Spider-Man: Homecoming vs. Thor: Ragnarok: Movie vs. Movie Issue #9

Spider-Man: Homecoming vs. Thor: Ragnarok: which one is better?

Though Marvel Studios has been consistent in delivering ultra-successful superhero blockbusters for a number of years in a row, if you break it down into individual years, and take a retrospective look, not all of their movies were huge standouts. Example: 2013 had Iron Man 3 and Thor: The Dark World: two sequels that, though successful, are considered fairly low in the overall MCU rankings. 

This year, though, has to be Marvel’s best year yet. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 satisfied most fans in delivering a sequel as fun as the first, Spider-Man: Homecoming successfully rebooted Spidey, and most recently, Thor: Ragnarok beat all previous Thor movies at the box office, and became among the highest-rated Marvel movies ever. 

While I really enjoyed Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, it’s not in the running for the best MCU entry of 2017, for me (also I don’t want to do a three-way-battle of movies because that would make this thing way too long, which it already is anyway). It might seem unfair to compare two considerably different superhero films, but Thor: Ragnarok and Spider-Man: Homecoming share many similarities, beyond just conventional superhero elements. Full spoilers ahead as I delve into both, and attempt to determine which one was, overall, the better Marvel adventure!

1. The Plot 

Spider-Man: Homecoming: The plots of these MCU movies are, usually, pretty straight forward (Examples: Captain America: Civil War: heroes in conflict. Age of Ultron: gotta stop Ultron and his army. Ant-Man: break in and steal some shit), and, rarely (if ever), are the strongest overall aspect.

 

The great thing about Homecoming’s story is how small-scale it is. There’s no blue laser going up into the sky and a faceless army to fight and a scheming villain to destroy which will thus destroy the subsequent army. All it’s really about is some guys trying to steal some weapons, and Spider-Man trying to stop them. And it’s great.

But that’s just the Spider-Man part of the story. Then there’s Peter Parker trying to keep up with school and deal with concealing his secret identity and bullies and liking a girl—all the usual stuff we’ve seen in a Spider-Man movie before, but it’s all done very well. What sets it apart are the connections to the greater cinematic universe. Spider-Man is no longer operating in a void, he’s a very young (maybe the youngest?) superhero in a world full of superheroes, and he literally just fought alongside them in Civil War, but now he’s back to street level crime stopping, and wants to prove himself as someone worthy of joining the Avengers. 

The plot is simple while at the same time decently layered, with the worlds of Spider-Man and Peter Parker crashing together with the ingenious reveal that the villain he’s been pursuing, Vulture, is also the father of the girl he’s taking to the homecoming dance. The one weakness about the plot is also a strength: the connections to the MCU. To see this movie out of context from the other films that predate it (especially Civil War), it likely won’t seem as coherent or straight-forward, though it still manages to stand fairly well on its own, and recaps Civil War with a great prologue.

Thor: Ragnarok: though this is more of a direct sequel than Homecoming is, Ragnarok is still somewhat of a reboot, because it changes the tone and content of the plot quite a bit from the previous Thor movies. Quick recap: Thor = origin story, largely set on earth, Thor: The Dark World = largely inconsequential, sets up future films, super weak villain. Ragnarok follows up the cliff hanger ending of Dark World, with Loki on the throne in Asgard disguised as Odin, and the ending of Avengers: Age of Ultron, which had Thor set out on a quest to find the infinity stones and stop Ragnarok: the destruction of his home world.

The way the endings of those two movies are dealt with was, for me, funny and unexpected. It begins immediately with Thor trapped by Surtur, a fire monster, and explaining he hasn’t been able to find the infinity stones, but he does know how to stop Ragnarok: by killing Surtur, which he manages to do before the opening title even drops. Amazing. Then, we go straight to Asgard and Loki is identified by Thor as an imposter, then we zoom to earth and see Dr. Strange for a minute before finding out Odin is about to die and let his daughter Hela (Thor’s sister, Goddess of Death) free from her prison, and she is going to take over Asgard. 

