When we last saw Thor in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), he had lost his kingdom, his father, his hammer, and even his (god’s) physique. At the end ofAvengers: Endgame of Anthony and Joe Russo, he cut all ties and took off with the Guardians of the Galaxy towards new adventures.
But New Zealand director Taika Waititi had other plans for the character. With Thor. love and thunder (VF of Thor: Love and Thunder), he brings back the god of thunder played by Chris Hemsworth on the crackling path of humor and colors explored in Thor: Ragnarok. And add more. If the first film was the equivalent of a pop rock record from the 1980s, the second would be the counterpart of a metal album from the same decade.
This is the tone of the film. It was that of the shooting, affirmed Chris Hemsworth during a virtual press conference: “To turn with Taika, it is chaos. A chaos as beautiful as crazy. A journey of exploration and self-discovery, a fun and wacky journey. And then there is music, all the time. And Taika is there, standing behind the camera, laughing and ruining most of the takes”, laughs the Australian giant.
In 11 years, he has slipped into the skin of the Norse god seven times. Love and Thunder will be the eighth and will mark a milestone in the MCU: Thor is the first superhero from the Marvel stable to be the subject of a fourth solo film. “He has changed a lot since his first appearance [dans le shakespearien Thor, de Kenneth Branagh], but I have changed too. According to the actor, today, Thor looks more like him than he looks like the character. The balance of power has been reversed, “in a fun way, I hope”, he says, his eyes shining with the brilliance of someone who doesn’t take himself seriously. Accomplice, Taika Waititi abounds in his meaning: “Chris is someone you can count on, with whom you want to go on an adventure. It’s this Chris that I want to see on screen and that makes Thor more and more Chris. »
The producers were looking for someone who is unreliable, who is lonely, worrying, whom no one wants to meet. And they found Bale!
At their contact, even the usually intense Christian Bale lets go of the restraint, praising the way Taika Waititi “manages to make comedy and tragedy go hand in hand”. Because there are dramas. We will not be surprised that he is the bearer. But before that, the victim.
kill the immortals
The interpreter of Batman in the trilogy of Chris Nolan assumes here the role of Gorr, the slaughterer of gods. Bald, haggard, skin scarred and marked with tattoos, he is as frightening as he is pathetic. “The producers were looking for someone who is unreliable, who is lonely, worrying, whom no one wants to meet. And they found Bale! notes the actor, smirking. Originally a pious man, the character has witnessed multiple deaths and tragedies that have left the gods indifferent. Having got his hands on a weapon made of pure darkness, he embarks on a fatal quest to rid the universe of these immortals. Thus his path crosses that of Thor.
Alongside the blonde god is Korg, the ineffable stone humanoid to which Taika Waititi lends his voice and attitude (thanks to motion capture). The Valkyrie is also returning to service, she who became king of the village of New Asgard: “She was a soldier for thousands of years, recalls her interpreter, Tessa Thompson. And caught in this kind of bureaucracy, she misses the battlefield” and happily jumps into the arena.
Finally, it’s the return of Jane Foster, played by Natalie Portman, in Thor. The scientist and the god, whose love at first sight ended in a fishtail, find themselves face to face and side by side. And almost in the same shoes: destroyed in Ragnarok, the almighty hammer Mjöllnir answers Jane’s call and makes her Mighty Thor. For this, Natalie Portman trained for months in order to gain stature. But there are limits to what lifting cast iron can do. “I am grateful to the whole team, who dared to entrust a 1m60 actress with the role of a character who is 1m90 tall! »
Of course, like any UCM film, this 29e entrance is causing a lot of talk in cyberspace. They run, they run, the rumours. This relaxed press conference and the viewing of the feature film made it possible to settle the case of two of them: no, the dance of Gorr imagined by Waititi and Bale does not end up on the screen (damn!); but, yes, Hemsworth’s butt does make a (noticable) appearance there.