The youngest and I went to see the latest installment of Thor the other night. My expectations for this film were relatively low, as I was just looking for a fun superhero romp. Critics had given the movie resoundingly positive reviews, so the chances were high that I’d have a good time. I’m happy to report that I did.

I’ll keep this review short and spoiler free, but suffice it to say, Thor: Ranarok was a really fun time with a lot of great action, and was a lot funnier than I expected. It’s apparent that Marvel decided to take an approach with this movie closer to Guardians of the Galaxy, than Iron Man or Avengers. There was a general levity to the film that was refreshing. It didn’t take itself too seriously, despite a rather dark and ominous villain.

The action and special effects were top notch as always, which is probably a bit easier to do when you’re not trying to recreate Earth. The scenes with Hulk were probably the most over the top, but they still worked well in context. If I had any complaint about this movie it would be that there was very little set up to remind you of where things had been left after Avengers 2. I felt like I could have used 2-3 minutes of exposition just to remind me where we were.

My only other complaint would be that the villain Hela was rather bland and generic. I liked a couple of the twists on her backstory, but her character arc was pretty typecast. It’s not to say that Cate Blanchett didn’t do a good job, but there wasn’t much that was original about her. In the end though that was OK, because this movie was more about Thor and learning who he is in the universe. This is done with style and humor, and it made for a really enjoyable two hours on a cold Minnesota evening.