As storytelling twists go, the Thor franchise, especially in relation to its siblings in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, has always been relatively light on shocking revelations. There's nothing in any of the individual films, including the new Thor: Ragnarok that is anywhere on the level of Captain America finding out that S.H.I.E.L.D. is secretly being run by HYDRA, or that Peter Parker's homecoming date was actually the daughter of his arch nemesis. The film does have its share of twists, though, and full credit goes to whoever cut the trailer for effectively masking a lot of key plot points. Obviously, they learned a lot from the "Terminator 2" school of how NOT to make a movie trailer.
The film reveals its first twist early: Hela is Thor's older sister who was banished for her ambition to basically conquer the entire galaxy. Anyone familiar with the comics and even Norse mythology will know that there's some strange familial connection between Hela and Loki; she's supposedly Loki's daughter, albeit of a past incarnation of Loki yadda yadda yadda. I was actually wondering how they planned to address this in the film, and truth be told I like the way they handled it; it's a lot less convoluted this way. It's not that big of a spoiler when one thinks about it, especially considering how early it was revealed in the film, but given that it was conscientiously concealed up until the film's release I suppose it does count as one.
The next major twist, one that goes hand-in-hand with the revelation of who Hela is, is that Odin, before his benevolent Allfather days, was in fact a warmongering, imperialistic sonofabitch who conquered the nine realms with his equally bloodthirsty daughter. This is revealed with great flourish when Hela destroys a Sistine-chapel-like fresco adorning the ceiling of Asgard's throne room depicting Odin and his sons, only to reveal a much older, Byzantine-like painting underneath which chronicles Odin's days of bloody conquest, in which Odin sports an imposing, antler-like helmet much like Hela's. If I may be honest, this was a bit of a wasted opportunity for me; it's been hinted in past installments that Odin was hardly the noble and benevolent ruler that his subjects believed him to be, that he had more than a few dark secrets. Hela and this grim past are easily among the darkest of his secrets, but Odin himself is no longer around to face the fallout, having disintegrated much, much earlier in the film. If nothing else, I would have loved to have seen Hopkins and Blanchett face off in a father-daughter confrontation. I get, however, that it may have upset the delicate balance in tone that Taika Waititi had achieved and so Odin turns into a more benign, Obi-Wan-Kenobi-like presence instead.
The final twist, that Thor would have to destroy Asgard in order to save it, was a pretty clever play on the usual cataclysmic superhero movie ending where the mission is to save the world from blowing up. It was akin to the clever climax of Doctor Strange in which the destruction of Hong Kong was played in reverse. Again, full credit goes to the guys who cut the trailer, who gave us all the impression that it was Hela who would blow up Asgard, when in fact it was not at all in her best interests to do so. I liked this twist, and the maturity of Thor's decision to essentially destroy his homeworld and to finally assume the mantle of King of Asgard. I also liked that the events of this movie did not leave him unscathed, as, aside from his haircut he loses an eye to Hela in their climactic battle. It was fitting to see him wearing an eye-patch, at the end of the film, as he finally accepted his birthright as the new Allfather.
There was at least one aspect of the film that didn't really sit well with me, though.
The manner in which the Warriors Three were dispatched, for example, left me kind of cold. Again, I imagine this was a question of not upsetting the film's tone, but for Thor's closest comrades-in-arms, at least, as they were described in the first film, to die such abrupt onscreen deaths, felt like a bit of a disservice to them. I was glad that at least Heimdall survived, at that Jamie Alexander's Sif, who does not appear in this film, was spared such an ignominious end. Overall, though, between the depictions (or non-depictions) of Odin, the Warriors Three, Heimdall and Sif, I really did get the sense of "Ragnarok," which translates loosely as the end of all things and the beginning of new ones, as Waititi clearly made it a point to discard old characters and bring in new ones.
Natalie Portman's Jane Foster, as well as her sidekicks Darcy and Selvig played by Kat Dennings and Stellan Skarsgard, are nowhere to be found, and to be honest, that's kind of a good thing.
For all of the absences, though, there were a couple of appearances that were riotous fun, like much ballyhooed Matt Damon cameo, in which Damon plays an Asgardian playing Loki in a play about his "death" in the last film. With Chris Hemsworth's brother Luke playing an Asgardian playing Thor, and Jurassic Park actor (and Waititi collaborator) Sam Neill playing an Asgardian playing Odin, the entire scene featuring the play was chock full of fun cameos. I don't know how often Marvel will be able to pull such high profile cameos like this off, but I would be so very glad if this is the start of a new trend for them.
I really want to see this movie again!
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