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The New Thor Trailer Is Bad

new Thor trailer
April 10, 2017

I dunno, you guys, but I think the new Thor trailer is actually bad? Dig it:

So, here's the thing: the first Thor movie works in large part because it's funny. I'm perfectly happy to admit this. It's surprisingly lighthearted, with much of the humor revolving around Chris Hemsworth playing a sort of fish-out-of-water royal trying to make sense of a world that should, by all rights, fear and hate him. He's boisterous and frat-bro-y and fun! Like, this is a great scene:

That's funny! People don't smash glasses like they're chugging beers in the halls of Asgard! He's kooky and clever and, whatever. It's fine.

But the new trailer takes the kookiness of Thor as we've seen so far in the films and amps it up several notches. And it does so in a way that is clearly calculated to appeal to braindead twerps who spend all day on social media, like your humble blogger. For instance, this opening shot:

So, this is a rather transparent play on the "record scratch/freeze frame" meme. Annoyingly so. Meanwhile, there's this bit of silliness:

I'm sorry, but this is a remarkably tone-deaf bit of writing. Again, the whole point of Thor is that he's not an average guy—he's a royal whose antics render him out of place in our common world. Having him talk like some schlub—writing him as though he's an actual frat boy instead of a god-like being trying to figure out what's going on in his current situation—is all wrong. The line should be something like "Yes! We've done battle together against the hordes of darkness and villainy!" Or, you know, whatever. Something like that. Not "We know each other! From work!" Don't even get me started on the idea that Thor would consider The Avengers to be "work." That's just nonsense.

Finally, there's ... this.

I'm sorry, but employing this neon-colored nightmarescape screams desperation of the "look, we're fun like Guardians of the Galaxy" variety. It's just ... blech.

Full disclosure, as if it needed to be said: Despite the fact that the new Thor trailer is bad, I will see and probably enjoy this movie.

IMPORTANT UPDATE

A loyal reader who usually agrees with everything I write, I assume, chimed in on Twitter:

Well, obviously that's not right, since this is a bad trailer. But, more importantly, it's not even the best trailer featuring "Immigrant Song"!

Whatever, the new Thor trailer is bad and you know it's bad. You know it deep in your bones. Just deal with it.