The following review contains spoilers

Thor: Love and Thunder is perhaps the most audiovisually impressive solo outing of the god of thunder. However, the spectacle is all there is to this film. The script is chaotic and consists of several cool moments connected through frail bridges which fail to constitute a smooth plot. What constitutes the worst aspect of the movie is its tone. It seems like the director has taken into account the ongoing criticism of Marvel movies in general which is the tendency to kill serious moments by following them with cheap jokes. Instead of avoiding this tendency himself, he has taken it to the extreme.

It is evident that the fourth Thor movie wants to be a light-hearted heart-warming comedy. Unfortunately, it fails in its efforts as it does not offer any deeper background to help these positive emotions impact the viewer. Apart from from the main villain Gorr (who, fortunately, avoided the comedy altogether) the film doesn't offer any serious moment which would elevate the all-present humor to a functional feature of the movie. And that is despite the fact that the movie deals with a serious topic which is the fourth stage of cancer.

It is quite a controversial topic for a light-hearted comedy but had it been given more space, the movie could have made a lot more impact on the viewer. The movie could have had the capacity to touch the viewer. This way it is just a cheap device to turn Jane Foster into Thor and then quickly conclude her story in the universe. The movie deals with the theme of cancer as if it is nothing impactful. If the film doesn't let me take cancer - one of the most serious topics - seriously, how can I take seriously anything else in the movie?

You cannot emphatize with purely comedic characters. The plot is predictable and as such all of the characters are practically protected by the script. The movie doesn't give the viewers any uncertainty to keep them in suspense. The dialogues are childish and so is the behavior of every character. Some of the jokes are milked so much that they become annoying (the axe's jealousy and the goats) and not even the children attending the screening laugh at them at this point. Whatever weight Jane's death could have had is neutralized by the after-credits scene where we see Jane entering Valhalla. She got there for some reason despite dying of cancer long after the fight even though earlier in the movie bleeding Sif is told that she needs to die in battle to get to Valhalla.

The goal of the main villain Gorr is to kill all gods because they are selfish and his daughter died because one of them did not help him (no need to cry, MCU death is only temporary). Thor wants to halt his plans so the whole gang goes to a meeting of gods where we can see that yes, they are indeed selfish. Meanwhile Gorr has abducted asgardian children to lure Thor and steal his axe to open the Eternity which will grant him one wish. This way Gorr appeals to Thor's humanity which completely undermines his position that gods have no humanity. He is also down to killing the children which destroys his superior moral ground and we can once again take sides with the gods who in the end do not have to overcome their flaws at all.

Thor wants to prevent the god butcher to continue his crusade (from which we will see nothing on screen) and so he kills the biggest god of them all - Zeus (no need to cry, MCU death is only temporary) and takes his lightning weapon because he has read the script and knows that he will soon lose his axe. But before that happens, Zeus shackles Thor and strips him completely of clothes. The goddesses faint and everybody else is having fun of it. The scene was even included in the trailers as one of its main attractions. I wonder if Taika Waititi would ever get anything done in Hollywood ever again had he put Jane into the same situation following the current appeal for gender equivalence in comic book movies. 

Jane helps Thor on his mission because Mjölnir gives her strength and health. But at the same time it damages her strength and health?? In any case, Jane wants to fight because Gorr needs to be stopped. Even though it is basically none of her business. In the end she sacrifices her health and life for Thor which at least makes her sacrifice personal and it makes more sense than had she sacrificed herself so that gods can have more orgies. Her death is not very impactful because it doesn't change the status quo. She had been gone, came back for a brief moment and she is gone again. But every death is sad to some extent. That is until the after-credits scene where we can see it is not that big of a deal.

Gorr who has murdered half the gods in the galaxy is persuaded by Thor that he has not been searching for vengeance at all, he has been searching for love. Thor persuades him to use his wish to revive his daughter instead of killing all the gods. Gorr who apparently is an idiot didn't think of a better wish than to kill all gods. It's because the weapon that gives him strength kills him (sounds familiar?) and his daughter would stay alone so it is apparently better if she stays dead. I guess one could formulate the wish in a way that both of them survive, but in the end Gorr wishes for his daughter's return and dies himself. The girl is adopted by Thor. 

By the way, this Eternity would come handy in the war with Thanos and Thor knew about it. But no, Doctor Strange only saw one possible outcome. Mjölnir would be useful too since it can repair itself all of a sudden.

In the end Thor raises the girl as his own in what is an abrupt thematical shift and a great milestone for the character of Thor unanticipated by the movie or the whole franchise making it look like a quick set-up for the next movie where the creators are going to try the warrior-child dynamic which has paid off with Wolverine, God of War, Mandalorian and The Witcher.

If I had to predict Thor's future, he has sealed his fate by adopting the girl as it gives him an excuse to sacrifice himself in the next movie as Marvel Studios evidently have no idea what to do with the character of Thor (and Hulk apparently). It is sad considering that both of his closest Avengers buddies have earned a dignified conclusion to their stories.