The wait is over! The God of Thunder has returned! And this time he faces off against a foe with strength and will that rivals his own…
The film picks up pretty much right where The Avengers left off. Loki is forced to pay for his crimes against Earth and is locked away. Thor has been on an extensive crusade to restore order to the 9 realms, since they were thrust into upheaval by Loki’s malicious campaign to sow mischief. We find Jane Foster having all but abandoned her scientific pursuits, mostly due to S.H.I.E.L.D. confiscating her equipment, and whatnot, in the first Thor film. Elsewhere in the universe, Malekith the Accursed, the leader of the Dark Elves, a race older than the known universe, has awoken from his slumber due to Jane happening upon a dangerous element, known as Aether, that Malekith needs in order to return the universe to the darkness that once prevailed before his reign was extinguished. He’s determined to hunt down and acquire the Aether at all cost, and it’s up to Thor, with a little help from Loki and Jane, to stop him.
I intend to keep this as spoiler-free as possible so that you can get a good idea of what to expect without having anything ruined for you.
First off, this is better than Iron Man 3. In fact, it’s better than all the other superhero/comic book movies this year. So, there’s that…
If your a fan of the comics, Malekith’s character is altered a little bit from the books, but no where near as much as The Mandarin’s or The Silver Samurai’s (from The Wolverine) were. Not that I disliked Iron Man 3 or The Wolverine, if you look past the Mandarin thing IM3 is a great film; and The Wolverine was the best outing to date for Logan, but this move is just better. The emotion is heavier, but it’s balanced with a lot of humor. Like, A LOT of humor. I was kind of surprised at how funny this movie was. You obviously have Kat Dennings’ character, Darcy, who provides a lot of great sarcastic humor, but other characters really get in on it this time around as well. A cameo role by (one of my new all-time faves) Chris O’Dowd is just absolutely perfect and hilarious. That dude brings A-game to everything he does no matter how big or small the role. Natalie Portman is in perfect form here as Jane Foster. The character gets an expanded role is this film, graduating to a star of the film rather than her (what seemed like to me anyway) mostly supporting role of the first film. Chris Hemsworth is still swinging Mjolnir like a badass, but this time around he shows us a more mature version of Thor. Which was really interesting because there’s an attitude-reversal of sorts with Thor and Odin in this movie. In the first film, Thor was being arrogant and making decisions without fully thinking them through. This time around he’s the one trying to talk some sense into Odin, again played by the always brilliant Sir Anthony Hopkins. It was neat to see that we’re-father-and-son-but-we’re-also-protecting-a-realm-together dynamic, which puts them on opposing sides again. You get a sense that they’re gonna have to accept “agree to disagree” as what their relationship will always be.
One thing that stuck out as a nice surprise was getting to see Thor and Loki’s mother Frigga, played by Renee Russo, in some combat action. She had a pretty minor role in the first film but this time around she holds it her own, even against Malekith, who is played by Christopher Eccleston. He’s already an actor that I admire, but the coldness and cruelty that he brings to this role is extra admirable. He plays Malekith a little less maniacal than the character is in the comic books, but no less brutal. I honestly would have loved to get to see a little more of that brutality, but there really is a fair-share.
Tom Hiddleston is again fantastic as Loki in this flick. He just IS Loki. The way that Tom Hanks IS Forest Gump. The actor disappears and there is only the God of Mischief left. There are pictures from the comics that certain shots make you recall and it’s just uncanny how dead-on his interpretation of the character is. Here, he plays Loki all over the spectrum of emotions and makes it incredibly hard for you, and Thor, to know who the REAL Loki is. Which is exactly how it’s supposed to be.
A lot of credit has be given to Alan Taylor, who directed the film. The man did a masterful job of capturing the grittiness that the Thor mythology is capable of. Not that Kenneth Branagh’s original film was lacking in any way, because it wasn’t. It was clean, and bright, and beautiful. The Dark World just brings in that dirty, viking-like quality that is fun to see Thor in. And since Alan Taylor directed several episodes of The Sopranos, Deadwood, GAME OF THRONES, and the pilot episode of Mad Men, I think it’s safe to say that the man knows how to capture “dark and intense” on film. It’s really obvious too, in that there is SO MUCH about this movie that is like Game of Thrones. Just when you think they’re not gonna do something, they do it. No punches (or hammer smashes) are pulled here. My 6 year old son even cried at one scene in the film. Like, deeply emotional crying. You could chock that up to it being like 9:30 at night, when he’s used to going to bed at like 8 or 8:30, so he was probably just tired and susceptible to being emotional anyway, but he’s NEVER connected to a film on an emotional level, and the fact that he did with this one says a lot about what they accomplished. (Please nobody tell him I wrote that. He’ll be so mad at me.)
There was, honestly, very little I didn’t like about the movie. Every gripe I had while watching it was squashed before the end. There is a noticeable formula that these Marvel movies seem to be following, but for the sake of not ruining anything for you, I’ll wait a few months and make that it’s own article… suffice to say, while watching The Dark World you may notice some trending plot-concepts that have structured other Marvel Cinematic Universe movies. I suppose I also would have liked to have seen more with the Warriors Three and Sif. They’re not non-existent or anything, but they’re roles were more minimal than the last film and I really like those characters.
I will let you know, STAY TIL THE VERY END! There are TWO after-the-movie scenes. One is midway through the credits and the other is at the very end of the credits. Don’t be that person that’s like, “What?! There was more?! Why didn’t anybody tell me?!” I’m telling you, NOW. Plus, this is one of the things that’s become a staple of Marvel films. If you don’t know by now that there’s gonna be some mid or after credits scene then you have really not been paying attention.
(Also, the next episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. will tie in to this film, so if you see Thor this weekend you should catch that on Tuesday (on ABC) to see how they link.)
It’s too early to tell where exactly it’ll fall for me in the list of best to worst MCU films. I’ll need to see it a few more times. I feel like it’s better than Iron Man 2 and 3, and the Incredible Hulk. It might be better than the original Thor, and it’s MAYBE equal to Captain America (I LOVE Captain America)… But I don’t feel like it’s better than Iron Man or The Avengers. All in all, I’m giving this film (upon initial viewing) an 8 out of 10. It was fun to watch and really keeps the Marvel Cinematic Universe cohesiveness well. I highly recommend you go watch it this weekend. You won’t be disappointed.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvKjS2s1v0k