The pace of Ragnarok is extremely quick to begin with, then it settles down somewhat, once Thor gets to the planet Sakaar, but it never really lets up. There’s action and humour and craziness at every turn. The story doesn’t simply repeat what was done in the previous Thor movies, and it doesn’t tell a simple end-of-the-world story, either, even though that’s really what it is at its core. But again, like Homecoming, Ragnarok is so strongly connected to previous films, that to have not seen the previous films means to not fully understand what’s happening. 

Verdict: this is one of those things that’s tough to compare. Ragnarok and Homecoming are telling two completely different kinds of stories about two completely different kinds of superheroes. It might come down to your tastes: do you like high school teen comedies, or fantasy adventure comedies? Here’s how I look at it: which one did their respective stories better? Ragnarok is epic, but the story material, sometimes, clashed with the tone, whereas Homecoming’s story fit the tone perfectly, and somehow, felt utterly original in the pantheon of Spider-Man stories and modern teen comedies. Also, Homecoming ultimately stands better on its own compared to Ragnarok, as a contained story, that doesn’t rely as strongly on previous films.  

Winner: Spider-Man: Homecoming

2. The Heroes 

Thor: Ragnarok: Thor has never been my favourite Avenger, but since his debut in 2011, he has only gotten better with each movie. Finally, here, he is truly the badass character I have been waiting for him to become. He’s still arrogant and ultra-powerful, as perfectly exemplified in the opening action scene, but after Odin dies, he goes through some trials and is a bit out of his element. He doesn’t have his hammer, he’s on an unfamiliar world, and he’s among (some) unfamiliar characters. The things he goes through make him more interesting, and in the end, he isn’t just in the same place as when the movie began, which I really appreciated.

As for all the other heroes, having Hulk back was even more awesome than I had hoped for. Hulk talking worked better than I thought it would, and seeing him beat himself up when he turned back into Banner was unexpected and a little scary. The dynamic between Hulk/Banner and Thor was perfect and hilarious, as was the dynamic between newcomer Valkyrie and the aforementioned heroes. But the best new character of all has to be Korg. What an absolutely incredible creature. I’ve been quoting him ever since I saw the movie. 

Spider-Man: Homecoming: If I had to pick one single favourite superhero of all-time, I would probably go with Spider-Man. I really disliked the interpretation of the character in the Amazing Spider-Man films, but was really pleased with the direction of the new Spidey, and liked him right away when he was introduced in Civil War. In Homecoming, we see a Peter Parker in high school in the modern day, which makes it feel fresh, despite being relatively the same as what we’ve seen before. There wasn’t enough web slinging for my likings, but what I did like were some of the gags and innovations in action, such as having Spidey in the middle of a field where shooting web won’t help him, and being trapped in a warehouse he can’t get out of using strength alone. 

Iron Man’s presence in this movie was felt throughout, despite him only appearing for a few minutes over the course of the entire runtime. I’m glad it didn’t become too Iron Man-centric, though. It was squarely focused on exploring Spider-Man’s climb from a street-level crime stopper to an established superhero. 

Verdict: In the trailers, it seemed both of these movies might fall into the trap of Civil War and become team movies instead of solo films, but thankfully that didn’t happen in either case. So which one had the better hero? What it comes down to for me is, which central character was more compelling? I still can’t help but feel Thor is too powerful and invincible to be fully sympathetic towards. Even though he became damaged and was defeated more times than he won, I felt a stronger connection with Peter Parker/Spider-Man and the trials he went through, and that was without two previous movies. He might not have been as badass as Thor, but I cared more about him. 

Winner: Spider-Man: Homecoming

3. The Villains 

Thor: Ragnarok: In the first Thor, there were the Frost Giants. Meh. But there was also Loki, who went on to become the best villain the MCU had to offer in The Avengers. In the second Thor, there was the dark elf Malekith. Yawn. Now, we have Hela, The Goddess of Death, who I quite enjoyed the first time I saw Ragnarok, but when I saw it a second time, I found her less impressive. 

