Short Films: Team Thor

For me the least interesting Marvel Cinematic Universe hero is Thor (Don’t hate me Thor fans). Well that was the case until this latest short film, Team Thor, that was first released during Marvel’s Comic-Con panel. The third film is currently in production under the title Thor: Ragnarok. Prospects for the movie is high with Taika Waititi on helm as the director of the film. Waititi is an idiosyncratic director who has worked with Flight of the Concords and directed the hilarious vampire comedy, What We Do in the Shadows and the very admirable coming-of-age film released earlier this year, The Hunt for Wilderness People.

The short film released in Comic-Con posits what exactly Thor was doing during the events of the recent Captain America movie that involved a confrontation of various superheroes in the MCU. Shot in a mockumentary style format, following the similar sense of humor of What We Do in the Shadows, Thor is seen just lounging around because he wanted some “me time” in Australia with his new normie friend, Darryl. To complete his vacation look, Thor has a thicker beard and is sporting some Hawaiian board shorts. Thor maybe from Asgard, but he dresses like an ugly American.

The short film features classic tropes from the Waititi and Flight of the Concords canon, especially the passive aggressive pettiness of self-absorbed people. There is nothing better than Chris Hemsworth self-awarely playing Thor as someone pining to be called by either Iron Man or Captain America to join their team. My biggest gripe about the MCU movies has always been how homogenized all the movies are in tone and style. With a director like Taika Waititi and this short film, this gives me hope that Thor: Raganarok could be that weird, funny superhero movie that I always wanted. If you told me a week ago that I would be excited about the next Thor movie, I would have laughed at your face. What a great form of advertisement.