seen it yet, I’ll be nice and try to keep this relatively spoiler-free. That being said, there probably will be some spoilers, so read at your own risk. Thanks!
The summer before my eighth-grade year (2012–2013) was when the first Avengers movie came out, and I immediately fell in love with the universe. The banter, the action, the maybe-likable anti-hero-villain… it all came together in a (Hulk) smash hit of a film. So, naturally, we decided to watch all of the pre-Avengers movies afterward to get a better sense of the new story we had been presented with, and we started with Thor.
The funny thing about the Thor movies is that it’s basically a Viking family drama. The first of the Thor movies has the enemy being his little brother, more or less. This, for a story about near-immortal beings, adds an element of humanity. Loki was more than just a one-note baddie, he was the god of mischief, and more importantly, the perceived Unfavorite. Being half frost giant and the younger sibling will definitely create an inferiority complex.
This well-thought-out villain backstory provided a lot of jokes between myself and my younger sister. Frost giant jokes came easily, as she’s the kind of person who willingly dives into ice-cold lakes just for fun and doesn’t seem to be too worried about hypothermia. And then, of course, there’s all of the self-deprecating humor we have about who exactly is the favorite in the family, and it usually ends up being me when we ‘argue’ about it. We’re not superheroes, but some of the more emotional moments in a very action-packed film become somehow very understandable, and it’s easy to empathize with these characters. Despite their obvious differences, Thor still has faith in Loki, and Loki will occasionally help Thor. I’m happy to say my sister and I have a much closer relationship than that.
*SPOILERS AHEAD*
I loved Taika Waititi’s directing for Ragnarok, as it showed a lighter side to the characters of Asgard – the previous two Thor films had been very dark and somewhat Shakespearean in tone. This was a realm/planet hopping, fast-paced adventure comedy with neon colors, Jeff Goldblum, and Mark Ruffalo in a great T-shirt that was actually Tony Stark’s.
When I was sitting in the theater, I was exposed to a hilarious scene of comedy gold known as “Get Help,” a strategy to knock out a few enemies. This required the very proud Loki to act as if he were dying, as shown below. When their enemies came closer to see what was going on, Thor would throw Loki at them. It was slapstick-y and hilarious to see Loki get tossed around for the second time in an MCU film, and even funnier was when my sister leaned over to me and whispered in my ear about how much that felt like our own relationship.
I saw my sister during Parents’ Weekend, but that was five (now six) weeks ago. Getting to see her again, and knowing that she skipped a few days of high school (ick, high school) to spend as much time as a whole family as was humanly possible made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Most of our time was spent catching up on Netflix shows and staying up until 1:30 a.m. just talking and bantering about everything from superheroes to high school drama (so glad that’s behind me).
Being able to watch the sequel to a film that we were able to joke about so easily brought back major nostalgia. We had both grown a lot since then (my sister is now taller than me) but it’s nice having those little reminders that whatever core essence we have didn’t change all that much. When we pulled up in the driveway after coming back from the theater, I asked her, “So, should we try Get Help?”
Image Credit: Feature, 1, 2, 3