Thor: The Dark World or "ANOTHER!"

Hello friends. Yes, I know I have broken my flimsy rule of "I'll try and get something out once a week". Apologies, I've had rehearsals for my school play (I'm Mama Morton, it is Chicago), my one year anniversary was last Friday and that involved effort, there have been tests and Halloween things and school and blergh. Also, Pokémon X and Y came out. Nuff said.

I also saw a movie and, in a break from somewhat halloweeny subjects such as witches and devils (daring ones) which were totally planned and not just things I wanted to talk about, I'm going to review the latest Marvel superhero film, "Thor: The Dark World".

I will try and keep this review as spoiler free as possible but I'm not entirely sure as to what can and cannot be considered a spoiler, be warned. I'll also be talking a little about the other Marvel superhero movies (namely Thor and Avengers Assemble) so if you haven't seen them you may feel slightly alienated. Apologies. 

Now, to the movie. I was very much looking forward to this movie. I thought that Thor was one of the better "lead up to the Avengers" movies in terms of plot, humour and characters. Y'see, Captain America was decent in terms of plot but fell down in terms of characters (the villain was incredibly meh) and the humour was fleeting (thought did enjoy cap punching Hitler in the face). Also, Cap is a wee bit boring, but I'll get back to that. Iron man was better in terms of characters because Tony Stark is charisma on a stick but the plot, oh the plot. How it did meander. The humour was good but, holy shit, if I had a euro for every time I wondered "where the hell are they going with this?"... I would have more money than I have now. Thor was good because they knew where their strengths lay. They could be dramatic when they needed to be but they weren't afraid to make jokes. It had a good grasp of what it wanted to do and set up things that needed to be done. It wasn't perfect but out of the three, I felt it was the strongest. 

Back to this movie. Basic plot summary: There are some evil elves (don't laugh) who want this evil dark scary red weapon dust called the "aether" to bring the universe back into darkness. They don't like the Asgardians very much cos they almost wiped them out a long time ago. Now they're back and they want their evil scary dust. Also, Thor misses his earth girlfriend. Discuss. 

Yeeeeeah, the plot is average but it knows what it's doing. It's no Iron Man "well, Ima just fly around and break international laws until the plot shows up". There is a Maguffin, a countdown and a clear villain. There are stakes. Mmmmm steaks..... Shh, Rachel, focus. So, let's talk about what's good.

Firstly, I absolutely LOVE the design for Asgard. Remember way back when, when I as talking about the design for Krypton in Man of Steel? It's a little like that but it's there for keepsies. I don't know if it's my Celtic blood but I'm a sucker for the twisty, quasi-"book-of-kells" stuff. It's just so cool. Throw in Chris Hemsworth in some stylised armour and some modern technology-ish stuff and I am one happy movie goer. And it's only five minutes in. 

Another good point to mention: Loki's back. Loki is another reason I really liked the first Thor over the other lead up movies: Loki is a strong villain. Red Skull and random "I like money and power" guy have nothing on Loki. Loki is relateable. Watching his struggle in the first film, you can understand the choices he makes and ask yourself if you would do the same, given the circumstances (though realistically, it's unlikely you'd ever be torn between your Frost Giant parents and your Norse Gods ones. You'd choose the Norse Gods, duh.). He is, ironically, very human. But he's still threatening, there's still the necessary malice because his loyalty is never certain and you're never sure what's going on in his head. He is complex and an all round great character. And in this film (this isn't a spoiler because it's in all the trailers) he is working with the good guys. 

Now, I can't tell you why because that is a spoiler but you really do get to see more of Loki's vulnerability in this film. And not a "hulk smashing him around a bit, puny god" physical vulnerability but true, emotional fragility. It's very well done on the part of Tom Hiddleston. Actually, all of the acting is great here, props to everyone. Not only do we see that layer of weakness to Loki but we get more of the Trickster God element that was lacking slightly in the previous two films we was in. Loki has some fun with his snark and his illusion powers (the line, "God bless America" factors in. It's hilarious. But you need to be there) One small qualm was the lack of funny awesome hat but I survived. 

