Taika Waititi On Preparing For THOR: RAGNAROK

I'm already starting to get sick of hearing about Thor: Ragnarok, because it seems like so many of the stories that have come out about that movie recently have been centered on how it's either going to be super dark and gritty, or how director Taika Waititi is going to bring a bunch of humor to it. (The reality is it'll probably be both.) Thankfully, the director did an interview with Collider in which, yes, he mentions humor, but he also talks more about his specific approach to the movie and what he wants to bring to the table:

I love that one moment in Avengers when Hulk grabs Loki and rag dolls him. It lends itself to great humor, do you read those comic books? They’re wacky. They’re crazy. I think that‘s exactly what they need, to keep changing it up. They’ve got their dark films, some are more serious, and I think it’s great that they’re mixing it up. I really want to inject my style of humor into this.

I’ve learned that there are really no rules. There’s no road map. They’re very similar to Pixar in that way. They are constantly looking for the best story, they’ll tear everything down to rebuild it to make sure they have the best story. That’s why Marvel is good they keep pushing and pushing and trying to get the best thing possible. That’s what I’ve discovered the way things have changed.

I constantly remind myself that there are terrible movies out there. I try to watch them, some of them, to give myself an understanding of what not to do. Because also with that money comes the idea, “Let your imagination run wild.” Which I think is a very dangerous thing. I think it’s dangerous because you can get into pretty wacky territory. There are things that are too crazy. So the films I like to watch are when they make it relatable to human audiences. I’m used to working with restrictions and that’s when you come up with the more creative stuff. So I’m really not trying to do everything that comes to mind because that’s when it can be dangerous. For instance, I believe as much as possible, how your camera moves and flies around should be limited to the physics of how you could do it in real life. If you’re tracking with a character that’s running off a thing and diving off, I would leave the camera there and not follow them down, because cameras don’t do that. The audience understands that. I’ll definitely bring that understanding of keeping things a bit more grounded.

That idea of keeping the camera locked in a tangible, physical space seems almost like a revolutionary one considering how there seems to be an excessive amount of flying virtual cameras in blockbusters these days. Grounding the camera movement seems like a great way to have this movie stand out stylistically, and that grounded approach combined with the out-of-this-world visuals that we're going to see sounds like it could result in something that's actually pleasing to watch, which might be a first for the Thor series.

Thor: Ragnarok hits theaters on November 3rd, 2017.