Ragnarök spoils the ending from the beginning. In Norse mythology, ‘Ragnarök’, is the destruction of the cosmos and everything in it. As an audience, we should know the fate of Asgard from the moment we see the title card. This blatant foreshadowing is, for many, a key aspect in why this Marvel movie stands out from the rest. The notion is so bold, it’s ignored, changing the ever-so overdone plot twist ending, to something we should have seen coming but didn’t. Every part of the way the film is directed, produced, written and acted is new, exciting and odd for a movie that was expected to fit into its usual theme of rough, royal, grandiose. Previous films in the Thor franchise have been labelled ‘boring’, or ‘not as good as it should have been’. Thor Ragnarök destroyed this stigma and is now seen as one of the best movies to come out of the MCU. What is interesting is how none of this would be possible without the gleaming city of Asgard and the new a quirky Sakaar. The design is joyful and unexpected, feeding into the theme of the movie. The bold architecture of Sakaar captures the essence of how the movie makes the audience feel, paired with the impenetrable design of Asgard crumbling to nothingness and the hurt it ensues, this movie is the perfect example of the importance of thematic architecture. It’s not as widely talked about as the rest of the aspects that make up Ragnarök. However, I believe it’s what makes the movie what it is. Its architecture supporting storytelling, and even better, enhancing it.
Asgard, having been a location in several different movies beforehand in the MCU, is an established architectural city. Throughout these films, the architecture has changed, a layering of ideas and themes to fit with the context of each movie. As the design teams progress into each new Thor film, logistical issues are fixed. For example, there seems to be no way for natural light to access the palace, there are minimal balconies for a building of that size and the design creates a large amount of unusable space when e first are introduced to Asgard in the first Thor. It seems the logic and technicality of the spaces doesn’t make sense and is sacrificed for an impressive look. Although these practical issues don’t matter in the grand scheme of the Marvel franchise, some engineering and aesthetic issues in the first or second Thor movies are fixed by the time we arrive at Ragnarök. When we first introduced to Asgard, everything is gold, every building has a metallic sheen, and the main palace is the most majestic and opulent of all. Inspired by a pipe organ and taking notes from the Lutheran parish church, Hallgrimskirkja, in Reykjavik, Iceland, the palace extends from the landscape, unrealistically large and dominating. In Ragnarök, Asgard is established as the biggest, most beautiful and oldest city, mixing all previous designs to produce a refined world at its peak, ironically just in time to be completely destroyed. This tragic destruction is what the main storyline is about, proving the need for architecture in stories of this nature. The basic principle was to create a city that was advanced (compared to modern day standards), marrying two, usually opposite, ideas together, helping to emphasize the idea of a distant world. The style was called ‘future antiquity’, by VFX Weasley Seawall. The Asgardians live incredibly long lives, as per the Norse Gods in Norse mythology, they are based on. The city mirrors the idea with a timeless design, never changing only becoming more and more refined, just like its people. This preservation of pretentious grandeur contrasts with Earth’s everchanging architecture further exaggerating between us and this ‘alien’ planet. To achieve this timeless effect, large buildings with minimal decorations are presented in the movies, the accent is on the variation of shape rather than detail. Dense European medieval castles also provided a reference for designers, as well as roman architecture and gothic influences. The city is full of imaginative designs, organic shapes paired with aged stonework and vegetation, to show and help the audience feel the age and life of the city.
In a complete change of scenery, Sakaar is introduced into the MCU in Ragnarök. A city that looks like it pulled directly out of the comic books the entire universe is based on. The style of design is heavily based on Jack Kirby’s illustrations, a man credited, along with Stan Lee, with the beginnings of Marvel. This style was important to the success of the movie as it brought the nostalgia many craved and missed when watching the previous Thor films. The city is considered the ‘trash’ world of this universe, it collects rubbish and scraps from every corner. This idea produces a kaleidoscopic environment from the vibrancy of the scraps and broken ships. This mirrors the Marvel comics and the entire atmosphere created is surprisingly enjoyable and excited for a place that on paper, should be dark and somewhat depressing. Sakaar is the textbook definition of a dystopic society, however, something about its appealing. The buildings are very intricate, layers upon layers of wiring, mechanical plates, engines, and everything in between, the chaos that shows the exact way this society functions. People considered to be nothing in other places are watching an Asgardian King and one of earth’s mightiest heroes battle and beat each other in an arena. Societal hierarchy is flipped on its head and the architecture of the planet supports this with unconventionally stunning buildings created from another people’s rubbish. This ‘Tech Punk’ design doesn’t seem to make sense, but it doesn’t matter, these high-rise buildings, moulded from everything and anything, is exactly what is needed to tell this story.
Thor Ragnarök was a much-needed reboot for the Thor series. The architecture of Sakaar and the destruction of a near perfect Asgard was how the movie did so well. Creating and presenting a new city or something similar in any movie is how the story’s theme and the atmosphere is made. Asgard had already been established in films before Ragnarök, but the refinement and the ultimate desolation of the esteemed city is what made the movie so good. Paired with Sakaar’s outlandish primary colours and disregard for anything vaguely earthly meant the movie hit an exceeded every mark it needed to. The movie is the perfect example of why architecture is so important in storytelling and why the success of any movie can be traced back to the architectural setting.
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