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Yesterday I went into the other weird alien in a red cape. Today I walk about the Space Viking.
Thor the Dark World, or "What if 'Man of Steel' hadn't
taken itself so damn seriously."
Overall: 8/10
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| He's adopted. |
In some
ways this was the best movie I saw last year.
It has grand stakes (the fate of the universe), it has numerous
environments (alien worlds, cities of the gods), cool costuming, and it is
funny.
Thor as a
hero has grown in the movies he has been in, from headstrong naive warrior to a
much more deliberate and capable leader.
Stand this in contrast to Tony Stark in "Iron Man 3" which
failed to confront his underlying insecurities almost entirely until the last
few minutes of the third movie, symbolically removing the broken shards of
metal in his heart that were killing him and discarding the thick metal skin
that he used to protect himself from the world.
Thor completed that character arc by the end of his first movie,
softening and becoming more about self sacrifice rather than personal glory,
and by the end of "The Avengers" Thor was on a crusade to bring order
to his kingdom. By the end of this film he
has become such a knight errant romantic that he decides not to take the throne
of his homeland, Asgard, instead going to Earth for love (people claim that this
love plot happens too fast and won't last.... To which I answer, all gods in
all mythologies have the exact same attitudes toward love: fast and fleeting).
Thor's
numerous Space Viking sidekicks also each get their moments, though really they
could have gotten more, doing all their heavy lifting in acts one and two then
disappearing... In many ways the third act is both the most exciting because of
the action, and the most boring because the character interactions are all
about fighting the bad guys and not about any sort of interpersonal dynamic
(though two of Jane Foster's sidekicks kind of get together in a comedic
romantic development).
That brings
me to my next point, Malekith the Accursed is a boring villain, he is a very
standard evil doer wanting to take the magical item from the non-warrior
protagonist, and use it to cloak the world in darkness for his people and way
of life. He is a step down from the
Mandarin, which is a parody of Malekith's type, and is an elevator trip away
from Loki, who is a far more interesting character. I actually think you could have given even
less time to the elves and more time to Loki and the movie would still not
have suffered.
THE DOUBLE
BEAT. Much like "Man of Steel"
this movie has a real problem with a scene in the second act and the
opener. The opening is a full blown war
between Space Vikings and Space Elves for control of the universe (HOLY CRAP
"LORD OF THE RINGS") with narration by Odin, explanations of the
threats posed by the bad guys and clear explanations of their motivations. Then in the second act Odin tells the
protagonist Thor and Jane what was already shown to the audience in the opening
scene. Again, much like "Man of
Steel" the presentation is very pretty with magical books with moving
stylized illustrations. Gorgeous really,
and a total waste of time. They could
have fixed this too, don't have the battle opening, the heroes confronting
weird aliens, and then having giant black ships that can turn invisible
mysteriously appear and attack, then have hulking monsters, and magical
swirling blood all without an upfront explanation... it would add a lot of
mystery. Then in the second act after
the initial attack have the magic books open with all of their cool
illustrations on display and then transition to show the battle in narrated
historical reenactment. That way for the
first half of the movie the heroes are under threat from an unknown and
powerful force that they don't understand, and the audience is on that journey
with them. But whatever.
Another
problem is with yet another case of hack job writing just like in "Man of
Steel", maybe even more so.
"Star Trek" 2009 had a pointy eared villain in a big black
powerful spaceship, with a red weapon capable of causing the apocalypse for an
multi-world empire, this culminates with the blonde head strong hero (whose father was
killed by the villain) and his dark haired emotionally damaged second in
command (because the bad guy killed his Mom) using black holes to kill the bad
guy. "Thor the Dark World" has
a pointy eared bad guy in a big black sometimes invisible spaceship, with a red weapon capable of causing the apocalypse for a multi-world empire (and the
universe), this culminates with the blonde head strong hero (whose mother was killed by the
bad guy) and his dark haired emotionally erratic reluctant ally (whose mother
was killed by the bad guy) to use portals to other worlds to try and stop the
villain. Soon all action movies will
have this or a similar dynamic, because if it can make the boring old Star Trek franchise into profitable action schlock it can work for any damn thing.
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| Their ear mutilation is even the same. |
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| Who needs emotional stability to be in charge? |
Regardless,
this movie has a very light tone to it, mostly good pacing, lots of distinct
characters with a variety of design and flourish, a complex brother and father
dynamic at the core, with a romantic science vs magic theme surrounding it. It is fun and does not diminish its
characters, it tries (and for the most part is successful) in elevating the
various characters, adding to the script rather than detracting. And as a small final compliment, I like how
in the climax Jane foster does not just get saved, she uses her scientific
knowledge to make weapons and contribute to the action, ultimately providing
Thor the means to beat the bad guy (SPOILERS: the bad guy loses), she has her
own side kicks, it is cool to see her as a sort of hero in her own right.
