Thor: Ragnarok – Preview

So the early reviews for Thor: Ragnarok are in already and all indications are that it’s not going to disappoint. Rumor has it that this is the last of the MCU Thor movies, making it a trilogy; quit while you’re ahead and all that, I suppose.

Consistently brilliant, inherently playful and always hilarious, the Thor movies are the closest thing that the MCU has to a sure thing at the moment. Ragnarok looks set to beat even Deadpool as the funniest superhero movie of the last few decades (sorry, Guardians of the Galaxy, I love you but…).

Ragnarok looks to be a stand-alone adventure in the MCU with a few teasers for later movies, most notably, one would assume, Avengers: Infinity War, which is set for release sometime around April next year.

Thor (Chris Hemsworth), the surprisingly ever-cheerful and wise-cracking God of Thunder, finds himself in a lethal gladiatorial contest against the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), his former ally. Thor must fight for survival and race against time to prevent the ruthless, all-powerful Hela (Cate Blanchett) from destroying his home and the Asgardian civilization.

Directed by Taika Waititi and co-starring Tom Hiddleston, Tessa Thompson and Idris Elba as well as Benedict Cumberbatch as Doctor Strange,Thor: Ragnarok promises to be simultaneously both badass and utterly ridiculous. Other members of the all-star cast include Anthony Hopkins as Odin, Karl Urban as the Executioner and Jeff Goldblum as the Grandmaster. This is going to be a good time, guys.

Word has it that one of the stand out performances comes from Tessa Thompson as Valkyrie, who is having an absolute ball of a time. Rumors that Matt Damon is going to be making a surprise cameo should be taken with a grain of salt – but what is a fact is that he gatecrashed a Chris Hemsworth interview as part of his on-going ‘feud’ with Jimmy Kimmel.

I have to admit that I’m most interested in seeing what they’ve done with Hulk since his appearance in the trailer suggests that some things have changed. Rumor has it that they’ve basically retconned the end of Avengers: Age of Ultron in order to shoehorn him into Ragnarok, a situation that I’m all too happy to play along with.

Digital Spy noticed something interesting in a recent teaser trailer forThor: Ragnarok. A scene in which Thor confronts death goddess Hela in an alleyway and mysteriously morphed into a scene in which Thor confronts the same death goddess in a green field. This suggests that Marvel may be making last minute plot changes, throwing a bunch of fan theories into disarray, if not throwing them completely out of the proverbial window.

Fans have been assuming that Thor encounters Hela on Earth – and is powerful enough that she can catch and crush his hammer – while looking for his missing father, Odin, but apparent last minute changes suggest that while this may have been the original storyline, things have changed.

Let us know your thoughts on how the plot will unfold in Thor: Ragnarok.