Thor: The Dark World came out and I knew I had to see it since my Ender’s Game review is going to be so late. I told myself “Self, You really have to watch more movies.” So I grabbed a friend and saw it and I have to say, I Thort it was quite good. You could say I thoroughly enjoyed it. I even marveled at how well it was done. Okay, sorry… I’ll move on.
Before I chase you away with bad jokes let me say that it really was a good movie. The acting from Tom Hiddleston was enough to carry the movie on its own. However, he doesn’t have to carry that burden alone as Chris Hemsworth was great as always.
This time around we got to see Thor be Thor throughout the whole movie. Not like the first one where he was neutered through part of it. He was a certifiable badass which meant that the bad guy had to have better tools than a giant robot who had illusions of being Cyclops. This bad guy, Malekith, was after a terrible power locked away somewhere he couldn’t find until something happens to make it surface once again. Sorry for the vagueness of that last sentence. But anything more would have been spoiler city, and no one wants that.
Jane Foster was, of course, in the right place at the right time and gets sucked up into the whole ordeal. I mean, come on. Billions of people in the world and it’s her. I know, I know, that’s the way comic book movie plots usually go, but I still don’t have to like it. Jane is just too generic. Portman is a fantastic actress. But even as good as she was, we’ve seen Jane Foster before. She’s like every other superhero love interest. She’s an independent woman with the right amount of sass who finds herself in situations where she needs saving from her hunky superlover. She’s Lois Lane, she’s Vicky Vale, she’s Mary Jane Watson. Her only defining characteristic besides her superboyfriend is the fact that she’s brilliant.
So far I’ve mentioned the big three actors and they’re the only ones really worth mentioning. I didn’t say that last part to be mean, there just wasn’t enough focus on some of the others to make me appreciate them too much. Anthony Hopkins, Rene Russo, and Zachary Levi all did a great job, but they weren’t given enough screen time. The star who snuck up on me in this movie was Christopher Eccleston. There was no hint at all that it was him. Was it because he had tons of makeup on and he had an altered voice? Maybe, but Malekith was a great bad guy no matter the reason.
Okay, time for more bitching. One of my biggest problems with the movie was some of the side stories. They had potential but, like the actors I mentioned above, weren’t given enough attention so it felt squandered. They tried to play up the rivalry between Jane Foster and Sif (Jamie Alexander) but there were only about three scenes that even hinted at it. They also tried to show us how much Hopkins and Russo loved each other, but it didn’t come across well.
The movie tried to overreach. It had grand visions and there are probably a bunch of deleted scenes that fix the problems I have with the movie. However, they’re still deleted scenes. I saw the theatrical release so I have to go by that no matter what comes out on the 3D Blu-ray, blu-ray, dvd, ultraviolet digital copy combo pack with special extras if you preorder it from Best Buy. For the movie to be everything it tried to be it would have had to have a play time of 3 or more hours. I’d rather have had them cut out most of the side stories entirely so at least I’m not left wondering in the end.
Also, why is Kat Dennings in the movie? I like her a lot in everything else she’s done. I just don’t see a reason for her in Thor 1 and 2. Did they really need another comic relief character that bad? I’m glad she’s getting work and all, but her character didn’t add anything to the movie. Okay, my complaining over. Time to wrap this up.
I just said a lot of bad stuff about the movie, but let me get down to the fact that Thor: The Dark World was still fun, despite the problems I had with it. Everything I didn’t like came to mind after the movie because I was too engrossed in it to focus on anything else. It was visually pleasing, well acted, and action packed.
Loki’s character is revisited and viewers are shown more complexity than perhaps any other comic book movie before. The scenes with him ranged from having me laughing my butt off to wiping a tear from my eye. Hemsworth was the same way as we saw a wider range from him than we did in the first one. We see some of the raw emotion that he showed us when he played George Kirk in Star Trek.
Who should see this movie? Well, comic and comic movie fans, of course. Anyone who likes a good action movie. This is a nerd friendly movie. The movie wasn’t terribly accurate to the comics, but what comic book movie ever is? This movie may have strayed Thor lore (ha, I rhymed) but it was fun. Nerds, see this movie and stay till the VERY END. There are 2 extra scenes. But you should know that already.
