I belatedly watched Thor: Ragnarok last night, and I have a couple thoughts. Overall, it wasn’t a very good movie. It got a lot of hype for being a fun, funny, and cool addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and while I guess it is, it isn’t anything that Guardians of the Galaxy didn’t do before or better.

While the film is visually captivating, the script leaves much to be desired. The story is extremely hodgepodge, with several quick transitions and cuts that make the viewer feel a little out of breath. There is almost no time for emotions to develop about anything in the film, with director Taika Waititi apparently assuming all of that will be supplied by the preceding MCU films. The problem is, the Thor series has always been the most underdeveloped Avengers series and I didn’t feel anything outside of “these are the good guys, these are the bad guys.” Unfortunately Anthony Hopkins’s gravitas is wasted, as Odin is barely in any of the preceding movies and I don’t think anyone is really sad at all when he dies. The most meaningful relationship in the film was between Thor and Loki, but I’ll touch on that in a minute. Beyond the lack of stakes, the entire story was extremely predicable; I knew exactly who was going to betray whom, who was going to redeem themselves, and who was going to die. There really were no stakes at all in this film.

As far as the humor goes, I actually like for there to be a little bit more to dialogue than smirking and tossing of a quip. Literally every line, every conversation in the film, is a quippy exchange of one liners; while some were funny, overall it felt forced. Guardians of the Galaxy succeeds because they space out the humor between actual beats of character and story development.

Thank God for Mark Ruffalo, who saves the film by showing up halfway through. As Bruce Banner he brings a much needed grounding while at the same time adding a shot of effective comedy as the confused geek in way, way over his head. Jeff Goldblum is Jeff Goldblum, and while he steals every scene he’s in, I was surprised that his character was pretty much dropped before the final act. Maybe we’ll see a reprisal at some point down the line? (On a side note, I’d love to reach that rare echelon of acting that allows you to be cast as essentially a caricature of yourself in every movie, like Jack Nicholson, Aubrey Plaza, and the aforementioned Goldblum.) Kate Blanchett is superb as always, but has kind of made me feel uncomfortable ever since I first saw The Fellowship of the Ring in the 5th grade. It is what it is.

Finally, can we talk about Loki for a second? How in the world is this guy not yet locked up in an inter-dimensional prison or executed? Look, I know that Tom Hiddleston is a good actor and Loki is an extremely popular character, but it doesn’t speak very well of the Avengers that they let their most consistent nemesis just waltz around like it’s all good. The dude tried to *literally* destroy Earth and then attempted to take over the universe, and is apparently responsible for Odin’s exile and death. So…let’s let him come back to Earth? It’s good to know that in the MCU you can get away with anything, as long as you’re Thor’s brother and have SUCH A DEVILISH SMILE.

Outside of all that, the best parts of the movie were when they played Led Zeppelin’s “Immigrant Song.”