This movie works because it realizes it is ridiculous in its grandeur but goes along with it anyway. The movie starts with Thor locked up explaining to what looks like breaking the 4th wall and talking to us about his recent conquests with the Avengers, but then the camera pans in to him talking to a skeleton locked in the cage with him. Thor has gotten himself locked in to get close to Surtur, a demon who is supposed to be involved in Ragnarok, the destruction of Asgard, Thor's planet. Once he gets the info, he cues for his hammer and the audio kicks into some perfect Led Zeppelin's Immigrant Song. Thor single handedly destroys the hell pit and even Surtur who seems to stand about 30-40ft tall.
Upon getting back to Asgard, he finds Loki still alive and busy. Loki has placed his father, comically, in a nursing home on earth, while he pretends to be him and honoring his dead son, Loki. Thor sees right through this and demands to see his father. They go to Earth, and are quickly picked up by Dr. Strange, in a side sequence. Dr. Strange is not happy to see Loki on Earth, last time he was trying to take over the planet. He points them in the direction of the father and prompts Thor to get Loki off the planet, fast.
They meet with their father and he explains he is dying but he feels his daughter is on her way to put her claim on the throne. Thor did not know about having a sister, but she shows up on cue. She gets her strength from Asgard and for the moment they are fine on Earth, but Loki cowardly calls to go home to get away from her, thus giving her a quick ride home. Loki and Thor both get kicked out of the time bridge teleporter thing and they end up on the edge of the galaxy where Jeff Goldblum is Grandmaster. Jeff Goldblum can wear any disguise, he is always Jeff Goldblum. This is where we meet the last Valkyrie, she is a scavenger and very good at that. Thor recognizes her tattoos as a Valkyrie and implores her to come and help him save their planet. She explains that she already did battle with Hela, which she was the lone survivor. She stays on the sidelines until she can't and then they set to get out of Grandmaster's world and back to the rest of the galaxy.
They get back to Asgard just in time to see Hela completely in charge. She is wanting the sword that unlocks the portal thing so she can go out and start causing mayhem all over the world. Heimdall, the blind seer has taken it and is preventing Hela from leaving Asgard. Between Thor, Hulk, and Valkyrie, they form a potent army to fight off Hela and her undead army. Although, Thor has been having nightmares about Surtur being released on his planet, he realizes he can fight the sister for the planet and possibly defeat her.
The Marvel Heroes have been great because they are funny. There are plenty of opportunities, such as casting Goldblum as a Grandmaster of a planet to allow for some comedy and they do not waste it. Tessa Thompson is a new-ish actress and I found attractive and all that, but I am still unsure if she fits the bill as a Valkyrie, which until now, we were all expecting them to be like Vikings, pasty white, super tall, green eyed, Xena warrior types. Tessa has the right attitude and even the free flowing hair in the sequence where they go back in time to see all the Valkyrie's fighting Hela, but she is not a Nordic type of gal. I guess we are going into a new generation, I am used to my heroines to be scantily clad, but Valkyrie's uniform looked like it was made of terry cloth and comfy.
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