There’s nothing worse than an unfunny comedy. Eagle vs. Shark first brought Taika Waititi to our attention and from the start, the writer-director expressed little interest in rhythm, structure, and tone. Not much has changed. What was once the work of an enfant terrible now plays as terribly infantile as it is obscenely over budgeted. The hardest part of creating a film of this kind is establishing a fantasy universe and a set of rules by which to play. The art direction is more befitting a Candy Crush Theme Park than a tale of a Norse God. Waititi’s tasked with connecting the dots between action scenes that rely so heavily on CGI he might just as well have released a cartoon. The constant campy winking at the audience shows little regard for myth and legend: Zeus reduced to a dancing cheerleader twirling his bolts as if they were batons or Thor (Chris Hemsworth) running around in a hot dog costume. And what justification, other than “Because we felt like it,” is there for shooting the climactic battle scene in black-and-white? Thor is hell. I came for the intermittent 3-D effects and stayed for the air conditioning. (2022) — Scott Marks
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