Thor: Ragnarok should be considered amongst the best MCU movies just because of the fact that it literally did so much! Not only did Taika Waititi’s amazing comedic take at the character work for the film, but amidst all that laughter, the movie solved a whole lot of MCU queries that people had watching the previous movies. Thor is supposed to be amongst the top guns of the MCU and this film made sure that he actually is (which the previous 2 solo films did not!). So, it is a no-brainer that this was the best solo Thor film and we need some more of this before the God of Thunder retires.
Taika Waititi stripped away everything that did not work in the previous films. He switched the useless Warriors 3 with 3 most amazing characters, the Incredible Hulk, Valkyrie, and the lovable Korg. Instead of dragging the plot of Thor being hung up on Jane Foster for no reason at all, this movie dumped her for good. Two movies and we did not fall in love with Asgard, so the Golden city was reduced to ash! Also, the MCU did not really use Odin as well as they could, so this film gave him an honorable exit.
While most of us loved the direction that the film took as it was totally unique and never seen before, it could have been entirely different from what we saw. Director Waititi revealed that Ragnarok almost happened on Valhalla instead of Asgard. The movie took place on 4 fronts as it swung from Earth to Sakaar, to Surtur’s realm to the most penetrable impenetrable city Asgard. As talked above, the final result that we saw was the movie keeping its word of the title, “Ragnarok.”
It was a prophecy which had to be fulfilled anyhow, and Thor actually understood that at last, as he let Surtur do his thing, destroy Asgard and Hela along with it. The foundation of the planet was demolished but then again, it survived as Asgard is not a place, it is a people. The thing that interests us now is that the early draft of the film would have actually had the bulk of the story take place on Valhalla and not Asgard. Taika Waititi recently talked about the early plans that he and Marvel had for the film, as he revealed on The Empire Film Podcast that:
There were versions of the story in the very beginning were we weren’t even on Asgard. We would spend a lot of time in Valhalla. Actually went to Valahalla and had this big showdown there but that idea only lasted a couple of weeks.“
So, the big showdown in Valhalla would have marked the destruction of that realm and not Asgard. But then, what we got was much better as it ended the storyline for Thor, and simultaneously marked a new beginning.
For those of you who don’t know, Valhalla is the Hall of the Dead, in the Norse Mythology, as it is the place where the souls of valiant warriors go for peace. The Valkyries are traditionally associated to it as their duties are to transport the souls of dead warriors to this realm. It is pretty intriguing that Marvel was considering to introduce Valhalla in the MCU which has been treated as a sort of “afterlife dimension” in the comics. We would have probably got scenes of more Valkyries being in that particular dimension as they were amongst the ones who actually died fighting the Goddess of death.
But it is good that this idea only lasted for two weeks and the film went in the direction we saw instead. The final Thor film being without Asgard is not what we might have wanted to see. If Waititi wants to take that kind of a route, then it was essential for him to strike off Asgard completely. So if we get another Thor movie if Chris Hemsworth gets a renewed contract from Marvel, then we could see Waititi return leading Thor to another space Journey.
For now, Thor will make his return presumably for one last time in the MCU, in Avengers 4. It comes out on May 3, 2019.
