Greetings,
Despite my being overwhelmed with a load of work concerning my new book, I did manage to sneak out for a couple of hours the other day to see a new movie. Well, new-ish. I finally went to see Thor: The Dark World, which has been out for two weeks and has probably already been seen by everyone who intended to see it. Yeah, I get a little behind sometimes. But I thought I would go anyway. Why? I don't know. I'm not even a fan of these Marvel movies. Sorry. Although, I have seen some of them. In particular, Thor, because . . . reasons. More on that later.
Now it has been a while since I saw the first Thor, but I managed to follow along just fine. That's not exactly an easy task with me sometimes when it comes to these kind of movies. Anyway, if you haven't seen it already, let me give a quick, spoiler-free synopsis.
First, we get a little 'once upon a time' action when they tell us about Odin's father fighting with these Dark Elves who want to destroy the universe with something called the Aether, and this is all going on many, many ... whatevers ago. The Dark Elves do not destroy the universe, obviously, because they are somewhat defeated, though a few of them do survive. Luckily, the Aether is stashed away where it can do no harm. Ever. Of course, it can't.
Cut to present day, where we're dealing with a boat load of stuff. In Asgard, Loki is standing trial for whatever he did on Earth in The Avengers. I don't really remember because I am not a fan of that movie. Because of reasons. But let me just say "Team Edward Norton". Also, Thor is missing Jane. And Odin's all "Whatever with your weak, 'won't live five thousand years' girlfriend!". On Earth, Jane is missing Thor. Who wouldn't? Am I right, ladies? Also, she's missing Dr. Erik Selvig, because she can't find him either, at first. But she's got Darcy. Yay, in my opinion, though I have heard some people say her character was a bit irritating in this one. Come on, guys. She's the comic relief and I think she did a good job. Also, she gets herself a cute intern. Double yay. And, yes, Thor and Jane are reunited, as you may have guessed by the trailers. Then, some hijinks ensues.
Basically, the story is about those Dark Elves wanting to destroy the universe ... again! Something about the Nine Realms coming together, wherein all the lines between different worlds start to blur, if you will. I really liked how they visually portrayed all of this. Actually, speaking of that, I do think the visuals in this are a lot better than they were in the first. That could be because I didn't see the first one in the theater, or because I think we spend way more time in Asgard than we do on Earth in this sequel. Either way, it was really stunning to see, and I didn't even see it in 3-D. Okay, let's talk about those actors.
Most of the cast from the first Thor are back. We've got your Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Anthony Hopkins, Stellan Skarsgard, Rene Russo and Kat Dennings, just to name a few. And everyone who played one of Thor's friends is back, with an exception. That being Zachary Levi, replacing the former Fandral. I was more than okay with that. And again, Tom Hiddleston kind of steals the show as Loki, because that's his job, I guess. By the way, he would be the aforementioned reason why I went to see this and the previous films. I've kinda known about him for a while, so I had to check these out. But here, he fills a different role than he has before. Or he was supposed to.
See, this time we get Christopher Eccleston as Malekith the Bad Dude. But herein lies a problem. Due to certain people clearly wanting to cater more to fan service than having a really compelling villain, we actually get a very generic villain. And I don't blame the actors for this. Christopher Eccleston did the best he could with the material he was given, but sadly, that material had him playing a character that was not that memorable. How? How do you make Christopher Eccleston, one of the most dynamic actors I have ever witnessed, kind of boring? And to bring up Hiddleston again, I get it. The ladies love Loki. I am fine with his being in the movie and even having some great stuff to work with, but he was not the villain this time. Not the main villain anyway. So that leads to the story, as grand as they tried to make it, not seem to have such high stakes. In my opinion.
But, all in all, I'd say this was not a terrible movie. It's actually kind of good in some areas. Much better than some of the stuff that Marvel has been giving us. If you liked the first one, I don't think this one will disappoint you. Also, you'll get some sequel bait, if not for another Thor movie, then definitely for the next Avengers movie. That's fine. They gotta suck people in somehow. So, if you haven't already seen it and you're a fan, go see it. It's worth a trip to the theater, if you wanna see some beautiful visual effects I mentioned. I just hope that when it comes to things like story and characters, they try a lot harder next time.
Love and full moons,
Becky the Writer
