Weekly Report from the N.T.A.B. Division of Media Review

Thor: Love and Thunder/Ms. Marvel/Umbrella Academy, Season 3

Director’s Note: There was a larger Media Review planned but recent events involving the Bunker Mascot and a weekend injury to the Administrator’s back have curtailed these plans. We apologize for the interruption and hope that the double dose of Marvel Cinematic Universe coverage will suffice while things are sorted out in the front office.

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Thor: Love and Thunder (in theaters)

I’m not sure I’m the right person to review this movie, as we are finally getting to the point in the MCU material where I left off reading comics every week, mostly out of a lack of access to a decent comic book store, but also because both Marvel and DC have done some things that have made it very difficult for casual readers to navigate what titles to read and what stories go where. I mention this because I’m not threatened by a female Thor in the slightest. If I can survive Captain America being turned into a werewolf, I’ll weather whatever temporary gimmick Marvel Comics can toss at me. I did not just fall off of the turnip truck, if you know what I mean, and I think you do.

Because I wasn’t around for Jane Foster wielding mighty Mjolnir, I can’t speak to the fidelity of the source material in Thor: Love and Thunder, but I can attest to this being an obvious and overt sequel to Thor: Ragnarok, in both tone and temperament.  I’m still trying to decide if this gradual shifting from Kirby-esque High Court Intrigue to almost deadpan “fish out of water” slice of life dramadies is because they are self-conscious of some of Thor’s more overwrought presentation and more melodramatic storylines, or if this was an unintentional drift that just happened to work for the test audiences.

I first noticed the tonal shift in Whedon’s first Avengers movie. Tony Stark makes fun of Thor’s faux Shakespearean dialect, and it gets a laugh. Later, Thor is quick to defend Loki until the bring up his body count and he immediately quips, “He’s adopted.” Bigger laugh. And while Thor: The Dark World didn’t do anyone any favors, there were moments in the movie that played up the adversarial relationship between Thor and Loki to great effect. That’s why Thor: Ragnarok was such a surprise hit for everyone; it was solidly in and of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, borrowed heavily from its comic book roots, and put some pepper on it with the pumping soundtrack, the quick wit, and the chemistry between Hemsworth and Hiddleston.

That was all before Infinity War and Endgame, of course. It was obvious at the end of that saga that we weren’t done with Thor, and parking him with the Guardians of the Galaxy (another thing from the comics) seemed like a smart idea to freshen both of those concepts up for future use. The problem is this: How do you follow The Snap? The Blink?

One of the things that these new MCU series and movies has suffered from is trying to come out of the power dive they threw their entire franchise into. Some films have handled it far better (the Spider-Man movies) and others, not so much (the Eternals). That’s just going to be the problem with movie that span the length and breadth of the cosmos—what comes next?

I said all of that to say this: Thor: Love & Thunder? It’s a Thor movie. Specifically, it’s a Taika Waititi movie, with all of his previous work front loaded into it. If you liked Ragnarok, chances are you’ll like this movie, too. Maybe not as much. Maybe a little more. I’m going to tell you that I personally had some problems with the film—and they were just that: personal problems. Some of the emotional twists and turns are a little too steep for me, ping-ponging from humor to pathos a little too quickly. My single biggest problem with the film was Thor’s penchant for not ever seeming to get any smarter. I mean, it makes for some great comedic lines, and some funny scenes, but we are eight movies in on the ol’ Odinson (counting Avengers flicks) and he’s gotten a haircut, a new wardrobe, a new hammer-axe, even a new ride (I love the goats!) but he has yet to get a clue.

Now that I know what’s coming, I will watch it again, a little later, and get some appropriate distance on the stuff that kept gut-punching me, and hopefully, I’ll be able to just enjoy it for the roller coaster ride that it is. There certainly is some amazing spectacle embedded in the film, and man, I miss the Guardians of the Galaxy (and hey, side note: apparently, you know who did get a clue? Star-Lord. So, the choice is a deliberate one). This movie made me hungry for GotG: Volume 3.

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Ms. Marvel (Disney Plus)

Before I get into this, I want it to be known far and wide that I have no problem with this character at all; her existence is not a threat to me, and I am not burdened with the need to defend Carol Danvers’ honor in any way. I saw the announcements for the new comic book series and the minor firestorm that erupted because the character was a Muslim.

I bought the first trade paperback to check out her origin, and while I thought the embiggening powers were a little goofy, it fit the tone of the book and the character and I finished it, thinking, “Cool, a book for teens and folks who want something a little less angsty.” I did not read any of her subsequent adventures so I am not privy to where the character is now in the comics.

