Now that Thor: Love and Thunder has rumbled into theaters, Marvel fans are blowing up social media with their reactions to the film. While the reviews have been mixed for the fourth installment in the Thor franchise, there’s been a steady common denominator with both viewers and critics: Christian Bale absolutely nails his performance as Gorr the God Butcher.
First introduced in 2012’s Thor: God of Thunder by writer Jason Aaron, Gorr is a terrifying threat who goes on god-killing spree across space and time that is like nothing Thor has ever faced before. For his live-action portrayal, Bale hews closely to the character’s almost colorless look while tossing in influences from Nosferatu to Aphex Twin. (There was talk of giving the character a Kate Bush dance number, but it never made into the film.) The actor also had to work with extremely long nails that apparently were the hardest part of his villainous transformation. Bale has drastically altered his body for roles, but throw long nails on him, and he has no idea what to do.
Despite being buried underneath a considerable amount of make-up, prosthetics, and black ooze, Bale delivered one heck of a performance that Marvel fans have been praising on social media since the film opened on Thursday night. In fact, Bale is so good that they wish there was more of him in Love and Thunder, which clocks in as one of the shortest MCU movies.
You can see just a small tase of the praise for Bale’s performance below:
Christian Bale's performance as #Gorr in the movie is truly brilliant. Can't imagine any other actor in his role. Also, am glad they didn't CGI his face.
But it's seriously disappointing that a potential character like #Gorr didn't get enough screentime as he should've. pic.twitter.com/B7UtlB4QoT
— Multiverse Analysis (@TheAnalystOne) July 7, 2022
Christian Bale never disappoints with his acting skills, he just nailed it as #Gorr . After watching him as God of Butcher no one can deny that he’s God of Acting 🙌 pic.twitter.com/D3RvWriCje
— Jigyanshu✌️ (@iamjigyanshu) July 8, 2022
https://twitter.com/GhostMaseTV/status/1544976111091810304
#ThorLoveAndThunder
Scary, threatening, terrific, dark, emotional. YOU FUCKING DID IT CHRISTIAN BALE pic.twitter.com/9Nqf8zxRGA— francisco tb (@Francis32748807) July 7, 2022
*This is a Christian Bale appreciation tweet*
He was Creepy, Scary, unstoppable and yet he made us cry. Only an actor like Christian Bale could've done that.
Show Stealer. #ThorLoveAndThunder #ChristianBale pic.twitter.com/26jvyEoD6a
— Marvel Stans India (@Marvel_Stans) July 8, 2022
No No No… No Man No!! 😭😭😭
Christian Bale deserved a much better screen time, much better role, much better script and overall a much better MCU debut!! His portrayal of Gorr will stay with me but probably not the movie. #Gorr #ThorLoveAndThunder #ChristianBale 💔💔 pic.twitter.com/En5YaphWJ3— Faraz sayyed (@farazsayyed16) July 7, 2022
The way Christian Bale’s #Gorr was able to switch from menacing to sympathetic, and even funny…shows that this man has acting RANGE #ThorLoveAndThunder pic.twitter.com/ei4mwQ1myD
— Joshua Chenault (@joshuachenault1) July 7, 2022
#ChristianBale's acting is fuckin' amazing as #gorr He made everyone to think what he do is right. He easily steals the show every time he appears. His looks, eyes, laugh every detail of him is terrific. He is one of the finest villain in the #MCU#ThorLoveAndThunder pic.twitter.com/m8uLeLpSab
— Yaser (@yaser_ahamed_) July 7, 2022
Thor: Love and Thunder is now playing in theaters.
