A good old-fashioned adventure, keeping the plot simple enough to allow space for Taika Waititi’s signature love of weirdness to shine through.

Hemsworth has always been likeable as the smug superhero-god with the Adonis-like physique to match, but the risky attempt to transfer that charisma or to spread it around to other characters is not a gamble that pays off.

... Not just the best Marvel movie yet made, but a bona fide camp comedy classic: fast, bright, gaudy, prickly, antic and fun.

The director’s all-you-need-is-love mantra just seems like a safe off-ramp for his narrative tangles—a hard message to beat, but not exactly one that feels earned.