Hello there reader, it’s been a while since I did one of these film
review thingy’s so if you’ll indulge I’ll just refamiliarise my good self with the basics….
Who: That’s the simple bit, Thor.
What: God with big hammer (Not a euphemism) defends the 9 realms from
ye olde big bad nasties.
Where: The 9 realms, Greenwich and Charring Cross underground station.
When : Present day.
Why: Mucho dinero for Marvel.Thor: The Dark World is the second movie in Marvels “Phase 2”, the first being Iron Man 3. Both of these films coming after last year’s ridiculously fun and entertaining Avengers Assemble. This juggernaut of a comic book franchise keeps going from strength to strength and will be followed next year with Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Guardians of the Galaxy. Now It’s a sign of how seriously Marvel are treating these films that they signed up Robert Redford in Winter Soldier. Put together a stellar cast for Guardians that includes Bradley Cooper playing a Racoon (yes, you did read that right), Zoe Saldana, Vin Diesel, Karen Gillan (Amy Pond if that helps), John C Reily, Glenn Close, Peter Serafinowicz, Michael Rooker and Benicio Del Toro. These films will be followed by Avengers: Age of Ultron in 2015. Another sign of how much faith they have in what they are doing is that they have already announced what the first film will be in “Phase 3”. That being Edgar Wright’s “Ant Man”.
So, back to the big guy with the hammer (still not a euphemism). Thor: The Dark World picks up from where we last saw the Asgardian God in Avengers Assemble. Having returned home following his adventures in New York he is tasked with bringing order to the nine realms. These guys and gals don’t seem to be playing nicely with each other and after a few short battles, that all seem to be as good as over once “Have hammer, will travel” turns up. Order and balance to the universe seem to have been restored.
Ah, yes but that wouldn’t be much of a film now would it if you rocked up and bought a ticket at your local multiplex. Only to find yourself watching the end credits roll less than fifteen minutes after you’ve sat down with your popcorn and drink. You’d be a smidgen upset and rightfully so. Citizens up and down this great land of ours would be confronting Cinema managers and challenging them to duels. Gauntlets would be thrown down at such an alarming rate that the whole very fabric of society would be in danger of falling apart.
But, fear not dear reader, faster than you can say “Ok, you’ve covered the back story and I’ve played catch up, can you now furnish me with a villain that used to play Doctor Who” up pops an actor that used to play Doctor Who. Christopher Eccleston gets the honour of playing the big bad guy in this film. His character is called Malekith who just happens to be the ruler of the Dark Elves of Svartalfheim. (I know that sounds cool but I just can’t see it working on a business card). His main motivation for his actions is that he and his merry gang of elves were here first. They liked things just the way they were before everyone else came along with all their 9 realms nonsense thank you so very much. With a little help from something called the Aether he starts to plot and scheme his way back to being the way they were. As luck would have it the 9 realms just happen to be heading towards planetary alignment, which makes the whole Malekith evil plan just that little bit easier to initiate. As this alignment only happens once every five thousand years, it does mean it’s almost treated like a race against time to get everything and everyone one annihilated. This does help drive the film and the plot forward. There is however a problem with Malekith. He’s very one dimensional and he never gets anything close to character development. He only really interacts with Thor himself and his back story is given by Anthony Hopkins Odin in a voiceover at the start of the film. When you think of villains who come before in the Marvel films you have some great ones to choose from, Hugo Weavings Red Skull, Sir Ben Kingsley’s The Mandarin and the always scene stealing Tom Hiddleston’s Loki. It’s just a shame that no real effort seems to have been made with Malekith and the screen time he’s given. If I’m being honest it’s his right hand man and senior henchman “Kurse” that gets given far more to do. It’s the films only major failing apart from impossible tube journeys made by Thor in the last act.
For those of you who saw the original Kenneth Branagh Thor, this takes the universe he created and expands on it. We get to a lot more of Asgard itself and its inner workings. There’s even a major aerial battle set piece throw in for good measure that looks like it was lifted straight out of Flash Gordon. However it’s here on Earth, specifically London, were most of the action takes place. Natalie Portman’s Jane Foster finds herself in Greenwich with her intern Darcy. Played to perfection by Kat Dennings, who is also given a lot more to do in this film and has some great scenes. Jane and Darcy are also joined again by Stellan Skarsgard as Erik Selvig. He is best summed up by saying that since we last saw him in Avengers he may have lost the plot slightly. He’s seen sans clothes running around Stone Henge acting like a scientist who’s just had all of his test tubes taken away. This funnily enough gets him sectioned and after being released into the custody of Darcy’s intern Ian, he teams up with Jane and Company to look into some strange energy readings they’ve discovered.
After Malekith’s attack on Asgard that leaves some serious damage both structurally and emotionally Thor realises that he’s going to need some help defeating him. So of course he trots to the dungeon to ask his imprisoned brother Loki if he’d be willing to help him kick some serious dark elf butt and help redeem his previous actions. Not knowing if he can really trust Loki they set off together to track Malekith down. Now without giving the game away too much one of the brothers doesn’t come out of this undertaking to well at all. In fact I’d go so far as to say that for one of them the hunt is not a “low key” affair.
After this three way confrontation is done and dusted the last act transports the hero of the piece and his antagonist to sunny old Greenwich. Apart from the fact it isn’t sunny the final confrontation is executed very well. Lots of bang for your buck, great CGI and like the ending of last year’s Prometheus, the odd space ship falling over.
If you get the opportunity to see this film I would definitely recommend doing just that. Marvel seem to have the golden touch at the moment and with the possible exception of Iron Man Two they have just to make a bad comic book film within the Avengers franchise. The script is polished, Tom Hiddleston does for Loki what Steve Jobs did for the mobile phone and of course it being a Marvel film you have to stay for the credits. They have two stings attached and one features a very good actor mentioned earlier. In closing I just say this. If Kevin Feige, who’s in charge of green lighting all the films that Marvel Studios make manages to keep up this run of form then I suspect it’s only a matter of time before DC throw in the towel and raise the white flag…… and I love DC.
Twitter Review:
Gods & Monsters, Hammers & Elves. Thor keeps you entertained from start to finish.
#StopHammerTime (Sorry)
Useful Links:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1981115/?ref_=nv_sr_1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KTvjFGgGkk
http://marvel.com/movies
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