The screaming goats are funny the first time they appear on screen, a gift to Thor for his dubious success saving a race of aliens alongside the Guardians of the Galaxy. But the humor quickly fades as the gag is used over and over and over again throughout the course of Thor: Love & Thunder.

It's just one example of the way this movie -- the fourth Thor film, the 29th in the Marvel Cinematic Universe -- wears out its welcome.

After a dramatic, serious introduction to the movie's villain, Love & Thunder switches into full comedy mode. It begins with Thor (Chris Hemsworth) traveling with the Guardians of the Galaxy, which at least gives us a brief cameo by Guardians stars Chris Pratt, Karen Gillan, Dave Bautista, Pom Klementieff and Sean Gunn (along with the voices of Vin Diesel and Bradley Cooper). But they're not a good match, and Thor -- along with his rocky pal Korg (voiced by director Taika Waititi) -- go their separate ways. Their parting has some urgency, however, when Thor intercepts a distress call from fellow Asgardian Sif (Jaimie Alexander), who is under attack by Gorr the God Butcher (Christian Bale). He -- as his name implies -- wants all so-called gods dead because the god of his people did not save his daughter's life. (Fortunately for Gorr, he stumbled onto his indolent god in a desert oasis shortly after his daughter's death and, at the same time, found an inexplicably deadly sword that can kill all gods. ... Forget for a moment that we've seen the gods of Asgard die in previous movies without a special sword involved, let's just assume this weapon is REALLY dangerous.)

Thor arrives in time to save Sif, although not her left arm, and he returns to New Asgard, on the coast of Norway, to save his people from Gorr's imminent attack. (Here we learn that the sword also grants Gorr teleportation powers and the ability to summon and control massive shadow beasts; none of this will be explained, so just roll with it.)

During the battle to save New Asgard, Thor is joined by Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson), who is the last surviving valkyrie (hence her name, I guess) and now serves as king of New Asgard in Thor's stead. He also partners with his old flame, Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), who now wields the reforged Mjolnir -- Thor's deadly hammer, which was broken in Ragnarok and replaced by the massive battle-ax Stormbreaker -- and has gained the powers of Thor. (Apparently, Jane was deemed worthy of lifting Mjolnir because she's dying of stage-4 cancer and Thor once asked the hammer to protect her, back when they were dating. Also, the hammer bestows superpowers now.)

This, by the way, is one of the plot points where Waititi's comic tone does not serve the movie well. What could have been a serious cancer subplot is lost amid all the silliness.

Thor and his compatriots save New Asgard, but not before Gorr's shadow beasts kidnap more than a dozen Asgardian children. (Again, the general campiness of the movie falls flat in scenes where Gorr truly terrorizes the kids. Are they in danger? They seem to be, but the movie's just so darn jolly we know nothing bad will happen to them.)

There's an artful balance between goofy humor, violence and peril that Waititi skillfully demonstrated in Ragnarok that is missing here. Nowhere is this more obvious than Thor's visit to a realm of gods, ruled by the pompous Greek god Zeus (Russell Crowe). What could have been a majestic gathering of divine beings devolves quickly into buffoonery. It's a waste of Crowe's talents.

Then there's the sudden manifestation of "feelings" that suggest Mjolnir and Stormbreaker are sentient beings who make choices and feel jealousy when compared to other weapons. At times, Waititi implies that there's actual romance happening between Thor and Stormbreaker, and that's just ick.

Gorr is a good villain, and the movie provides him with a suitably touching backstory as motivation for his actions. Sadly, Waititi keeps most of the good stuff off-screen; presumably Gorr is butchering gods right and left, but we never see it, so the feeling of menace is diminished. Also, viewers are never given a clear understanding exactly what Gorr's abilities and powers are. Bale's talents, like Crowe's, are wasted here.

The drama of the climactic battle is dramatically undercut by the slapstick fight between the shadow beasts and the children, all of whom have suddenly manifested superpowers. Will there be consequences? Are the children in peril? Of course not, it's a comedy.

Oh, and apparently now Thor can transfer his powers to others at will, without diminishing his own. I bet that would have come in handy when those aliens invaded New York....

I will give credit where it's due. Hemsworth, Portman and Thompson are a lot of fun to watch, and they do what they can with the material they're given. Portman in particular puts some real effort into Jane's struggle with cancer and her desperate attempt to find a cure through Norse magic, but any sense of drama is overwhelmed by a tsunami of jokes. Hemsworth seems to be having a lot of fun still with his character -- which is nice, since the original Avengers lineup is mostly gone now -- but this script has him overplaying Thor's fish-out-of-water bewilderment and general lack of self-awareness. Thor is supposed to be cocky and naive, yes, but not stupid.

Bale and Crowe likewise work within the confines of the script, but the giddy humor throughout drains Bale's villain of any true menace, and Crowe just comes off as an ineffective blowhard. Korg, whose one-note humor was funny in Ragnarok, is now overused to the point that I was wishing his character might wander off somewhere, anywhere, as long as he stopped talking.

I went into the theater hoping and expecting to love this film. I left wondering how it might have been saved.