Thor: The Dark World

The first Thor was, and still is may favourite Marvel Studios film, as it didn’t stick to their usual structure and handling of the villain. Instead of focusing on the action, of which there is a lot, it was more interested in the family dynamic of the main characters, Especially the relationship between Thor and Loki, something that would go on to be the best part of The Avengers.

The plot for Thor: The Dark World is fairly straight forward, a race that existed before the creation of the nine realms, the Dark Elves have returned seeking a power source known as the Aether, something that if controlled by their leader Malekith, will return the universe to darkness. This Aether has been locked away for thousands of years, but when Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) stumbles through into another realm and comes across it, she alerts Malekith to where it is. From there on, Thor must return to Earth, protect Jane and stop Malekith.

The films greatest strength, as with the first one is in the interplay between Thor and Loki, played by  Tom Hiddleston and Chris Hemsworth superbly. Their chemistry is so good and believable that they feel like brothers. Their first scene in the film together is where the film as a whole starts to pick up. Whether one is better in their respective role compared to the other is beside the point. 

They embrace the characters and make them their own, something that often seals the fate of any comic book film. Without one, this series wouldn’t be anywhere near as successful or interesting as it is.

As with any good comic book film you need a good  villain, someone you can really hate and with Loki being given a very grey area in this film it falls on Malekith to carry the threat. Unfortunately, he rarely does anything to warrant hatred, in fact you will probably barely manage more than casual dislike for him. In all, he kills about five people that I can remember and they are faceless warriors in the prologue.

His hench-elves do the majority of the shooting and stabbing. Christopher Eccleston is not bad in the role, in fact a lesser actor would have barely left an impression, but he certainly could have done with more screen time than he got to make the character more detestable or have him try and justify what he is doing. While not necessary for all villains, this crusade needed some sort of reasoning.

For a film about gods and the end of light in the universe, the action is somewhat downplayed at times, again similar to the first. But here, I really wanted it to go big, especially during an attack on a certain city and the climax of the film. The two major set pieces of the film.  Both sequences have good beginnings and good ends, but not that something special. By these points we are invested in the characters and have just been treated to some excellent characters moments. 

There is no grand moment in these sequences, no truck flip (The Dark Knight) or fight on top of the train (Spider-Man 2) to make the memorable. Where Man of Steel received complaints for the level of destruction and length of its final battle, Thor: The Dark World should be criticized for not going big enough.

By no means is this a negative review of the film, I enjoyed it a lot and would recommend it to anyone looking for a fun film to go and see. It slips into the upper echelon of Marvel films with ease.

Go to this film for the performances, specifically Hemsworth, Hiddleston and Hopkins, it’s their relationships and family politics that make this film as good as it is.

It looks like the red capes are doing okay this year.

The Avengers

This summer sees the release of a number of highly anticipated blockbusters, three of which are based on comic book characters, one a debateable prequel (I am sure some people will disagree with me on this point, to varying degrees) to a science fiction classic, another is based on a 1960s TV show that aired on the ABC network in America. There are others, I am sure, but these will be the five that I will, in all likely go and see during this summer. Some would look at this and see it as more evidence that Hollywood, especially when it comes to it’s tent pole films is running out of imagination, but only time will tell with that, and which will ultimately come with the release and reception to these films.

The first of these films was The Avengers, but with different titles in certain countries, having seen the previous films that have set up this film, ranging from the tedious in Captain America to the surprisingly good (I went in expecting very little, despite the cast and director) in Thor, I was interested in seeing how they would attack the possibilities for this story.

Co-written and Directed by Joss Whedon, whose Buffy the Vampire Slayer series I was a huge fan of when I was younger, he didn’t seem like the kind of choice that Marvel would have gone for, having made his name almost entirely in television, there were no doubt more conservative choices they could have gone with, especially related to directorial duties.

The cast of the film is largely made up of the actors from the previous films but with a few new additions and one recasting, Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner/Hulk, the majority bring the exact same character to this film, as they had in the others. For some this isn’t a problem, Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston continue on with their superbly complex brotherly relationship, and Ruffalo constructs probably the most human and likeable version of Banner. The others characters just seem to be going through the paces when it comes to their scenes and others simply carry on with the same version, not bringing anything new to their performance.

There will be spoilers from this point, so please don’t carry on if you haven’t seen it, or don’t want to know any details.

The plot, is simple to say they least, Loki (Hiddleston) returns to Earth, to find an object called the Tesseract, a source of seemingly limitless power, in his bid to take over the Earth, with the help of an alien race, the Chitauri, with the Avengers being the only thing possible of standing in the way. During the first two acts we have to go through two or three giant action set pieces as the team work out their differences, until they finally realise that perhaps they should stop Loki before he brings an army of aliens to Earth.

Now this may seem as though, from how I have talked about it so far, that the film isn’t very strong when it comes to story, and it probably isn’t. But where it makes up for it, and this is plainly down to Whedon’s knack for dialogue is in the more subdued moments between the characters, more often than not a simple one to one conversation. Most of these moments feature Hiddleston’s Loki, the first of these moments is soon after Thor arrives (probably the best entrance of the film), another later on with Scarlett Johansson, even some of the less snappy conversations he has are elevated above what they could have been thanks to his portrayal of the character. As mentioned before Hemsworth brings Thor to life in a realistic way (for a demi-god), in a role that in either film could have, in the lesser hands, been nothing more than cocky meathead.

I saw this film in 2D, as I had heard that parts of the film, especially those set in space are very hard to make out, due to 3D making the screen darker (I don’t know the technical details of 3D, I apologize), so can only speak about this version of the film. The photography of the film is good, none of it is bad, but also none of it pops out as being instantly memorable, there is one long shot in the finale that swoops through New York following the different characters, which is fun but doesn’t linger for two long. The visual highlight is probably the first time Thor arrives to capture an already captured Loki around the end of the first act, and the battle between him, Captain America and Iron Man that follows.

One of the biggest let downs of the film is that none of the characters seem to have an emotional journey or arc throughout the film, maybe this is because of the very nature of “team-up” film, you have to spread out the screen time around the cast, making sure that everyone had their moment. But as a result here, no one really goes through any change, or has sort of epiphany or realization that will alter them (this could also be due to the no doubt already written, or in the process of being written sequels to the individual films), and this is a shame when compared to the other comic book team films, most noticeably the X-Men films, although I must admit they chose to focus on certain characters more than others, primarily Wolverine. However, would have pushing one character to the fore, and others into glorified supporting roles worked for the this film, possibly, but also it could have led to it being received as more of Thor 1.5, which in some ways this could have been seen to be, due to Loki serving as the lead villain.

This is unmistakeable a popcorn film, it doesn’t ask you to deal with too many ideas or to think about how it is a reflection of our world or is even as well made as some of the top echelon of the genre, such as both Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, Spiderman 1 and 2, Superman: The Movie or one of it’s predecessors Thor. This could obviously be the film, and Whedon knowing what this film as sticking to it, but with a film that everyone knew was going to make money, and it already has, it’s a shame that it didn’t take more risks, in terms of story, the characters (some of them) or the ideas and messages that would have elevated this beyond what it is.

Ultimately, I enjoyed it for what it was. If you go and see it, don’t go in expecting great things, and you may enjoy yourself, and even be surprised at what you see. But what do I know; I’m a DC guy.