The movie as a whole didn’t work for me. It has some bright bits, but I just didn’t feel as though the movie ever managed to put all its elements together in a cohesive way. The comedy juxtaposed against the tragic death of Jane’s death just didn’t work.
One thing that bugged me is that I’ve always thought Jane was a terrible character. All the worst parts of the older films were the scenes with Jane. She was an annoying block of wood that Thor cares about because the script says so. But as I said earlier in this thread, I loved her in this film. She was human, relatable, funny, likable, and kicked ass. Then she died. Gah!
I know we have the excuse of this being Korg’s story, but I think this thousands of years old being ,defender of the Nine Realms and would have been liege of Asgard had it not been for Thanos…has lost too many IQ points in service of the story for my taste.
Also re: stripping Thor to his ass so women could faint and Jane and Valkyrie could crack wise…maybe Hemsworth should have said “I think it would be much funnier if Natalie were the one to confront Zeus and he strips her down to her ass, and ME and Valkyrie crack wise about it.”
What’s interesting to me is that comparing the two alternatives, the comedy of Thor being stripped feels like punching-up while if it were Jane it would’ve been punching-down. I would surmise that’s due to Thor’s character being amicably smug and overblown while Jane’s is nobly tragic more so than the physical and gender aspects involved.
Alas, imagining a hypothetical turnabout where Jane was the swaggering gadabout that could weather a little humility and Thor the cursed noble paladin, while one could have mirrored it with sufficient comedy (males swooning, Valkyrie just as appreciative, etc) the audience reactions would’ve been much more divisive so that’s out.
On the other hand it worked wonderfully in Ragnarok, which saw us lose Odin, the warriors three, Asgard and Mjolnir.
Yeah I can’t make it work without just showing Jane from the neck up and MAYBEEEEEee a super long shot from her back. I can make a hilarious exchange between Thor and Valkyrie telling Thor not to intervene because it took him thousands of years to learn humility and if Jane is to wield the power of a god, she needs humility…then Valkyrie sliding low in her seat and eating popcorn.
But to show even Natalie’s bareback creates a level of sexual assault in the viewers brain that no amount of humor can overcome.
IMHO thats a little bit of hardwiring and a lot of historical precedent at work.
For people asking why Thor being stripped down is played for laughs vs. Jane, I am wondering why Love and Thunder was the first movie you saw after your 20 year Coma.
Yes, when will we finally see a movie that sexually objectifies women?
We could probably have a thread discussing male nudity(especially rear-end nudity) is often played for laughs, but female is not.
Back on Mash in 1974 or so, Radar’s butt flashes on screen when he is running for safety from a sniper. Even 50 years ago, they would not have done that same joke/moment with a female nurse.
The joke on Margaret from the MASH movie was actually listed by Alan Alda as a joke that was too cruel. Even in the world of the movie/show/book, that was done without Margaret’s consent and it was what Alan Alda called, “breaking the branch instead of bending the branch”.
Again I think Its cause when i see a joke like with Hemsworth, my brain splits between “Heh.” and “I thought we were trying to get away from this sort of thing”
With Portman, my brain would have gone straight to “Sexual assault”. Its very visceral too.
Ironically in old movies with full FRONTAL (Im talking casual 60’s type European) its switched. Female= artsy…male=“Gah.”