httpss://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuTYo9tofSY

Who knew the end of everything could be so fun? The reviews for Thor: Ragnarok are in, and everyone seems to agree: Taika Waititi’s first Marvel movie is the most enjoyable Thor movie to date – but that might not be quite the blessing one would assume.

“Ragnarok is the child of confident filmmaking and understanding of what the Thor franchise could have always been,” he wrote, adding that the movie “Sets the new standard by which the entire MCU will have to ad to, including the upcoming Avengers: Infinity War. Ragnarok is an intense space opera that genuinely cares about every character having a journey and doesn’t waste a second of screen time on anything artificial.”

The movie might be too enjoyable, with a number of critics noting that the fun undercuts the dramatic tension that the film – about a threat to destroy Thor’s home of Asgard – requires.

“Comic-book movies have spent a long time striving to be taken as serious, grownup entertainment but Thor: Ragnarok is almost an admission that you can’t play this material straight,” wrote The Guardian’s Steve Rose.

“The Guardians of the Galaxy movies, Spider-Man: Homecoming and even Ant-Man struck an enjoyable balance between the absurd and the serious that Ragnarok just doesn’t quite nail.”

For the BBC’s Nicholas Barber, the problem with the movie is that “It’s all so bubbly and inconsequential that it can feel as if you’re watching a hugely expensive sitcom episode. For much of the running time, the heroes are bantering and squabbling on the Grandmaster’s glittery planet, and they seem to be light years away – emotionally as well as geographically – from anything that’s happening on Asgard, let alone on Earth. In theory, the fate of the universe is at stake. In practice, you’ll care more about Thor’s new haircut than Hela’s reign of terror.”