Haven’t we been here before?
It might be hard to make Thor look vulnerable given that he’s an all-powerful god, but Gorr the Butcher of Gods does a good job on ‘Thor: Love and Thunder’the new Marvel movie.
Maybe Gorr caught the God of Thunder at a bad time in his life, after all the people he’s lost, which includes half the Asgardians. However, Gorr has a formidable weapon on the necrosword and has been busy killing gods all over the universe, so there’s no question that Thor has to take it seriously.
As we stated in our review of ‘Thor: Love and Thunder’, Christian bale make a excellent work making Gorr as scary as he should be, but while watching ‘Thor: Love and Thunder’ you can’t help but have a feeling of déjà vu And this is not an isolated case, but it is a sentiment present in all the Phase 4 films to date.
The UCM used to have a big problem with his nondescript villainsbut now you have a completely different one: They are all the same.
From here, spoilers for ‘Thor: Love and Thunder’
The shocking opening of ‘Thor: Love and Thunder’ sees Gorr struggling to survive with his daughter on his barren home planet. Gorr’s pleas to his god are useless and his daughter dies, and Gorr is not far from death either.
However, Gorr hears something calling out to him and finds an oasis with water and fruit where he also meets his god Rapu. He pleads for eternal reward from him, to which Rapu callously tells him that it’s all nonsense, meaning that Gorr’s daughter (among others) died for nothing.
Unfortunately for Rapu, the Necroblade – which was nearby lying on the ground after Rapu killed its former owner – calls out to Gorr. She catches it, kills Rapu and swear to kill all godswhich he does very well until he decides to attack Thor and company in Asgard.
Throughout the film, Gorr makes references to his daughter, which adds an element of sympathy to his otherwise monstrous actions. His goal, initially, is to reach Eternity, which will grant his wish to destroy all the gods in the universe, but Gorr’s daughter is involved in the ending of the film.
Gorr reaches Eternity, but is convinced by Thor that what he has always sought is love and not revenge. Gorr brings his daughter back to life with his wish, but she still dies as a result of the infection caused by using the Necroblade.
Can’t say that hat has been fully redeemed, since a) killed a lot of godscausing the collapse of several societies and many deaths, and b) kidnapped a bunch of kids to carry out his plan. However, he realizes the mistake he made and his final action was not now here near so catastrophic as originally planned.
It’s a change from the comics and a solid arc for hatwhich is easily the most interesting villain to the date of the film series Thor’s by Chris Hemsworth (by the way, will Chris Hemsworth continue in Marvel after ‘Thor 4’?) The problem is that we have seen the same pattern with almost every other villain from Phase 4 of the movies.
Perhaps due to Thanos’ success and his twisted but logical reasoning, Phase 4 seems to have been on a mission to replicate the pattern. The villains to date have done terrible things, however you can understand their reasoning and in the end, usually, are redeemed.
In ‘Black Widow’ it was task master, which is revealed to have been programmed to be evil and breaks free of it in the end. In ‘Shang Chi’, Wenwu he was also motivated by personal loss and, when push came to shove, he helped Shang-Chi and sacrificed himself. In ‘Eternals’ ikaris he was going to destroy the world, but he couldn’t because he loved Sersi too much.
The whole concept of ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ was that all villains could be redeemed and healed, and they were. The green Goblin He was the one who endured the longest, but in the end he was the old Norman Osborn again. If you wanted to be able to enjoy our friend and arachnid neighbor more, you’ll always have the video with all the easter-eggs from ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’.
And, more recently, the ‘Doctor Strange in the multiverse of madness’ Scarlet Witch she remembered that she is a mother, not a monster, and stopped short of killing America Chavez. And that ‘Doctor Stange 2’ could have a darker alternative ending.
There have been supporting villains in most of the Phase 4 movies, like Dreykov in Black Widow, but the main villain has always followed the same path. Taken on its own, it’s compelling, as we always like to see a confrontational villain, and it’s a marked improvement over Malekith, Ronan the Accuser, and every other nondescript MCU baddie.
However, when each film ends up following a similar bowyou end up waiting for redemption and repetition it becomes bland. I should move you more Gorr’s decision to choose love instead of slaughter, but sand has become the norm and is diminished by it.
There’s nothing wrong with a villain doing villain stuff because he’s a bit of an asshole. Some of the most iconic bad guys in cinema don’t do it because of a trauma in their past and for hardly any reason other than personal gain, like the Joker in ‘The Dark Knight’ or Hans Gruber in ‘Jungle Glass’.
It’s still better than the early days of the MCU, but let’s hope things don’t get so repetitive that we’re wishing for a new Malekith just for a change.
Now that would be a dark day.
Source: Fotogramas
Camila Luna is a writer at Gossipify, where she covers the latest movies and television series. With a passion for all things entertainment, Camila brings her unique perspective to her writing and offers readers an inside look at the industry. Camila is a graduate from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) with a degree in English and is also a avid movie watcher.