I was not surprised in the least to see the series announced, and while the comic wasn’t something I had been emotionally invested in since the age of 7, I have enjoyed the vast majority of the other MCU properties to date, and decided to give it a try.

From all of the above, you can see that I’m certainly friendly toward the character and have no agenda in place here. I want good MCU movies and shows, regardless of the character, their comic book history, etc.

Okay—all that being said, this mini-series makes some promises in the first two episodes that it fails to deliver on, and I don’t quite know why they made the changes that they made, but if I were a Ms. Marvel fan, I imagine I’d be pissed off.

The first two episodes are highly graphically augmented and animated in a style that is equal parts Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and the end credits for Spider-Man: Homecoming. The vibe is very intentional. And the episodes are a lot of fun, because Kamala Khan is going to a super hero convention, doing cosplay for Captain Marvel. The con itself is pretty fun in that “none of us have ever been to a comic book convention but we think this is what it must look like” kind of way. And the animation that punctuates Kamala’s every waking thought is wonderfully inventive and evocative.

As soon as she gets her power, the show moves into a very familiar sequence of plot points that are all straight out of the Spider-Man movies. But that power isn’t the embiggening thing, nope. It works essentially the same way, but it manifests in a much more simple-to-render energy effect. I could almost forgive this, but the show quickly proceeds to disappear up its own ass.

I’ve never seen so many episodes devoted to the origin of a costume in my life. We have to go around the world to get the full story, and find out that the thing that is part of the family legend is...you know what? Never mind. I promise you—I PROMISE YOU—as soon as you get there, you’ll see it coming from a mile away.

There’s so much about the show that’s not related to the comic book (at least, not the origin story I read and enjoyed), that this could have been a Disney TV series unto itself. Aside from the costume (well, most of the costume—we’re five episodes in and it’s still being assembled before us in a Meaningful Fashion), you could call her any other super hero name you could think of and this could be its own little pocket hero story. The connection to the MCU is tenuous, at best, and all of that cool graphical animation? It’s gone, now. It’s like a classic bait and switch. See, folks? It’s like Miles Morales, only she’s a Muslim, and loves to draw and create stuff, and whoops! Nope! We’re instead telling another story about a young woman with an overly protective and restrictive mother who can’t seem to fathom the modern world and her children in it, thus creating the exact same drama that we see in every other non-white family TV and movie drama, from Kim’s Convenience to Turning Red to We Are Lady Parts.

There’s one episode left. At this point, I’m watching it just to see how they stick the landing. I have zero hopes for it. I really wanted the stretchy Ms. Marvel. That would have been so cool to see.

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Umbrella Academy, Season 3 (Netflix)

This show is based on an independent comic book series that a lot of people thought very highly of. A lot of folks pointed me to it and said, "I thought of you as soon as I saw this." Historically, that has never boded well for me.

The comic series should have been a great thing, but it seemed to be made up of characters that were weird for the sake of being weird, or worse, not nearly weird enough. I was a bit taken aback at how many people raved about it, because I kept thinking, this isn’t anything I haven’t seen before in The Challengers of the Unknown or every Grant Morrison comic book written after 1985. Or some issues of Claremont’s X-Men. Truly, the comic didn’t break any new ground for me, and that was a venal sin as far as I was concerned. I’ve done weird. I read Animal Man and Doom Patrol.  I need a better story than that, now.

I was surprised to see it as a series on Netflix, but I decided to watch it because I was rather hoping they would simplify the nonsense and produce a decent story. And they did, for the most part. I think the Netflix show was better than the comic book because TV shows have to pick a lane, and even though a lot of the Netflix series’ lane could be described as “the middle of the road,” it was still a choice.

I’m only mentioning season 3 because I think it’s the best season of The Umbrella Academy so far. And with that being said, I think they get better as they go. I'm telling you this now because you may well be tempted to binge them all and catch up. Don’t do that; it’ll all run together and cancel itself out.

Instead, you need to do the calculation of time travel, tentacle boys, dysfunctional families, and super intelligent talking chimps and ask yourself if you want to watch 8 okay hours of television, followed by 8 pretty good hours of television, to get to 8 hours of great TV. I know that’s not much of an endorsement, but the 16 hours you put in may not be equal to the most recent 8 hours.

I only started watching season 3 of The Umbrella Academy because I was mildly (emphasis mine) interested in seeing how Elliot Page’s transition was handled, and I have to say I was really happy that they made it almost a non-issue. That alone kept me in for the first three episodes, and by then, I was hooked. There’s about two-thirds less talking chimp than I would have liked, but they make good use of his screen time, so I can’t complain too much. On the whole, it’s pretty fun. Just beware the time sink buy-in at the start.