Road to Infinity War - Phase 3 - Thor: Ragnarok (2017)

Coming off the back of Phase 2, the one main Avenger that people were not probably crying out for a threequel for, it was Thor.
He had made a promising debut in the original film in 2011 but lost his way in The Dark World, becoming rather dour and dull.
He had more success as part of the ensemble in the Avengers films, provided some excellent moments by Whedon who knew how to use him effectively e.g. "He's of Asgard and my brother.", "He killed 90 people", "He's adopted".
What Thor Ragnarok does so well is reinvent the character of Thor and take him in new directions but also remain grounded in the history of the MCU. For example, the moment that Loki leaps up in delight when Hulk grabs Thor and tosses him around, harking back to The Avengers.
Hemsworth had proved his comedic chops with a scene-stealing turn in the Ghostbusters remake/reboot/reimagining/sequel/whatever it technically was, so it was great to see Waititi harness this superpower for the purposes of good and Hemsworth delivered.
Not only is the character different but the entire film feels worlds (or realms) away from where Thor started his journey. When the first film was announced, there was a danger it could have been a bit too Flash Gordon-y but Kenneth Branagh gave the story a Shakespearean feel by focusing on the family drama side of things.
Director Taika Waititi captures the Eighties, fun, funky space adventure vibe perfectly and delivers Marvel first out-and-out comedy. Avengers has many funny, quotable lines, Ant-Man is very funny but this is a comic adventure through and through.
As already discussed, Hemsworth delivers on his comic promise and he is backed up by Waititi's hilarious revolutionary rock Korg, Mark Ruffalo is a great straight man and comic foil to Thor and then there is the cinematic treasure that is Jeff Goldblum as The Grandmaster, uh, Jeff Goldblum going full Goldblum.
Similar to What We Do In The Shadows, there was a lot of improvisation on set but the final film flows beautifully and there is never a sense of there were lots of scenes left on the cutting room floor.
While the comedy is at the forefront, it would not be a Thor movie without a family squabble for the throne and after a brief reconciliation with their father Odin, Thor and Loki are faced with a psychotic sister they did not know they had played with camp, crazy relish by Cate Blanchett. *Sounds very similar to the plot of the finale of Sherlock season 4*
In terms of the continuing build to Infinity War, it cleverly retcons a moment from the earlier Thor films which featured the Infinity Gauntlet, now in Thanos's possession, by having Hela knock it over and call it a "fake". It is also hinted that Loki, picks up the Tesseract before escaping Asgard which is what leads Thanos to their ship in the post-credit sting.
One suspects that things might not work out so well for the remaining Asgardians and we may have to say goodbye to some well-loved characters but only time will tell.
Until then, we still have a Hulking great slice of Ragnarok and Roll to enjoy.

Infinity Stone counter = 5