Thor: Love and Thunder is almost a perfect encapsulation of Marvel’s Multiverse Saga as a whole. Just like how the MCU has continued to follow the formula that was once so winning, only to mystifying mixed results, Taika Waititi’s second superhero outing did exactly what Ragnarok did before it… but this time the meal wasn’t so satisfying.
What was its fatal flaw? Personally, I’d nominate the overly goofy tone undercutting a story involving a fearsome God-Butcher and a woman dying from cancer, but for star Chris Hemsworth the answer is different. It seems the Australian Avenger blames himself for Love and Thunder‘s flaws, as he’s admitted that he can’t forgive himself for how it turned out. But should he really be so hard on himself?
Hemsworth on Love and Thunder: “I became a parody of myself”
Ahead of his villainous turn in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, Vanity Fair published a profile piece on the actor in which many of his Marvel co-stars make glowing contributions reflecting on their time working with Hemsworth. Robert Downey Jr., for example, gushed that he’s in awe of Hemsworth’s radical reinvention of the Thor character, describing his performances in Ragnarok, Avengers: Infinity War, and Endgame as “a formidable hat trick.”
Sadly, it seems it’s the stumbled fourth attempt in this streak that plays on Hemsworth’s mind the most, as he told VF that he “still can’t forgive himself.” As the actor admitted:
“I got caught up in the improv and the wackiness, and I became a parody of myself. I didn’t stick the landing.”
According to the rest of this candid interview, it seems like Love and Thunder was made during a difficult period in Hemsworth’s film career as a whole.
“Nothing was as enjoyable as it once was, or I had imagined it was,” he admitted. “You’re sort of just running on fumes, and then you’re showing up to something with little in the tank and you start to pick things apart: Why am I doing this film? Why isn’t this script better?”
Thankfully, his enthusiasm for moviemaking has been reinvigorated by his role as Dementus in Furiosa, for which Hemsworth dipped his toe into method acting for the first time — even keeping a journal in character as the dictator ⏤ not to mention hiding his famous face behind a prosthetic nose. And yet it’s obvious that the sins of Love and Thunder still haunt him. Is he really to blame?
In short, no, definitely not. In a film featuring screaming goats, Teletubbies CGI, and Russell Crowe doing an outrageous accent, not to mention Hemsworth being required to indulge in some comic nudity, it’s totally understandable that the actor gave a very broad performance, as that was entirely in keeping with the tone of Waititi’s script and direction. Likewise, if he was working through something at the time, it’s perfectly forgiveable if his portrayal didn’t match up to his “formidable” work in earlier films.
Ironically, there’s a strong sense of déjà vu to all this, as Hemsworth once had a low opinion of his work on Thor: The Dark World before he got to reimagine Thor from the ground up in Ragnarok. Let’s hope he gets the chance to do so again in Thor 5 and give himself a different final adventure for the Asgardian that he can be proud of. One without any floating heads, preferably.
