“All gods will die.” So vows Gorr the God Butcher, the vengeful supervillain played by Christian Bale in Thor: Love and Thunder. The American Psycho actor makes his Marvel Cinematic Universe debut as the Necrosword-wielding god killer in director Taika Waititi’s sequel to Thor: Ragnarok, slaying Falligar the Behemoth before facing the full might of Thor Odinson (Chris Hemsworth), Jane Foster’s Mighty Thor (Natalie Portman), and Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson). With Love and Thunder rolling out in theaters Thursday, opening night moviegoers are taking to Twitter to share their spoiler-free reactions to Bale’s “masterful” and “menacing” Marvel villain.
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“Christian Bale’s performance as #Gorr in the movie is truly brilliant. Can’t imagine any other actor in his role,” one fan tweeted of the former Batman actor, adding: “But it’s seriously disappointing that a potential character like #Gorr didn’t get enough screentime as he should’ve.”
Wrote another moviegoer praising the performance of The Dark Knight star, “The way Christian Bale’s #Gorr was able to switch from menacing to sympathetic, and even funny…shows that this man has acting RANGE.”
While some compared the monochromatic Gorr to Valak, the similar-looking gothic villain of The Conjuring spinoff The Nun, Bale’s performance is being praised as a “knockout.”
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Still, some took issue with Gorr’s less-than-expected screentime over the film’s 1-hour, 59-minute runtime, making it the shortest Marvel Studios movie since Ant-Man and the Wasp in 2018.
“The God Butcher had the potential to be an iconic villain like Thanos & Green Goblin but the screenplay never allows him to achieve that feat,” one moviegoer criticized. “Christian Bale as an actor adds a lot of depth with his performance but the writing is really weak!”
One fan tweeted praise for Bale’s “fantastic” delivery despite “the short screen time that he had,” concluding Gorr is “so much better than Thanos,” the Mad Titan portrayed by Josh Brolin in Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame.
See more reactions below.
Starring Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Christian Bale, Tessa Thompson, Taika Waititi, Russell Crowe as Zeus, Jaimie Alexander as Sif, and Chris Pratt, Karen Gillan, Dave Bautista, Pom Klementieff, Sean Gunn, Vin Diesel, and Bradley Cooper as the Guardians of the Galaxy, Marvel Studios’ Thor: Love and Thunder is now playing only in theaters.
