Sightlines · reception
How Thor: Love and Thunder was received
2022 · Taika Waititi · Thor: Love and Thunder on Sightlines
The arc
Landed in 2022 to a shrug-and-a-wince — the moment the 'Waititi magic' consensus from Ragnarok flipped into 'too much Waititi' — and it's since hardened into the go-to exhibit for Marvel's post-Endgame slump. Even Chris Hemsworth later admitted he'd 'become a parody' of himself in it, which fans now quote back at the film constantly.
What’s debated
The eternal thread: did the nonstop bits waste Christian Bale's genuinely unsettling Gorr — 'great villain trapped in the wrong movie' — or is the tonal whiplash the whole point?
Its footprint
The screaming goats — lifted straight from the internet's favorite screaming-goat meme — escaped the film entirely and became its most shared clip, alongside Russell Crowe's fully committed Greek-accented Zeus.
Where it stands
On Letterboxd it lives near the bottom of MCU ranked lists — the shorthand pick for 'when Phase 4 lost me' — while a minority keeps filing dissents on Bale's behalf.
Did you know? Christian Bale's Gorr was redesigned away from his comics look because, as Bale himself joked, staying faithful would have just made him Voldemort — and it was his first comic-book role since hanging up the Batman cowl.
Named by the director
- Romancing the Stone (1984) — Waititi repeatedly pitched the film as a crazy 1980s romance-adventure in the vein of Romancing the Stone.