We’re on record as having long suffered from “comic book movie fatigue.” In fact, our malady really started with the previous “Thor” movie, which we can barely remember, which is really the point. That being said, even snobs like us can be stoked about the third solo venture for the Asgardian bruiser, “Thor: Ragnarok.” We were into it from the start, and not simply because of that cast: Not only Chris Hemsworth — who’s been refining and perfecting his comic chops since the first one, in which he was already funny — but Cate Blanchett as the baddie, the great Tessa Thompson as one of the maybe-heroes. All that, and Jeff Goldblum in blue eyeliner, too.
And, of course, there’s director Taika Waititi, the New Zealand genius who got the job because he made a very funny mockumentary about vampires. (And also this.)
The new trailer confirms what we already knew: “Thor 3” will be one of the weird Marvels, which is our favorite kind. (See also: the “Guardians of the Galaxy” movies, “Ant-Man,” “Doctor Strange.”) To quote our colleague Sean Burns, in his review of Luc Besson’s decidedly totally weird “Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets: “Nobody ever really marvels at anything in the Marvel movies, their wiseacre, in-jokey screenplays specialize in dragging the fantastic down to the realm of the mundane. Superheroes these days fight in empty stairwells and on anonymous airport tarmacs.”
“Ragnarok,” meanwhile, ditches Earth for Asgard, which is filled with off-red deserts and psychedelic colors — a perfect place for characters in wackadoodle costumes to do battle. And what costumes! Cate Blanchett has a head-piece you’d see in a Brothers Quay movie. Meanwhile, the trailer gifts us with the sight of Tessa Thompson astride a space gatling gun, plus Hulk leaping into the face of a monster that looks like Balrog. In all likelihood, we’ll be remembering this one three years later.
“Thor: Ragnarok” arrives Nov. 3. Watch the new trailer below:
