Thor: Love and Thunder Parent Guide

Since killing Thanos and saving the universe as we know it, Thor (Chris Hemsworth) has been flying around space with the Guardians of the Galaxy, solving smaller scale problems and meditating on his life. But when he and the Guardians come across evidence of a man called Gorr, the God Butcher (Christian Bale), who is possessed of the Necrosword (which is capable dispatching deities), Thor sends the Guardians to look out for the other gods and heads home to Asgard to protect what remains of his people. There, while fighting Gorr and his shadow-creatures, Thor is saved by an unlikely ally: The Mighty Thor!

This surprising new hero turns out to be Thor’s ex-girlfriend, Dr. Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), for whom the shards of Mjolnir have reforged themselves and endowed her with godlike powers. She needs those powers more than most – Jane has been diagnosed with stage four cancer, and she’s hoping that the power of the hammer can cure her. Even the combined powers of Thor, Jane, and Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson) aren’t enough to stop Gorr, and he absconds into deep space, stealing the children of Asgard on his way out. The three heroes will need even more help if they want to save both the children and the gods of the universe…and they’ll have to move fast.

Much as I love Taika Waititi, I think this film suffers in comparison to Thor: Ragnarok. Maybe I’m biased because I loved Jeff Goldblum in Ragnarok so much, but Love and Thunder is, for all its surreal humor and well-designed action, a far more serious film than its predecessor, and it does suck out some of the lighthearted fun. While Christian Bale gives a compelling performance as a villain with the coolest title in the MCU, the film’s focus on death, love, and loss casts a hefty shadow on the otherwise light banter, colorful costumes, and a pair of giant screaming goats. (No, I’m not kidding about the goats.) That said, this is by no means a bad film. It’s still one of the better films in the MCU, not least because it knows that a fun action movie shouldn’t be over two hours long.

The movie’s darker tone is something that parents will want to keep in mind. Although violent content is broadly comparable to other Marvel films, it’s quite a scary film for younger viewers. Gorr’s favorite party trick involves spreading shadows and conjuring horrifying monsters out of them, which would have given me nightmares for approximately a decade when I was a little kid. For teens, however, this is going to be a fun, if occasionally somber, romp around the galaxy with the blond, heavily muscled God of Thunder – and the (sometimes) blonde, well-toned other God of Thunder.