Some of the positives: the design for her is awesome, she gets just enough screen time, her backstory is conveyed in a cohesive and visually stunning way, and her motivations are clear and understandable. But the biggest positive of all is she’s played by Cate Blanchett. If it had not been for her in the role, I think Hela would have ended up being just another Thor villain, but she isn’t. Though I did like her, some of her “funny” lines fell flat, and she did the usual toying with the hero instead of just killing him at the end. Also, for being the Goddess of Death, it didn’t seem like she inflicted all that much death. 

Hela may have been the main threat, but there were also side villains who were even more interesting, namely Jeff Goldbloom as Grandmaster. He’s a playful, eccentric, charismatic character, who I can’t imagine being played by anyone else. But he’s also mean, and melts his own cousin. I love it. 

Spider-Man: Homecoming: the side villain, The Shocker, is dumb, and the movie acknowledges it. But Adrian Toomes/The Vulture is great, thanks largely to Michael Keaton in the role. He is officially the go-to-guy for flying characters in superhero movies. First Batman, then Birdman, now Vulture. He not only felt like a worthy villain to this newbie version of Spider-Man, he isn’t a character we’ve seen in a movie before, and the way he connects to the larger cinematic universe by using tech salvaged from the Battle of New York is excellent. But a greater connection comes later with the reveal that he’s the father of Liz, girl Peter is taking to prom, and he knows Peter is Spider-Man. It was such a simple and brilliant story point that made him that much more threatening, but also relatable. Spider-Man is well-known for his rogue’s gallery; they could have easily redone a villain from one of the other movies, but who would have thought they could make Vulture this cool and menacing? 

Verdict: This is where Homecoming has the biggest leg up on Ragnarok. Both villains were played by incredible actors, both of them looked cool and were badass, but we are given a greater number of effective insights into Vulture’s backstory and motivation than we are Hela. Even though there’s the familial connection between the hero and villain in Ragnarok, the connection between villain and hero in Homecoming was stronger, more unexpected, and built to a more emotionally-driven climax.

Winner: Spider-Man: Homecoming 

4. The Action

Spider-Man: Homecoming: the strange thing is, I remember all of the big set pieces, all of the action sequences, and all of the fight scenes, and I liked all of them, but none of them stuck in my mind as particularly excellent. I loved actually seeing Spider-Man save people—it felt like a long time since a superhero movie featured the hero just saving regular people from disaster—and his attempts to stop what were basically a gang of thieves, not some super-being trying to take over earth. The scenes of Spidey at the Washington Monument and on the Ferry were really exciting and fun and easy to follow, but the one scene I felt lacked a bit was the final battle with Vulture, which was sometimes blurry and hard to follow and looked overly computer-generated. 

Thor: Ragnarok: we literally kick off with the best fight scene Thor has been in since The Avengers. Damn. Then, we jump to a brief but memorable skirmish with Hela in which Thor’s hammer is destroyed. Wow. We get Hulk vs. Thor, round two. Applause-worthy. The pursuit in the space ships. Thor fighting Hela. Hulk fighting the giant wolf. Skurge taking out a bunch of zombie dudes with his machine guns. Heimdall chopping zombie dudes up with his sword. It’s insane. The action is abundant, out-of-control, but not excessive. It’s skillfully directed, memorable, and extremely fun.   

Verdict: I think Thor wins just for that opening action scene alone. The Spider-Man action was satisfactory, but didn’t surprise me the way Thor’s action did.

Winner: Thor: Ragnarok

 

5. The Comedy

Thor: Ragnarok: both of these movies are extremely funny, but the comedy doesn’t hijack the action, or emotion, or the stakes. Some people were surprised by how funny Ragnarok was, but I think they forgot that Thor has always been a pretty funny character since his debut. Sure, he used to be much more stoic and arrogant, and has lightened up in recent years, but he definitely has never been funnier than he is here. 

As far as comedic relief goes, I think just about everyone has a moment of levity at some point, but the character who had me busting my guts laughing more than any other was Korg. Put that guy with the Guardians of the Galaxy. Please. I beg you.  

