Thor: The Dark World

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.

Now as movie reviews go you can’t really argue with the above information but I suspect that I may need to expand on that just a tad. So beginning at the start (always best I find) I shall develope on the five W’s a little.

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

Avengers Assemble

Well here we go my first review.

Where to start?
For those of you not in the know “Avengers Assemble” is not the instruction manual for a new piece of Ikea flat pack furniture, oh no. It’s a Film that’s been five years in the making.
Ever since Robert Downey Jr. donned a shiny metal red and gold suit back in 2008 all roads have led to this point and after two Iron Man, a Hulk, a Thor and a Captain America film the most expensive backstory in Hollywood history was complete.

The erstwhile Samuel L Jackson’s Nick Fury, who seems to have been in as many Marvel films recently as the cameo whore Stan Lee, brings together a team of superheroes (and a couple of plot holes) to save the world from a Tom Hiddleston’s Loki and an army ably provided from acme’s “Rent a Goon” department.

These aforementioned superheroes come in all shapes and sizes and happen to include Scarlet Johansson’s Black Widow, a woman who isn’t just put in for geek eye candy and plays an important part in keeping the story arc moving forward.  Chris Evans, Steve Rogers Captain America’s is a man out of time but surprisingly not out of place. His leadership skills in the third act keep Earths last stand grounded in reality and he’s written to perfection.
The star of the show however has to be Mark Ruffalo’s Hulk. A character, if you believe what you read in the press, he has signed on to reprise a further six times on the big screen and rumour has it the small screen too. “Hulk Smash” may have just become the new yard stick for on screen cinematic  destruction and it can only be a matter of time before the phrase passes into the pop culture hall of fame. Next on our list of do-gooders is Thor. A God that could best be described as a long haired, “have Hammer, will travel”, weather man with angst. Indeed it is struggle and belief that there may still be good in his brother Loki that provides the film with some of its backbone. Jeremy Renner, last seen in Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol and Soon to be seen taking the Bourne Franchise forward on his ever capable broad shoulders plays Hawkeye. A character which has nothing to do with the 70’s TV show M.A.S.H. but has everything to do with being the best shot with a bow and arrow this side of Robin Hood. Rounding off our band of “Grade A” good guys is Robert Downey Jr’s Tony Stark. He gets some of the best lines from the film but copyright not withstanding I would have loved to have hear him utter the immortal phrase “To infinity & beyond!” at least once.
Getting all the characters to gel and giving them all their own screen time was a very tall order, almost bordering on the impossible but Writer and Director Joss Whedon called upon his experiences dealing with group dynamics in Buffy, Firefly & Dollshouse to see him through. Having now seen the film twice I can’t think of any writer or director out there that could have done a better job with the tools at his disposal.

So what is Avengers Assemble about? It’s about two and a half hours.
However I’m suspecting that you dear reader may require a little bit more than that from a review. So let me set the scene….
Loki having somehow managed to survive drifting off into space at the end of Thor, is still a power hungry megalomaniac. Just think James Murdoch with a helmet horn fetish, hell bent on wielding power over a subjugated people and guess who he wants to subjugate? Go on you’ll never guess…..That’s right the good old people of earth. You know for a planet that’s only made it as far as the moon the human race does seem to have made a long list of galactic enemies. I’m sure the French must have something to do with that however I digress.
Loki pops up on earth needing to get his grubby little hands on an unlimited source of power “The Tesseract” and luckily those nice chaps at S.H.I.E.L.D. happen to have one. This power source is the key to getting Loki's army to Earth and after a few waves of Loki’s magic staff/wand and a few kung fu moves that would put Bruce Lee to shame it gets taken. What follows in getting the Tesseract back can honestly be described as good as it gets at leaving your brain at the door and being entertained. I don’t want to give too much of the story away but if flying aircraft carriers and a script so sharp you could shave with it normally float your boat you are in for a huge treat. If you haven’t seen it GO! And if you have seen it go see it AGAIN!!!

We lucky Brits also get the honour of having the word “Assemble” tagged on to our title. Apparently to cut down on any confusion with the 60’s TV show starring Patrick Macnee as John Steed. I myself feel a little put out by this and if I’m being honest a tad insulted! I know that stereotypes can be a hard thing to see past at times but really, do our American cousins think Britain is populated by people that could and indeed would walk into a cinema expecting something other than a superhero movie given the previous Marvel films?

In closing, I am aware that some of you out there internet land can’t cope with anything longer than 140 characters long so this review and all future reviews shall include a condensed, easy to swallow in tablet form, guide to what you can expect.

A film with Hammers, Hulks and an under the radar C word. Great action, superb writing & a cast I can’t wait to see assemble again.
#ABLAST

Useful Links:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0848228/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPoHPNeU9fc