One could say that Marvel took a very huge risk in
developing a Cinematic Universe, something that we have really never seen before
in the world of film. But in the end, they did succeed at their goal, creating
a massive universe for their superheroes to live in. How did they do it? They
made a whole bunch of solo films focusing on the characters that would later
come together to form ‘The Avengers’. However, of these heroes, one’s first
solo outing was perhaps the biggest risk Marvel had faced up to that point. The
idea of a ‘Thor’ movie was tricky. Not only did Marvel had to work around the
fact that the Asgardian God of Thunder did not come from Earth but from the
mystical realm of Asgard, but they also had to worry about making it work
without it being too campy. Thankfully, 2011’s ‘Thor’ was far better than
expected thanks to the Shakespearian influence from director Kenneth Branagh
and the charisma of star Chris Hemsworth in the title role. Sure, it had some
flaws, namely the fact that the film really didn’t explore the universe of the
Nine Realms that much, but nevertheless it was an extremely entertaining film.
Thor and his brother Loki would return again for ‘The
Avengers’, with the latter establishing himself as one of the premier villains
of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, a huge improvement from his rather
underdeveloped role in ‘Thor’. In fact, if Tom Hiddleston’s surprise appearance
at this year’s Comic-Con proves anything, it is that Loki has become perhaps
the most popular character in the MCU. Now, everyone’s favorite gods return for
the next MCU film, ‘Thor: The Dark World’. This time, Branagh is not directing;
instead, it is Alan Taylor. He has been mostly known for his work on television,
but when one of those shows is ‘Game of Thrones’, it’s clear that this man was
qualified for the job. Overall, Taylor manages to improve on Branagh’s film in regards
to the action, visuals, and for doing a better job at immersing us in this
universe. It’s still not entirely perfect, mostly because of some pretty weak
villains, but as a whole, ‘Thor: The Dark World’ is another great entry in the
MCU, thanks in part due to the performances from its two leads.
After helping the Avengers save Earth from an alien invasion
led by his brother Loki (Hiddleston), Thor (Hemsworth) returns home to Asgard
where he continues to bring peace to the Nine Realms while Loki is imprisoned
in the Asgardian dungeons. However, things start to change when, back on Earth,
Thor’s love interest and astrophysicist Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) becomes
infected by a substance known as Aether. This draws the attention of the race
known as the Dark Elves, led by Malekith the Accursed (Christopher Eccleston),
who attempted to use the Aether to take over the world many eons ago before he
was stopped by Thor’s grandfather Bor. Sensing that she is in danger, Thor
brings her to Asgard in order to find a way to get the Aether out of her.
However, when the Dark Elves begin to attack, Thor is forced to team up with
Loki in order to stop this new threat.
In a lot of ways, ‘The Dark World’ improves on some of its
predecessor’s biggest problems. Most of ‘Thor’ was spent on Earth instead of on
Asgard. Now, that’s necessarily a bad thing because the stuff on Earth was
well-handled in terms of helping Thor grow as a character, but we never really
got a chance to immerse ourselves in the universe that is the Nine Realms, or
Thor and Loki’s home world of Asgard for that matter. That’s not a problem
here. More time is spent off-planet and we get a better sense of the universe.
Also, from a visual perspective, it does actually look nicer than it did in
‘Thor’. Taylor also works better in regard to action scenes while still
maintaining the light-hearted atmosphere and humor that worked so well in
Branagh’s film.
However, this film suffers from one major problem. The
villains in this film are really weak. In fact, dare I say it they’re the
weakest villains to date in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and considering what
we’ve seen from these movies, that is saying a lot. The great Christopher
Eccleston is wasted in the role of Malekith, who spends most of his time
brooding and speaking in Elvish. There could have been some really good
character development in terms of the relationship between him and Thor, seeing
how he was thwarted by the latter’s grandfather but sadly we don’t get that.
His second in command Algrim (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) is a more threatening
villain. Even then, and I’m not spoiling anything, they don’t do much with him
either, even when he transforms into a stronger character known as Kurse in the
comics.
But on the bright side, the film is well-acted. As Thor,
Hemsworth is once again excellent as he continues to maintain Thor’s charming
and likable personality. We also see that Thor has grown as a character since
the last film (‘Thor’ that is, not ‘The Avengers’) because he isn’t as brash as
he was in the first film. Equally great here is Tom Hiddleston as Loki. Hiddleston
just owns the role and even steals the spotlight from Hemsworth at times. In
fact, the best scenes in the entire movie are when the two of them are on
screen together. Natalie Portman unfortunately gets reduced to a ‘damsel in
distress’ role for this film, but her chemistry with Hemsworth improved quite a
bit. As for the rest of the cast, some do get more substantial roles than what
they had in the previous film (like Rene Russo as Thor and Loki’s mother Frigga
and Idris Elba as Heimdall) but some are still stuck in minor parts, like Sif
and the Warriors Three. There could’ve been some good romantic tension between
Jane and Sif for Thor’s affections, but it kind of seems like that stuff ended
up on the cutting room floor.
I can’t really call ‘Thor: The Dark World’ the best film in
the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Sure, Alan Taylor manages to improve on some of
the flaws of the previous film but this film really suffers from having perhaps
the weakest villains in the MCU, underusing Christopher Eccleston in a role
that could have had so much more to it. Thankfully, the film is still very
entertaining, mainly thanks to the charismatic performances from Chris
Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston as Thor and Loki, respectively. It seems likely
that another ‘Thor’ film will happen, probably after ‘Avengers: Age of Ultron’.
Hopefully for the next one the villains are far better. Considering how this
film ends (again, not giving anything away), how about they make Loki the main
villain again? Perhaps we can get a Loki spin-off as well?
Rating: 4/5
(P.S. Don’t forget to
stay through the credits for there are two post-credits scenes in this one, the
first giving us a glimpse as to what’s down the road in the MCU (‘Avengers 3’,
I’m guessing considering what route Joss Whedon is apparently taking with ‘Age
of Ultron’.))
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