Heath Ledger's Joker was the genre defining villain that comic book fans were waiting for, a psychotic Christ like figure that has inspired worship, praise, and unfortunately emulation. On the Marvel side of the fence, the villain's have been one dimensional, The Iron Monger-- blah. Red Skull-- Yawn. That tornado Hulk was fighting while having dreams of his childhood-- exactly. It should be easy being bad, but apparently the house of ideas couldn't get that to translate to the big screen until... Loki.
I had my reservations about the first Thor film, like everyone I wondered if such a one-note character
could carry his own pic, when a much more complex character like the The Hulk failed twice. Marvel wisely
realized that a Thor movie didn’t really have to be about Thor (or Donald Blake
thank god… pun intended) the flawed hero the same way Iron Man was about Tony
Stark the reluctant avenger. Instead Marvel Studios chose to surround the stoic
god with the personality of a wet newspaper with a rag tag bunch of wacky
scientist, and surprisingly, Thor as their straight man worked in that first
installment. The result, Thor is now a household name and arguably the 4th
most popular Marvel character period behind Iron Man, Spidey, and Wolvie.
Thor comics have always sold fairly well, the mythology and
struggle for Asgard is ripe with intrigue and betrayal, yet he’s never been a
kid friendly hero. As a 7 year old I struggled with the strange manner of
speaking in those books, and his cool factor never reached epic heights because like the 21st century Wolverine, rarely
did Thor actually use Mjolnir to bludgeon his foes to death. In the Avengers
title’s he was always relegated to the big gun that comes to save the day at
the last minute. Much like Superman, Marvel has always had to find ways to
create a threat for someone who is all but invincible. Unlike 80% of the
Superman movies, Marvel has found a way to make Thor matter in the real world. They
cast a solid actor in Chris Hemsworth that could play such a dry character
straight and earnestly. While the women get moist over the abs and golden
locks, it’s the puppy dog way Hemsworth plays Thor, as if he’s wondering around
the playground just trying to find some friends, that takes the role from being
a dumb brute, to a sympathetic orphan of a hero. Even more so than Chris Evan’s
Captain America, Thor’s cinematic incarnation has proven to be the most pure
and selfless example of a true Marvel Superhero.
Which
brings me back to the reason the first Thor movie succeeded, they stacked the deck with character actors who Thor could
play off. Hopkin’s grizzled Odin, trying to make his son into a King. Skarsgard’s uber erratic Eric Selvig, Kat
Dennings’ (minimal cleavage for the 2 Broke Girl Star wtf!?!) snarky Darcy, and
even an under written Natalie Portman all worked to make Thor an extremely fun ride, even though after it ended you had no
idea what the hell the plot was about. In the sequel, the Scooby gang is back,
and it isn’t long until you’re laughing at the awkward thunder god. What makes
the sequel twice as good as the first is that we actually have a real threat,
that takes the most important thing away from The God of
Thunder. While Thor wants justice, the real star of the movie appears wanting
vengeance—Loki! Tom Hiddleston’s Loki has blossomed from an average villian in The Avengers, to a truly fleshed out
anti-hero in The Dark World. Fans
love Loki, despite that he 9-11’d NYC in The Avengers movie, but this time we have
good reason to root for him. Like Walter White from Breaking Bad, we get a chance to understand the anger, the
desperation, and the ambition of the trickster who would be king.
The
Dark World doesn’t break down into a buddy cop movie the same way Iron Man 3
does, but the two characters of Loki and Thor really do feed off each other, in a way that makes
you feel that the scenes with them are far too short. The actual villain of the
film, the Dark Elf Malekith is the token generic super villain who simply wants
to turn out the lights—literally. Again, what could have been a boring plot, is
kept intriguing by the “will Loki F%ck Thor over” plotline that’s much more
engaging than weird looking Elves trying to mouth rape Natalie Portman for 90
minutes. The film is by no means perfect. The Directing is choppy at parts,
franticly cutting from scene to scene becomes jarring at time, and while I’m
sure the powers that be were afraid of a long running time like The Avengers, smoother transitions would
have been a good addition. The love triangle between Sif, Thor, and Jane
Foster, is underdeveloped and left what I think were money scenes on the table.
In the
end, The Dark World serves up the most comic book esq ending ever filmed, with a
clear cliff hanger that had the audience gasping like, “oh hell naw!” and sets
up a Thor 3 down the line. The thing
I liked about the first two… um Marvel Phase 2 movies is that they are
seemingly unattached to the Marvel Universe they set up in The Avengers. Marvel doesn’t need to parade Iron Man out to sell
tickets at this point, or drop Nick Fury cameos, these movies stand on their
own and I appreciate that. At the same time, there are Easter eggs to be seen
in this movie that will reverberate come The Infinity Gauntlet saga, which I
assume will take place after Age of
Ultron.
SPOILER…. (Highlight to see text)
The bonus scene shows The Collector (Benicio Del Toro is
going to kill in this role) being given an infinity stone and gives a tie into The
Guardians of The Galaxy without being overt. While it gets me excited, the
reaction to this strange scene (felt very Star Trek Original Series) was rather
muted, as people didn’t know what the hell was going on. The second bonus scene
shows Thor returning to his beloved, and I see why it was cut, it’s kind of
unnecessary. But oh well.
Is Thor 2 worth seeing? Yes! For fans of Marvel Studio Films,
this may not deliver the action buffet of The
Avengers or the hilarity of Iron
Man 3, because at it’s heart it’s a simple story about two brothers
learning to forgive each other, but in the end aren't comic books are about that kind
of character interaction? Super hero, super villain, or sidekick, it doesn’t
matter the label; these are realistic characters who are dealing with
interpersonal problems amidst a fantastic backdrop, and that’s why comics have
stood the test of time. Thor The Dark
World may not be the action spectacle that defines modern day Superhero
films, but it may be the best pure character study of a so called villain to
date.
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