Thor: Love & Thunder

Marvel's latest attempt to get the divisive fourth phase of their cinematic universe off the ground sees the studio return to the formula that made 2017's Thor: Ragnarok an undisputed success. The name of that formula, as all nerds will know, is Taika Waititi.

The New Zealand filmmaker has firmly established himself as the king of mainstream quirk, due in no small part to his ability to fuse big issue topics with zany comedy. In many respects, he's the perfect auteur to front Disney's crown jewel.

But what happens when even a talented auteur begins to go through the motions? The answer can mostly be found in Thor: Love and Thunder, which is essentially a wobbly retread of its aforementioned predecessor, predictably combining end-of-the-world stakes (in name only) with kooky side-characters and zany one-liners.

Granted, it's mostly entertaining stuff. But from a character development point of view, this is pretty feeble given that its Thor's fourth solo outing. By the end of the film, he's pretty much the same insecure beefcake - just with a different sidekick.

The extent to which this annoys you will depend on how invested you are in the Marvel product by this stage. If, like me, you enjoy it mostly as a form of crash, bang, wallop escapism then you'll largely be unaffected. But I suspect hardcore fans might be growing tired of the repetitive output by this stage.

Still, there's some plus points to be found here. Christian Bale's Gorr the God Butcher is a fun villain, one whose backstory is a little more fleshed out than the MCU usually permits. And Love and Thunder at least succeeds in redeeming the character of Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), who had criminally been relegated to the role of eye candy in previous films.

However, this is ultimately more of the same from a studio that is beginning to look as if it has more content than ideas.