Butchered by Disney? Thor: Love and Thunder Observations

by Jacqueline Ristola

To begin, this is a series of observations on Thor: Love and Thunder (Taika Waititi, 2022) that are based solely on the film at hand. Having just watched it, I suspect the film originally was a bit heavier in tone. But Disney may have seen this, got cold feet, and ordered a reworking to imbue (or rather, flood) the film with levity. Again, this pure speculation on my part, but I would believe it given the product at hand. [Edit: having read a bit more on the film, it’s more likely that Waititi had way too much on his plate this year, and the film is a bit weak as a result. Still, Disney’s aversion to difficult, material stakes in the MCU is a consistent issue, and this film is no exception.]

First off, this film has four editors. That’s a surprising amount! Most only have one. This may suggest (again, just reading tea leaves at this point) that multiple edits were done to get the tone that Disney wanted. This would correspond with some of the choppiness of the film. The first scene with Gorr pre-God Butcher mode is rather effective. But then the cutting gets too choppy, and it partially disrupts what is a compelling moment as Gorr is face to face with the god he worshiped, only to find this god uncaring and unkind. In a later scene as Thor, Jane, and Valkyrie discuss how to rescue the kidnapped children, the coverage on the dialogue seen is quite stretched. A few shots here and there go on a bit long for a reaction shot, and its feels more apparent that this scene had to be stitched together either with a dearth of materials, or received rewrites which required dropping key bits of dialogue.

Second, there is the matter of tone. This film is afraid to truly explore the darker, heavier aspects of its plot. Many reviews have noted that the film is constantly throwing jokes at you, afraid you’ll leave if anything becomes too serious. But this film should be serious! Jane has stage 4 cancer, and is doing chemotherapy, but at the beginning of the film, she looks completely normal, not an emaciated wreck. Valkyrie gets stabbed and almost dies! Children are kidnapped and kept in a cage! Gorr witnesses the needless death of his child, and that an all-powerful god did nothing to stop it. This is some heavy stuff, but the film haphazardly engages with this material. When the film finally does decide it can be serious (as Thor, Jane, and Valkyrie visit the Shadow Realm), its electric! It’s a shame the film was too timid to do so earlier. Even after Valkyrie gets stabbed, there is no pretense of her injury. We do not see her in pain; instead, she jokes that if she were to go to the final battle, she would probably die. Another moment robbed of its power through misapplied levity.

Third, there are thematic connections that are often more implied rather than explicit. Both Jane and Gorr have weapons that empower them, but are slowly killing them in the process. Gorr’s endures the trauma of his child’s death, yet he steals children away. The bones are here in the film, yet the film feels afraid to bring this material explicit to the surface. But doing so would make the film that much more powerful. Why not have the stolen children ask why Gorr has taken them, and perhaps get him to question his own actions, only for the cursed sword to drown out any doubts? This would strengthen these thematic parallels, while also adding extra dimension to the character. But engaging with these themes (which are darker in tone) would require grappling with the darker elements of the story, something this film cannot do, for whatever reason.

Since the bones of these themes are still in the film, I do think the ending sticks the landing. Thor had his heart closed off, but in reconciling with (and eventually letting go) Jane, he is able to open his heart again to a new person, Gorr’s revived child. There is some compelling stuff here, but the film is afraid to linger on it too long, lest the audience who loved Thor: Ragnarok (Waititi, 2017) miss the fun adventures of that film. (Of course, Ragnarok had levity and drama, but it’s mostly remembered as a fun romp.)

I don’t know the behind-the-scenes gossip of the production of this film, but given the film’s handling of editing, tone, and theme, I get the feeling Disney ordered multiple edits on this film, resulting in some of the mishmash we see here. Perhaps this happened at the writing stage, punching up a script with jokes with excising the drama in an attempt to replicate Ragnarok‘s success. (There were also rumors of re-shoots with Christina Bale a few months before the film’s release, but these are unconfirmed, and re-shoots for large productions like these aren’t uncommon.)

But perhaps in the end this post is not an accusation, but instead a reflection on what could have been. In the film, Thor admits he holds people at a distance to avoid pain. This film, too, holds its subject matter (death, grief, despair) at an arm’s length, too afraid to truly embrace what it’s all about. But while Thor learns to embrace the pain as a part of life, this film never truly does.