"Any occurrence requiring undivided attention will be accompanied by a compelling distraction."
-- Robert Bloch
-- Robert Bloch
It seems strange to say, but the "Dark World" in Thor: The Dark World is an afterthought. I can guarantee that you won't walk out of the theater talking about either the Dark World or the villain, Malekith. In many respects they merely provide the backdrop for the main characters to interact upon. Full of unresolved questions, many by design, a few not, this Thor shifts most of the plot to Asgard, as opposed to its predecessor's Earth setting. Whereas the first Thor heavily involved S.H.I.E.L.D. and felt like it was there to bring Thor into the fold of the Avengers, this movie makes the mythos stand much more on its own. The movie begins by establishing an alternative love interest subplot. It would seem that it was set up for the character, Sif, to be jealous of Natalie Portman's Jane, before eventually coming to accept their love, but the entire subplot gets abandoned before it really gets going. Yet again, Thor has to disobey his father to save all of creation, and we have a few minor characters help him on his way. One of the nagging questions we're left with is what became of them for committing this treason, including the still criminally under-used Heimdall (Idris Elba). |
I said in the Friday First Impressions that Tom Hiddleston would probably steal every scene he was in, and does he ever. As a viewer, we feel like we've been burned just as many times by Loki as Thor has. It's refreshing to have him back in a semi-protagonist role, as his verbal parry and joust with all the characters feels good-natured and we're allowed to root for him again. He doesn't disappoint, delivering the most nuanced version of the character yet. Marvel is figuring out that we like Loki out of all the characters, and they're giving us a large dose here,
We get an initial 3 minute exposition on the new bad guy, Malekith, but mostly, he's a generic Big Bad. His origin gets a little too grandiose as it raises more questions than it answers. He and his Dark Elves have been around before there was even a universe, existing in darkness. They have a weapon to unmake the universe, which, among other things, would seem to imply it would be pretty good at stopping our universe from being made in the first place, or at least destroying it before there would be such strong opposition to the idea. The whole thing feels too poorly thought out for even a Transformers villain.
Thor: The Dark World bites off a little more than it can chew at times, opening up too many subplots and using too many minor characters, but contains the necessary number of cameos, in jokes, and action to satisfy.
We get an initial 3 minute exposition on the new bad guy, Malekith, but mostly, he's a generic Big Bad. His origin gets a little too grandiose as it raises more questions than it answers. He and his Dark Elves have been around before there was even a universe, existing in darkness. They have a weapon to unmake the universe, which, among other things, would seem to imply it would be pretty good at stopping our universe from being made in the first place, or at least destroying it before there would be such strong opposition to the idea. The whole thing feels too poorly thought out for even a Transformers villain.
Thor: The Dark World bites off a little more than it can chew at times, opening up too many subplots and using too many minor characters, but contains the necessary number of cameos, in jokes, and action to satisfy.
A passable movie that gets from Point A to Point B admirably, without adding anything memorable along the way