As an avid film viewer and Marvel fan, I was left somewhat disappointed by the fourth installment of the Thor films. Don’t get me wrong, there were good bits here and there, but collectively as a whole, the entire movie felt much more like fan service than a real film. 

Let me just start off by saying that the overall pacing felt off throughout and that the dialogue didn’t always work in the situation that was being presented. A very big example of this was at the very beginning of the film when Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and Star-Lord (Chris Pratt) were saying their goodbyes as Thor was going on his own journey. A lot of the comedic banter between the two Chris’ was unnecessary as it was simply a ploy to get a cheap laugh out of the viewer much like most of the rest of the film. The comedy was often forced much like how Thor later performed the splits in order to beat the two Muppet-looking characters who were speeding at him on their hoverbikes.

Then of course there’s the skipping of so many important details. Like why was Zeus shown to be so weak? Why is it that anyone can wield Thunderbolt? What was the point of showing the Celestials in the film? Since when can Thor pass down his powers to whoever at will? And what’s up with Gorr’s kid at the end of the film? The film definitely brought forth a lot more questions than answers and it honestly missed a lot of opportunities to set up future Marvel movies. For instance, Omnipotence City was filled with almighty characters that could directly impact the Phase Four timespan of Marvel including characters such as Galactus, the Egyptian mythology, and the Eternals, yet Thor: Love & Thunder director Taika Waititi decided to instead focus the already shortened screentime of the film on Bao the God of dumplings.

It’s ironic because Waititi took the comedy that made Thor: Ragnarok a great film and overexaggerated it so much in Love & Thunder that it felt extremely uncomfortable and awkward. Ragnorok was a great movie because it changed the entire Thor franchise as it brought about more of the characters and less of the plot. Love & Thunder only failed because it tried to do too much of the same thing. 

What Waititi did well, however, was display the selfishness of the gods and how that selfishness and carelessness led to the creation of Gorr the God Butcher. Even though the build-up for Gorr was extremely short, Christian Bale’s character went through a character ark of his own that culminated in the somewhat cliche of “doing the right thing” ending. Despite that, Gorr still had plenty of epic dark moments throughout the film that should be directly credited to Bale himself. Similarly, Natalie Portman also deserves some acclaim. Despite having disappeared from the MCU for like half a decade and coming back with cringe superhero one-liners, her portrayal of Mighty Thor or Jane Foster is a comeback story demonstrating the epic potential of possible Thor films in the future. It is only sad that such a character is immediately killed off and scrapped.

Thor: Love & Thunder is a prime example of a Marvel film in a declining age of superhero movies. As a devoted Marvel fanatic, I hope to see Kevin Feige continue to expand the MCU and try to replicate the grandeur of previous successes such as Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame and stray away from other current and ongoing failures including She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, and Dr. Strange & the Multiverse of Madness.

 

Throughout all of my life, my mother has been deeply involved in the efforts that have culminated in my education. Today, she is the one who helps me plan for my future and career goals, motivates me to do well in school, and is the person who has supported me in reaching my greatest achievements. I just wish that I was a little more thankful for her long-lasting commitment to me.

I remember her having those commitments to my success as early as I can remember. For me, she was the stay-at-home mom who would do chores throughout our tiny old home while staying attentive to my studies at the same time. A fond memory I have is of her cooking in the kitchen while shouting to me across the room to counteract the billowing stove fan as I worked through my math workbook on the dining table. This ended up becoming a common occurrence for us since at the end of every school year throughout my childhood I remember my mom would pick me up from school and almost immediately hand me a workbook she had checked out from the library that day. “You have to finish this textbook by the end of your summer break,” she would say. I remember she used to skim to the end and count the number of pages in the textbook and then tell me, “There are three-hundred pages in the book and you have three months to finish everything,” as she calculated using one hand and by counting the divisions in her pointer finger. “That means you have to just get at least five pages done each day,” she would say. “Just five” — It was definitely not just five.

Looking back, I now realize that in my childhood my main focus was on getting better at math. Every summer workbook I did was to just get more advanced in math little by little each year. Honestly, I really only remember a couple of short experiences regarding reading during my youth. I remember having this really old, big, blue beanbag chair I would sit on in my room right next to my parents each night as I would point to the words of One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish by Dr. Seuss and try my best to sound out each word. I remember eventually I had just grown so accustomed to the book that I would just memorize the words, and, instead of reading, I would just recite the book from memory. On another occasion, I remember that I had the hardest time pronouncing the word “yellow” when I was a kid. I just couldn’t get my mouth to form the “yuh” sound and would instead substitute it with “luh” and made “yellow” into “lullow.” Then there are the times when I remember filling out reading logs during the trimesters of elementary school as we had to reach between 30 to 50 hours of reading to earn a free ticket to Six Flags. I remember attaching my green or pink reading log to the fridge with a magnet and writing down the many times that I read the Magic Tree House series. 

But reading never really stuck with me. Despite having these memories of reading in my early childhood, they don’t mean as much to me as studying for math did. It’s very possible that this might’ve been due to my attitude towards reading as a child since I always found myself taking the easy way out when it came to reading and found struggle and therefore growth in all of my other academic pursuits, specifically mathematics: I memorized books instead of bothering to learn how to read, I didn’t bother to learn how to pronounce a specific word correctly, and I learned to read just so that I could achieve a monetary reward. It’s because of that attitude that I think that I don’t enjoy reading today. I noticed early on in my life that enjoyment can be more quickly attained by just watching a movie or TV show. At the same time, film is much more readily consumed than text, and so when books did become movies they often ruined my own interpretation of those books thereby further motivating me to just wait to watch the film. Today, I find that the only time I enjoy reading is when I’m reading semi-factual non-fiction. Whether it be the news or an opinion piece about a real-world topic, I find that making my own interpretations of different viewpoints on the same idea is incredibly interesting. It makes me think of myself and my place in the world as it challenges me to refine my own opinions. It stresses logic and realism over imagination which I believe is a narrative I found more interesting as I began my life focused on mathematics. To me, reading is a means of communication that can be used to stress the logic and philosophies of our lives. Why bother reading through a long imaginative path that might teach you something instead of reading something that tells you directly what it’s saying and teaches you the realities of life?