Thor: Ragnarok (2017, Taika Waititi) (Patreon)

Mike Catches Up With All The MCU Movies He Skipped: An Odyssey Undertaken Solely For The Purpose Of Watching Black Panther Without Having Some Weird Anal-Retentive Breakdown (Please Do Not Waste Your Valuable Time Arguing With Mike In The Comments About How Dumb This Is, Just Accept His Sickness), Part 10 of 10. Flirts even harder than do the Guardians films with being a full-bore comedy, at times edging toward parody. And I guess watching all these things has finally worn me down and gotten me at least partially invested, because I much preferred the comedy here that's rooted in established character (primarily Banner banter) to the free-floating snarkiness. Thor, previously a solid straight man, suddenly sounds like Deadpool, mock-apologizing to a fire demon for involuntary inattention as he slowly spins around while dangling from the ceiling; that bit might've worked for Tony Stark, too, or for Spider-Man, but [we interrupt this train of thought for a mild cerebral infarction, as it sounds like the sort of complaint that fanboys traditionally make—really can't believe the integrity of this Cinematic Universe is now something I apparently care about even a little bit]. Sorry, where was I? Oh yes. Always happy to see Goldblum, but he's just kinda self-consciously doing his Goldblum-y thing, as if merely being cast in the role does 90% of the work (which it arguably does). Same goes for Blanchett, who looks ferocious but otherwise has very little to do. Feels like the Marvel machine threatened to swallow Waititi whole and he fought back by injecting as much of his goofy sensibility as he could, whether or not it serves this piece of the enormous never-ending puzzle. (His own character, who suggests what it'd be like had Nick Park's Wallace become The Thing, is an almost distractingly amusing highlight.) Call me a weirdo, but I prefer Branagh's amalgam of mundane and grandiloquent in the first film. R.I.P. Bifröst, which never again looked as shimmeringly gorgeous.

IT. IS. ACCOMPLISHED. 

(And no regrets, as this was relatively painless and Black Panther turns out to be my favorite of the lot.)