[Films] Thor - The Dark World

....or Loki 3 as I've seen some people refer to it, which is somewhat fitting given the popularity of that character and the  resulting screen time that he gets! (Loki 1 being Thor, and Loki 2 being Avengers Assemble of course).

So I went to see Thor 2 at the cinema yesterday. The latest step in Marvel's dominion of blockbuster cinema, it continues to advance the Marvel Universe's cinematic storyline in several parallel paths. But is it any good? I thought Thor 1 was one of the surprises of the pre-Avengers phase of the Marvel superhero film craze, so I was interested to see how the second instalment would compare.

The poster image for Thor: the Dark World. Oddly similar to the Iron Man 3 poster in many ways. (Credit: hdwallpapers.in)

A quick summary of my response to the film would go thus: it was enjoyable, and surprisingly funny, but lacked that special something. The plot reveals could be seen coming a mile away, and there was a lack of real drama (with perhaps one exception).

Lets start with the characters. I have a soft spot for Natalie Portman's character (she's an astrophysicist, but doesn't really do any astrophysics - more sort of geophysics I suppose), but she has little to do this time around other than mope around after Thor, spout some gibberish science, and act as a source of tension between Thor and his father. Very disappointing. The rest of her science team get even shorter thrift, with the elder Erik being reduced to a comic oddball (admittedly this seems plausible given his mistreatment in Avengers Assemble), and her intern similarly acting as mere comic relief.

Thor himself is ably played by Chris Hemsworth, who does a decent job of showing the conflicted state of mind of the Norse God. There's an attempt here to give him more depth to his character, but they don't work quite as well as in the first film, and ultimately he's not that interesting a character. Which I suppose is why Loki is so popular. The rest of the family are a bit odd too; Odin just comes across as an unreasonable man, and his portrayal is very flat and lacks any real emotion. The accent is a bit all-over as well. Thor's mother is intriguing, particularly given her dealings with Loki, but sadly we're robbed of her as a factor part way into the film which is a shame. I thought there was a lot of unexplored potential there for inter-character relationships.

Seriously, how cool are these ships. The small fighters/transports in particular are a very interesting design (Credit: thor2.org_

The bad guys aren't particularly interesting either, and we're not really given a real justification for what they're doing. We're given a back story, but there's not much in the way justification, no plot development. Everything just sort of happens, and very quickly too I might add. Christopher Ecclestone does a decent job with what he's given, but under the mask and in a fake language there's not much room for him to show his talent. The one interesting thing about the Dark Elves is their technology. The small ships in particular are very cool.

Which leaves Loki. Tom Hiddleston doesn't quite steal the show this time, but he has a damn good try at it. He has the most nuanced character in my opinion, and is very good at convincing you of his motivations in one direction, then showing them in another. Which isn't to say that such changes are surprising; given his history, they're expected! Both of what I presume are meant to be the big 'oh man what the hell' moments involve Loki, and I'm going to deviate a little from my no spoilers policy here. So ***SPOILER ALERT***. Loki supposedly gets killed trying to destroy the aether about two-thirds of the way through the film. But given that his ability to create illusions had been shown several times throughout the film before that point, it was fairly obvious that he wasn't really dead. (Not to mention his importance in the Marvel saga). Then, right at the end of the film, he's show disguised as a guard talking to Odin. After his speech about wanting to be King earlier, its similarly no surprise that when Thor is done unburdening himself to his father it's revealed that it's really Loki. Like I said, plot 'twists' you can see coming a mile away.

Loki 3 is probably a more accurate name for this film. Once again he steals the show. (Credit: hdwallpapers.in)

One last thing before I sum up. This was a very funny film. The first Thor film had moments of comedy in it, as have most of the Marvel films, but this was a step above that. Much as I was surprised with the amount of comedy in Iron Man 3, this too had a lot of great one-liners in it. I'm not sure how I feel about this apparent increase in comedy in the sage. On one hand you have the Dark Knight trilogy, which was very serious. But that was all part of the ambiance of the films, and the Marvel films have always been more lighthearted. But at the same time I worry that they might be going to far in the other direction.

All of which might suggest that I didn't think much of the film. Which I suppose is true, but it was still an enjoyable, if slightly mindless, experience. Part of that might be that I'm a sucker for superhero films I suppose. In the end it's an average chapter in the Marvel sage (featuring a couple of funny nods to the Avengers film, and a stinger linking it to the upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy and Avengers 2), but nothing special.