Thor: The Dark
World (2013):
Written by Christopher Yost, Christopher Markus, and Stephen McFeely. Directed by Alan Taylor. Starring:
Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddleston, Anthony Hopkins, Stellan
Skarsgard, Idris Elba, and The Doctor. Running Time: 112 minutes. Based on the Thor comic series from Marvel.
Rating: 3.5/4
If there’s anyone worried that
Marvel has already played the best hand they had with last year’s blockbuster
hit The Avengers (and I was certainly
one of them), let this film be a reassurance for you, because if it’s anything
to go by, they’re just getting warmed up.
Thor: The Dark World is easily
one of the best non-Avengers films of
the Marvel franchise thus far, on par with Ironman
I and Captain America, and
matches Pacific Rim beat-for-beat as
one of the best action films of 2013. I
went in expecting creative and visually stunning fights and elaborate set
pieces, costumes, and settings, and got all of it in spades, but the cherry on
top was the refreshingly high level of self-aware humor written into the script,
which makes the whole spectacle its own special kind of fun.
The beginning of the film offers a
long-awaited explanation as to why Thor was not available for the Mandarin conspiracy
in Ironman 3- the destruction of Asgard’s portal and the havoc wreaked by
Loki’s invasion of Earth led to war throughout the Nine Realms, so he and his
merry mates have been busy restoring order to the various worlds under Asgard’s
control (it’s left unsaid whether or not these worlds are directly ruled by the
Asgardians). They finish with a final
battle and celebrate heartily, but Thor is, of course, still distracted by
thoughts of his favorite feathered Animagus.
He finally returns to Earth for her when she is briefly transported to a
nether world in…..space….somewhere…..and comes into contact with a material
called the Aether, a relic from the beginning of time capable of returning
utter darkness to the universe (why did Star Trek get a “Darkness” related title again? Was there any reason at all for that?). The Aether imbeds itself in her, which both
endangers her life and awakens the Dark Elf Malekith, played by our beloved
Ninth, who had previously attempted to use the Aether to destroy all existence,
only to be stopped by Thor’s grandfather.
Now, he rebuilds his forces and prepares to strike directly at Asgard in
order to regain the Aether and make a fresh attempt at destroying the Nine
Realms.
I’ll stop the plot synopsis there,
because otherwise I’d have to jump into spoiler territory. Not that there’s much to be spoiled anyway-
Malekith is as one-note a villain as any we’ve seen in other Marvel films,
which does deprive Eccleston of the chance to really liven up the screen. However, there are more than a few
well-played twists in it (nothing terribly complicated, but nothing
mind-bogglingly stupid), so I’d personally recommend seeing it cold. As always, the most interesting character on
screen is Hiddleston’s Loki, primarily because he’s still having far more fun
with his role than should be legally permitted.
Seriously, every time he comes on screen, his sheer joy at being able to
just run around and do Loki-esque things is physically palpable. Not that the rest of the cast is bad- Hopkins
and Hemsworth are as wonderfully pompous and overblown as ever, and each of the
side characters get their moments (Thor’s Asgardian friends are finally given smidgeons
of personality). Everyone on set is
clearly enjoying themselves, but from the first minute onward, there’s no doubt
as to who’s show it really is. The lone
exception is Idris Elba as Heimdall, one of my favorite
side-characters in this universe, who gets a lot more screentime than he did in
Thor, along with a brief but fantastic scene where he single-handedly takes
down an entire enemy spacecraft. Hiddleston
has the most raw charisma in the film, but damn, does Elba have presence.
I compared this movie to Pacific Rim because they are very much
cut from the same cloth- both are massively overblown action extravaganzas
that, while taking place in interesting universes, never stray far from basic
stories and characters, and never tell us more than they need to. These films don’t care to be analyzed, they’re
just having fun. And Dark World is nothing if not several
barrels full of fun. It is far from
perfect- there are plenty of minor holes in the story, and lots of miraculous,
Deus ex Machina plot devices that come along at just the right times. What saves the film from them, though, is its
unabashed self-awareness. Each cliché is
accompanied by a hilariously casual gung-ho attitude- everyone knows the game,
and they’re just happy they were invited to the party. When the inevitable Thor-wants-to-do-something-his-father-disapproves-of-and-thus-must-commit-treason
bit comes along, his friends jump into the rule-breaking pool with him with
almost indecent gusto; “For Asgard!” casually proclaims one of Thor’s
inexplicably British companions, as he effortlessly vaults himself through the
air to attack a flying skiff.
Mention must be made of the movie’s set
pieces, especially on Asgard itself. We
didn’t get to see a whole lot of the place in the first Thor movie, so it was
nice to get plenty of shots of the characters flying through the city, which
takes plenty of motifs from Gondor in LOTR, but in just the right amounts. As a longtime fan of both fantasy and sci-fi,
I got a kick out of seeing its fusion of fantasy-style costumes, architecture,
and weaponry with sci-fi space technology- even the spaceships Malekith busts
out look like detached towers from the land of Mordor. I’m also a sucker for anything involving
space in general (which is partially why I’m still head-over-heels for Gravity), and in one of my favorite sequences
of the year, we get to see what Thor and Natalie Portman see as they travel to
Asgard via the Bifröst Bridge.
I won’t spoil their contents, but
since the total number of hidden credit scenes is different for each Marvel
movie, I will merely confirm that there are two scenes after the movie, not just one- the first is halfway through the credits, and the other is at the very, very end, so yes,
definitely stay all the way through.
Honestly though, you should stay through the credits even if there
was no second scene, because even without them, this is one of the best action
movies of the year, and all the many grunts who toiled away on the effects
teams deserve at least a moment of collective recognition. Thor: The Dark World is big, flashy, and
silly as ever, and God bless it for that. If we never let the silly in once in a while, what a drab,
drab world this would be.
-Noah
Franc
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