Posted in: Marvel Studios, Movies | Tagged: film, marvel, Thor: Ragnarok

Chris Hemsworth Finds New Shades Of Humor In Thor: Ragnarok

Published Fri, 08 Sep 2017 13:57:52 -0500

Marvel fans were very surprised by the tone of the Thor: Ragnarok trailers and all of the bright colors of the images. It looked nothing like the previous productions and maybe even more over the top than Guardians of the Galaxy. For star Chris Hemsworth it was a new approach from the previous four times he's played the character as he told Collider at a set visit last year.

In the first film, we had a lot of fish-out-of-water humor. Since it was an origin story, there was a lot of naivety. It was sort of Crocodile Dundee. In the second film, the story didn't lend itself to many opportunities to have those moments of humor and I've missed that. When I saw [Thor: The Dark World], I was happy with it but I thought the next one's got to be more fun. I was a big fan of Taika [Waititi's] work. In all of his films, he strikes this beautiful balance of humor and heart. It's all grounded in a reality, but it's fun and enjoyable. That's what we're going to do with [Thor: Ragnarok]. This could be a flat out comedy if we wanted or we could pull it back and meet it in the middle. But I've never improvised so much with this character, which has been really exciting. Taika will just yell suggestions while rolling. 'Try this, try that.' That has really changed the game for myself on this film.

This different approach meant that Hemsworth had to be open to the character feeling very different from previous iterations. Thor is an inherently ridiculous character so which is why he makes such a good candidate for the "fish out of water" style comedy as Hemsworth says.

HEMSWORTH: [Thor's] very much a fish out of water again. The situations he finds himself in are very removed from any kind of Asgardian, ethereal [realm]. There's a greater awareness now, a maturity to [Thor]… He can't go back into completely adolescent-mode like the first [film]. [I've] got to go, 'What would [I] expect Thor to do or say and how can [I] come about it the other direction?' That lends to going, 'Oh, this doesn't even feel like the character anymore,' which I think is a good thing.

It's good that Hemsworth trusted his director to go in a direction that felt very different. This abrupt style changes between the Thor movies have made them feel a little schizophrenic as far as tone goes. However, it's also a series that has had a hard time finding its own identity separate from the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Maybe embracing how insane the very concept is is the way to go.

Summary: Imprisoned, the mighty Thor finds himself in a lethal gladiatorial contest against the Hulk, his former ally. Thor must fight for survival and race against time to prevent the all-powerful Hela from destroying his home and the Asgardian civilization.

Thor: Ragnarok, directed by Taika Waititi, stars Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Cate Blanchett, Jeff Goldblum, Idris Elba, and Mark Ruffalo. It will be released on November 3rd.

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