Spider-Man: Homecoming: Spider-Man has some decent quips, and is more reliably funny than Tobey Maguire or Andrew Garfield ever were. The sidekick/comedy relief, Ned, is funny without being over-the-top or overbearing, and every time Tony Stark is on-screen, it’s charisma city, and I’m pretty sure I at least giggled at every one of his appearances. 

Verdict: Both movies are funny, no question. However, not every joke lands in either one. It’s inevitable. Even the greatest comedies of all-time have some jokes that aren’t all that funny. But I think more jokes actually worked in Homecoming. While they didn’t all generate the same level of laughter, I found it more consistent throughout. When the jokes hit in Ragnarok, they really hit, but when they didn’t, they really didn’t. 

Winner: Spider-Man: Homecoming

6. The Music

Spider-Man: Homecoming: composer Michael Giacchino usually composes a pretty excellent film score, but his music for Homecoming doesn’t come close to the epic Danny Elfman score from the 2000’s Spider-Man films. The only part of the score that’s memorable for me is the opening arrangement of the 60’s Spider-Man TV show theme. Other than that, it’s another MCU score that’s just for background listening. 

As for the songs included, that’s another story. Every song choice was perfect, and ended up being much more memorable than the original soundtrack. I especially loved the use of “Blitzkrieg Pop” by the Ramones. I’d say the songs made up for the less-than-great Giacchino score. 

Thor: Ragnarok: unlike most of the MCU movies, the Ragnarok score by Mark Mothersbaugh is instantly awesome from the first note, noticeable throughout, and memorable. The epic, techno-infused 80’s synth sound never ceased to impress me, and fit the weirdness and boldness of the movie. But what about songs? There was only one, “Immigrant Song” by Led Zeppelin, first heard in the teaser trailer. Not only did we get to hear it right away in the movie during the amazing opening action scene, we hear it twice, with both action scenes edited to the beat of the song. 

Verdict: it’s a clear winner here. Not to take away from Homecoming’s impressive song choices, but Ragnarok delivered the one-two punch of great original score and perfect single song choice. 

Winner: Thor: Ragnarok

Conclusion: the goal of this breakdown is not really to determine if one film is better than the other. More to the point, I’m trying to highlight how awesome both of them were, and analyze what it was about them that was so awesome. One is a high school comedy action film, the other is a space fantasy comedy action film. Both are extremely well done, but ultimately so different, I can’t fairly call one the better film. I haven’t been keeping score, but I think based on each category, Spider-Man is, objectively, the better of the two. But I’m not calling it just yet…

I didn’t compare everything, obviously—for instance, the visual effects in both were fantastic, though I think they were slightly more flawless in Ragnarok, simply for there being so many outlandish things that I didn’t even question, while some of Homecoming’s environments looked a little fake when they shouldn’t have—but the comparison I’ll use to come up with a personal winner is my initial reactions to both. 

I came out of the theater laughing and overjoyed after both movies. My expectations were lower for Spider-Man because a) I had been let down three times before this, b) it was from an unknown director, and c) the trailers were average. I had much higher expectations for Thor, a) I loved the director’s previous films, and b) the trailers were excellent. 

I was totally surprised by how amazing Homecoming was, and the same went for Ragnarok. But Ragnarok far-surpassed my much-higher expectations. I didn’t think a Thor movie could be that fun. I already knew Spider-Man had the potential to be that great. 

It comes down to what came before. I don’t think Homecoming is the best Spider-Man movie. I still think Spider-Man 2 is the best. But Thor: Ragnarok is easily the best Thor movie of them all. My brain tells me Homecoming had a more satisfying narrative and characters and development, but I’m going with my heart, because I had even more fun with Ragnarok and for all its flaws, its successes shone even brighter. 

So there you go, since I made myself pick one, I went with Thor: Ragnarok. But I’m curious: if you managed to read through all of my rambling (or maybe even read some of it and you just skipped to the end to see what I came up with), which movie did you enjoy more? Are you on the same page as me, or am I a total idiot and got it wrong? Leave a comment and let me know!