Join me, and together we shall wear all of the silly hats.
And maybe rule the world or something.

More on the characters, Kat Dennings' makes a return as the ever hilarious and generally awesome Darcy, Jane Foster's intern and friend. There is a shoe motif. Again, you have to see it. Also very funny are Chris O'Dowd, in a relatively small but memorable role, Stellan Skarsgard returning as Dr. Eric Selvig (he helps forward the shoe theme) and Johnathan Howard as Ian the intern. 

Then of course there are Thor and Jane, played by Chris Hemsworth and Natalie Portman. They... exist. I said that the first Thor movie knew its strengths, as does this one. So it leaves the two leads off sreen as much as possible. It's probably not a good sign when Thor needs to be sidelined for the good of his own movie, but that's kind of the case here. It's not the fault of the writing or the actors, it's really just the fact that the character is not that interesting. In a lineup of interesting, intelligent, charismatic characters, Thor ends up  the lesser. He's mostly confined to action and punchlines (ie. he's a Norse God and he has to take the tube, har har har) much in the same way Cap was. It's not to the film's detriment but it does make one wonder what could have been done were the protagonist not so... constricting to the writers. Oh, and they do try. There is character development and we see him grow it's just not the part of the movie one remembers. i remember the shoes being mentioned four times better than I remember half of the soul searching scenes and the "I have slight daddy issues" scenes. It's not bad, just a smidge boring. But they try, points for effort. You get a gold star, writers.

Then there's Jane. Here's the thing with Jane... in the first movie she had a reason for being there. She was the eyes through which we, the audience, saw Thor change and become better. She helped him along his journey. Here... that's gone. Here all she serves for is a Maguffin related source of tension (no spoilers, shh) and as "something to pine for". She doesn't feel like a proper character because she has no goals of her own in this film. In the former she wanted to get her research back from shield and she wanted to figure out what was going on with this guy who fell from the sky (must... not make... raining men reference). Here, she starts out doing research on stuff (spoilers do not allow me to elaborate) but fairly promptly drops it for reasons and Eric and Darcy do all the science from there on. She's a plot device, essentially and that's no fun, especially considering that I liked the character in the first Thor. 

What else was in this movie? Oh yeah, Christopher Eccleston! 

I'm sorry, he has nothing on David 

See? Looka dat face

Well, he doesn't look like that. Chris #2 here plays Malakith, the evil elf leader dude. He wants to destroy the world... for reasons. Remember how I was praising Loki for being a layered, sympathetic villain. Yeah, Malakith is the opposite of that. And as if it wasn't enough, for half of the film he's speaking another language. Yes movie, because we needed another barrier to making him relateable. We really learn very little about him other than: he is ruthless and wants to plunge the universe into darkness. I'd much prefer if we knew what his favourite colour was, that would at least give us something else to go on. Besides, next to "evil is fun", "I want to destroy the world" is one of the laziest villain motivations out there. They try to get across that he wants revenge as well but that really doesn't factor much into his plan, so I ignore it (hey, so does the movie). Going back to a good villain, Loki wants to rule. That's simple and could be seen as lazy, yes, but we also understand why he wants to rule. He's had this promised to him, he's incredibly arrogant and believes he deserves power, and he resents his brother. We understand him. I have a feeling understanding Malakith would just open up plot holes. Ones other than the ones Malakith is trying to open (spoilers, you have to see it).

That, and his minions look like power ranger minions with teletubbie masks on. Very silly. Not very impressive.

Shh, not here you're not.

Overall, while this movie had some big 'ol flaws, it had a strong core, a well handled balance between humour and seriousness and some great characters to cover for the mediocre. I would definitely recommend going to see it, be you a comic book fan, a sci-fi fan, an action fan or just a straight up fan of movies. It will not be a waste of your time, you will probably enjoy yourself at least a little. Happy belated Halloween.

Embrace the Madness