MCU Commentary Rewatch: Thor: Ragnarok

(Cover art by Matt Ferguson, for the Blu Ray release. https://www.cakesandcomics.com/)

(Cover art by Matt Ferguson, for the Blu Ray release. https://www.cakesandcomics.com/)

If you’ve been living in a dark cave somewhere, or possibly in another dimension and missed this seminal picture, go right now and buy, borrow, or stream this fantastic 2017 film.

I’m not kidding. Because Spoilers are coming, not just for RAGNAROK but the rest of the MCU. This film is where Phase 3 kicks into high gear, and it’s not to be missed.

Unlike DOCTOR STRANGE which came out of nowhere and blew my metaphorical socks off, I’m honestly expecting a major rankings upset here. Taika Waititi directs a script written by Marvel and MCU veterans Craig Kyle and Christopher Yost, and did it so well he’s got continuing gigs on multiple continents.

But don’t take my word for it…

TL:DR;

Commentary Ranking: #8 of 24

For reference (as if you needed it).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thor:_Ragnarok

Commentary Takeaway:

I stopped taking notes almost immediately when Taika Waititi started singing the Marvel Studios logo–not during the logo, but actually singing it as the pages flipped–and I knew I’d be laughing far too hard to write everything down.

And there was a lot I wanted to take in. Waititi is massively funny, and spends a lot of time cracking jokes while talking about troublesome motion capture actors (named Taika Waititi. But he knows exactly when to stop talking and let the work speak. And speak it does.

Waititi tells us early on that he’s not a fan of doing commentary tracks–or more specifically, not a fan of commentary tracks where people talk over the action. Then he tells a joke that hits hard exactly on the mark of something Chris Hemsworth is saying, in a mock Thor voice.

So while not high up on the technical marks (he also says that he’s forgotten almost everything about shooting the movie save for how fun it was, and if that was the reason you decided to watch with the commentary track on, you were about to be disappointed), it was very entertaining, while still getting some stuff in about the general craft of filmmaking.

Then his two year-old daughter wandered into the recording booth, and the fun really started. Waititi started explaining the movie in terms she could understand, and her responses came in as “oh no!” “Uh oh…” and “Scary!” At one point he asked her if she was going to buy the dvd (as you do), and her “yeah” was heartfelt enough to make the recording engineer laugh out loud.

So if you’ve already seen the movie, and want to hear praise heaped on the actors, it’s definitely worth a listen. If you want humorous anecdotes about production, or detailed analysis of shots and special effects, it’s probably not the track for you.

Purists among you may be turned off that there’s absolutely nothing in the track about the MCU, save for acknowledging that there have been other movies, and that characters from RAGNAROK were in them. But for me, hearing his daughter react to the screen while sitting on his lap is well worth the price of admission.

Commentary Ranking:

1. DOCTOR STRANGE

2. CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR

3. CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER

4. GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, VOL. 2

5. THOR: THE DARK WORLD

6. GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, VOL. 1

7. CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER

8. THOR: RAGNAROK

9. AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON

10. ANT-MAN

11. IRON MAN 2

12. INCREDIBLE HULK

13. IRON MAN 3

14. MARVEL’S THE AVENGERS

15. IRON MAN

23. THOR

24. SPIDER-MAN HOMECOMING

AGE OF ULTRON almost slipped a ranking again, as I didn’t really enjoy the commentary, though it had a lot of technical merit. ANT-MAN stays in the top ten for now, and when (not if) BLACK PANTHER joins the list, I’d rather have Peyton Reed there than Joss Whedon.

BLACK Panther may in fact rearrange the entire list, but I won’t know for sure for a couple hours.