Marvel fans are calling for director Taika Waititi to be dropped from all future Marvel movies. And honestly, after Love and Thunder, we can’t blame them.
A Decline in Thor’s Franchise
There’s a piece of empirical knowledge that’s been making the rounds in Hollywood for the last few months: there’s no such thing as being too big to fail. After the landmark moment of Avengers: Endgame, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has struggled to retain its status as the leading force at the helm of modern pop culture. It’s not for lack of trying, though: Marvel has released enough movies and side projects in the three years since Endgame to dwarf most media franchises.
There’s a feeling that Marvel films just aren’t the same anymore – and there’s no better proof of this than the massive drop in quality seen in the Thor franchise. It’s not like the God of Thunder has the best track record in the MCU, but, at the very least, Thor Ragnarok changed the look and tone of the franchise going forward. And then, Taika Waititi was given complete control over the writing of Thor: Love and Thunder.
What should have been a touching, profoundly more personal story for Thor became a prime example of everything wrong with the current state of the MCU. Stale jokes, overused CGI shots, and an abundance of overly long and unnecessary scenes are but a few of the annoyances that made Love and Thunder the modern equivalent of The Dark World.
Taika Waititi’s Strengths and Weaknesses
Taika Waititi is not a terrible director – quite the contrary, really. As I mentioned before, he might have saved Thor’s status in the MCU with Ragnarok, after the previous two films proved to be some of the blandest the MCU had to offer. The problem is that, while he might be a talented director with a good grasp of what’s funny, he’s not an exceptionally good writer.
Love and Thunder had one of the most insultingly mediocre scripts in the history of the MCU. You just can’t introduce a character like Gorr the God Butcher and have none other than Christian Bale play him, only for him to barely have any effect on Thor’s overarching narrative in the MCU.
Granted, the whole “Jane Foster as the Mighty Thor” narrative didn’t work in the comics, so it’s no surprise that it also was as shallow as it was on the big screen, but still, Waititi managed to make a bland storyline into an even more uninteresting one by giving Jane virtually no character development.
Perhaps the worst part about Marvel’s Love and Thunder, and Taika Waititi’s approach to filmmaking, in this case, is that the film follows the same formula as some of the most recent Disney+ MCU shows: the story, as convoluted as it might feel, doesn’t really progress the narrative of the MCU at all.
Moving Forward: Keeping Taika Waititi Away from the MCU
The MCU is at a crossroads at this moment. There’s no denying that there’s a struggle to find a new identity after most of the actors that established your reputation for almost a decade are being replaced by new talent, but the answer to this conundrum isn’t hiring directors that proved effective in the past. Just look at how Sam Raimi, a director well-known for his unique style, directed Multiverse of Madness: a film that looks and feels just like any other Marvel film created by a board of Disney execs.
A step in the right direction, however, would be to keep Taika Waititi as far removed from the Marvel Cinematic Universe as humanly possible. His obnoxious cameos and borderline infuriating disdain for the Marvel mythos are not something that long-time fans of the franchise might want to see in the future of the industry. And, yes, this also applies to the DCEU – let’s just keep Taika Waititii far away from Marvel superheroes – and comics – in general. Heck, maybe the MCU should retire Thor, too.
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Do you think Taika Waititi should direct another Marvel movie?
Thor: Love and Thunder |
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Thor enlists the help of Valkyrie, Korg and ex-girlfriend Jane Foster to fight Gorr the God Butcher, who intends to make the gods extinct. |
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| Studio: Marvel Studios |
| Running Time: 119 minutes |
| Release Date: July 8, 2022 |
| Cast: Chris Hemsworth, Christian Bale, Tessa Thompson, Jaimie Alexander, Taika Waititi, Russell Crowe, Natalie Portman |
| Director: Taika Waititi |
| Writers: Taika Waititi, Jennifer Kaytin Robinson |
| Genre: Action, Adventure, Comedy, Fantasy, Superhero |
| Box Office: $760.9 million |
