Christian Bale

Post Credits Scene: Taika Waititi's Thor Love and Thunder was a disappointment of godlike proportions, featuring a villain that deserved a much better film.

A more challenging version of this film would have opened after the satirical pre-credits scene — the one in which Gorr comes face to face with the deity Rapu, and has his faith crushed before his eyes. A fun reading of this character — my reading of this character — suggests that he is the ultimate millennial icon. Whichever way you choose to cut it, Gorr is by far the most memorable character in an otherwise forgettable film. This would have allowed the audience to draw its own conclusions about Gorr’s backstory, and in a way, made us more active participants in his revenge quest. An Atlantic article from last year, titled A World Without Children, cited millennial idols such as [Miley Cyrus](https://indianexpress.com/about/miley-cyrus/) and Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez as saying that they weren’t sure about bringing kids into the doomed world that they had inherited. As the generation that has endured a financial Flipping the frankly irritating MCU trope of making the antagonist an evil clone of the hero, Gorr in Love and Thunder is quite literally the antithesis of Chris Hemsworth’s Thor. Generating empathy is always the first step in creating an engaging villain, and this is probably the biggest reason why Love and Thunder introduces its antagonist before reintroducing Thor. He’s the rare villain who feels like he’s trapped in a film undeserving of his presence. Which is why we were all willing to forgive the poor CGI at the end of Black Panther, a film whose excellent villain remained compelling even when he was turned into a big computer-generated blob in the final act. A fun way to judge a Marvel movie, now that they’ve been dissected in every manner imaginable, is through the villains. [fan-service problem](https://indianexpress.com/article/entertainment/hollywood/spider-man-no-way-home-is-a-middling-mcu-film-with-a-major-fan-service-problem-7683540/), and a major tone problem, and a major creative oversight problem…