“Thor: Ragnarok” marked a reinvention for the standalone series that rotates around the Norse warrior. Taika Waititi took the stodgy serious tone of “Thor” and “Thor: The Dark World,” and tossed it out the window. In its place, the filmmaker added his skewed brand of humor, brought bursts of color in to replace the blue dark visuals of the preceding movies, and there was one more key ingredient: Mark Mothersbaugh.
The composer — who has done it all from working on Wes Anderson movies to “22 Jump Street” to uh, “Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked” — stepped into his first Marvel blockbuster and didn’t disappoint. Mothersbaugh’s score finds the Devo member at his eclectic best. Gone is the faceless bombast of every other Marvel score (okay, there is some pomp and circumstance) and its place is beautifully bonkers electronic pulses and off-the-wall synthesizer scrambles.
It’s great, and Mothersbaugh credits a video essay by the now defunct 🙁 video essay team at Every Frame A Painting for pointing out which direction not to go in.
“We were looking at that, going ‘Wow, OK.’ That helps explain some things that I kind of felt myself,” he told THR. Mothersbaugh says the lack of musical distinction in Marvel movies — and blockbusters generally — can we chalked up to the moviemaking machine that doesn’t leave much space for composers to operate.
“Marvel is so successful, and it seems like it’s because the people that are at the top of the food chain are very integrated into the creative process, which I hadn’t expected,” he explained. “You don’t always see that. A lot of the executives, their big concerns are marketing, and investments, they don’t have time — music is way down at the bottom of the list. Even the directors, sometimes, you are working with them and they are like, ‘Cobbler, cobble me some music.’ And you are kind of treated like that.”
All summed up, Mothersbaugh was able to create, and the result is a memorable score, in an equally memorable movie. Check out the “Thor: Ragnarok” score and video essay below.