Fixed. Somehow that one got flagged as spam.

Not sure what’s going on with the comments section – I got the email notification of your response but can’t see it here on the blog. At the top of the article, it shows “2 comments” but when I click on that I only see mine, same with the sidebar. (have had that happen on other sites – don’t know if it’s a disqus thing or what?).

Thanks for the thoughtful response to my brief comment. I see where you are coming from, with the overall difference in tone between the two movies. I agree with your description of JL as “choppy and patchy”. For me, I found the downside of Thor was that it never allowed a moment to be serious – not a moment went by without a joke. Additionally I found the characterization of Thor to be so jarringly different from previous movies or my limited comics exposure that it was disorienting; I think in particular of the scenes where he screams in terror (guy getting melted, getting hair cut). Amusing? Maybe, but they still seemed out of character.

Glad to have discovered your blog – heard you on Reel World Theology and liked what you had to say.

Good question Carl Axel Franzon! I think the difference is that Thor Ragnarok started off by setting the comedic tone pretty early. From that point on, it was pretty consistent with its comedic tone for the majority of the movie. Now in all fairness, that is not to say that every single joke and quip in Thor Ragnarok landed or was effective. So in the example you mentioned about Asgard being destroyed (and basically some serious stuff is happening), I don’t think it’s the best time for a joke. So the critique would apply the same.

As for Justice League, the tone was choppy and patchy. One minute it’s a serious world ending matter, the next minute it was (insert random joke here). There are ways to it, and Justice League didn’t handle that well. I think if you want a good example of how Justice League could’ve easily added humor into their film would be simply take notes from their own animated department. The interaction between Green Lantern and Batman in “Justice League: War” was humorous but not comedic. It didn’t disrupt the tone of the film overall. Plus as we get closer to the end of the film (when the danger gets more serious) we don’t have any tonal disruption with dumb comedic quips. Those can be saved for the very end when the conflict subsides and all is well again in the world. I hope that answered your question. :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOcC1y-9aeU