Review: Thor – The Dark World
Never in my wildest dreams growing up, getting up absurdly early on Saturday morning in order to watch cartoons did I think that someday I would be seeing a Thor film that was preceded by trailers for X-Men: Days of Future Past, Captain America: Winter Soldier and The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, but so it was on Sunday evening in Dublin’s Savoy cinema when I went to see Thor: The Dark World.
Promising another chapter in Marvel’s ongoing Avengers saga, and another dream come true adaptation for nerds of all ages as yet more of our favourite comic characters and settings enter the big screen for general consumption, Thor 2 looks darker, more personal and more developed than it’s predecessor. I wasn’t much a fan of Thor when he first crashed to Earth and our screens in 2011. The film felt like nothing really happened and was just shoe-horned in as an origin story before Avengers would be made. While some of the characters were interesting, and the settings awe-inspiring, it all just felt under-utilized in favour of simple development and predictable story-telling. Thor: The Dark World fixes some of these problems, but still falls at some of the same hurdles.
This time around, the film takes place predominantly on Asgard and the story is almost entirely based on events surrounding it. The evil Dark Elves (led by an incredibly malevolent Christopher Eccleston) are returning, the nine realms are about to become connected via the once-in-five-thousand-years-convergence and these Dark Elves have a weapon that can consume all creation, the Aether. It’s up to Thor (Chris Hemsworth) to kick some ass after Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) becomes the inadvertent living vehicle for the aether and things just start going topsy turvy, in some cases literally.
Setting the film predominantly on Asgard is the first big improvement. The first film only ever teased Asgard in shorter glimpses, The Dark World shows the mighty home of the norse gods in all it’s splendour, using incredible CGI to it’s advantage in creating huge set pieces and awe-inspiring surroundings. We as viewers finally get to see in more detail, where Thor lives and breathes and how his environment was growing up. Loki (Tom Hiddleston), Odin (Anthony Hopkins) as well as all the other favourites from the previous film make welcome returns, having more screen time and greater depth than before.
The opening battle scenes and post-battle banqueting are some of the best in the film, and set a very nice tone of fantasticism for the rest of the film. It is only when we see Jane again that we are literally brought back down to Earth and reminded that Thor isn’t all about Asgard, it’s about us lowly humans too.
Upon meeting Jane the problems start to sink in. With Jane, we discover that parts of Earth’s physics are going haywire because of the convergence, which of course leads to her being sucked into Asgard, right beside the aether. I can forgive the coincidence, but I can’t forgive the scene preceding it. The physics alteration, shall we call it, is discovered in an empty warehouse by a group of kids who have been playing with it, and the entire scene plays out like a scene out of the Animatrix.
It’s not only obvious, but it feels cheap that the film-makers felt the need to replicate existing work instead of working in something original, and it’s not the only instance of this.
The action in Asgard feels like they got Lucasarts to replicate the action scenes from The Phantom Menace and it really pushes the sense of fantasy from believable fantastic action to ridiculous and a touch over the top. The action is good, well choreographed and delivered, but it made me question if I’m watching a film about Norse Gods, or a bunch of religious ninjas in a Galaxy far far away – the psuedo-sci-fi elements battle with the tone of fantasy through-out the film and I’m not sure if they were a clever nod at the idea of these realms being alien to us so they are like how we imagine alien worlds to be, or it was just an easier way of designing warring factions in the film.
The highlight of the film, however, is absolutely Thor and Loki on screen together. This is the part most fans of Avengers want to see, and it delivers, almost not enough. We see the brothers as brothers, as close to people as they can get, and it is commanding and emotional. You understand why Thor cares and why he must be ruthless towards Loki, and you understand why Loki responds to him unlike anyone else. It’s heart-wrenching that the two can never fully work together, specially when on screen Tom and Chris are absolutely spot on in their deliveries, both comedic and depressing.
Overall, Thor – The Dark World is worthwhile. It’s good, not great. Some scenes are obviously unoriginal, and there is a touch of reliance on coincidence, more-so than most other films. The cast are as good as previous films, even if I find Hemsorth a touch flat on screen most of the time. The action is well executed, the soundtrack well rounded and despite the un-originalities the film has a good pace to it. I can’t tell you not to see this film, but I can’t tell you it’s a must see if you aren’t already a fan either. If you’re a fan, yes definitely, it you’re not already and don;t have a friend who is, the DVD will do the job just as much.
[easyreview title=”The Arcade Verdict” cat1title=”Story” cat1detail=”Simple, but effective. More characterization than previous installment” cat1rating=”8″ cat2title=”Cinematography” cat2detail=”The highlight, as would be expected. A touch over the top at times, but looks incredible and feels consistent.” cat2rating=”9″ cat3title=”Music” cat3detail=”Suitable, if a touch unmemorable. A recurring theme would have been nice.” cat3rating=”7″ overall=”true”]
