MCU Filmathon - Thor: The Dark World

Thor: The Dark World is the second of the Thor films and the second of Phase 2 in Marvel's Cinematic Universe. At the end of Thor's first movie we saw how an arrogant and Impulsive God matured into a humble and seasoned warrior. Then he continued to provide more of his character in The Avengers and then in his next outing where things are spiced up a bit in the entertaining sequel.

The film starts with Thor's grandfather as he fights the evil Dark Elf, Malekith who is just like any other conventional bad guy whose only desire is to bring darkness to the World. To do this he must harness the power of 'The Aeither'. He fails to do this but manages to save himself and some of his fellow Dark Elves and hibernate. Although we learn a bit about the history of Asgard and Thor's ancestors, the plot so far seems a bit predictable. Who's to say that at the beginning the Aether that was buried by Thor's granddad will be found and Malekith will awaken to come after it. Well that's exactly what happens but in-between these moments we do get to see Thor and his friends in action as probably one of the best fight scenes in the movie plays out as they attempt to restore order in the nine realms. Already we can see that this film is very different to most other MCU films, despite the predictable opening we are torn between Jane Foster on Earth and Thor on Asgard as we follow both their stories!

As I have said we see a completely different Thor to what we saw in his first outing, but as we see he doesn't look too happy when Odin says he is ready to sit upon the Throne of Asgard as he only wants to be with Jane. This is obviously affecting his personality and shows how much of an impact the humans and Jane had on Thor, as he is ready to give up his heritage and title just to be with her. If anything he is probably the most developed character in the MCU. Even more so than Tony because it almost seemed like Tony was trying to run away from his problems in Iron Man 3 and suffered greatly before he did the right thing, whereas Thor seems ready to face his problems and tackle them head on. This film does do Thor justice in the sense that it makes him a better character as he finally faces, what he think is his father, and tells him he would rather be a good man than a great king. Although the twist of Loki disguising himself as Odin was a brilliant one and sets up some speculation for the upcoming Thor: Ragnarok next year!

As for Malekith as a villain, he doesn't differentiate much from other Marvel villains in the sense that he has one intention and nothing will get in his way. As much as he doesn't faze me as a villain I have come to terms with the fact that it is the hero's journey in the movies and don't expect much detail
elsewhere. Him and his race of Dark Elves are actually quite an interesting and awesome race, they have space ships, that stone he put inside that Dark Elf that made him a raging berzerker in the Asgard dungeons (pretty sure it has a name) and they look pretty cool as well. Although as a race presumed dead they seem to be quite advanced in technology, more so than Asgard is and I get more of a sci fi feel to them rather than fantasy. Maybe that's how the film is suppose to make us feel but I would personally prefer the fantasy elements as I feel it would expand the universe a little more.

Jane is integral to the story with The Aether being inside her for the majority of the film, giving Thor
an excuse to take her up to Asgard and introduce her to Odin. Natalie Portman produces a good performance once again as Jane Foster and I like that fact that the story is still kept as Thor's despite how important her role is in the movie. It also continues with the theme of the love interests being more active in the storylines as well; like in Iron Man 3 we saw more of an involvement from Pepper.




This is currently the last appearance of Loki and we know he'll be popping up again very soon. But Hiddleston plays the part so well he even deceives us as the Trickster God and has us believe he is dead (although we didn't really think he was dead, just missing again). His last appearance sitting on"No, thank you." is probably the best ending to any Marvel film anywhere. This is off the bat of The Avengers and being locked up in the cells of Asgard he is released to help Thor defeat the Dark Elves. He may only be with Thor for a short amount of time, the best moments happen when he's on screen. Although I do feel some parts are a little wasted without him with his Tricksy ways!
the Throne of Asgard as he says

One gripe about the film is the brief introduction of a love triangle between Lady Sif, Thor and Jane Foster. Very briefly this is thrown into the mix and then quickly dropped as we hear nothing else about it for the rest of the movie. If anything it seems a bit of a waste of time and even if something were made out of it, it wouldn't fit with the narrative of the story. It would be even less interesting than Thor's and Jane's relationship.

In the first film, Heimdall is seen as the great overseer of the nine realms and lives up to that name...
until now. Somehow he manages to miss an entire fleet of Dark Elf space ships heading towards Asgard and although he spectacularly takes one ship down, he still manages to miss the rest of the fleet. Making him possibly the worst guardian in the World. Not only this he let an imposter slip passed him and make his way to the dungeons. You would think such a high security World like Asgard, they would search anybody entering the planet. I do think that Asgard should consider getting a new guard for the Bifrost!

The Comic relief is given in the form of Kat Dennings as she successfully delivers great one liners as Darcy, a great edition to the MCU which seems to like having the one character being the centre of the comedy. I would say however more of her character would be appreciated as I feel she would
have a lot more to offer than just comedy.

There is a lot to talk about in this sequel and exactly how it should have been done with some minor changes. I do think that the standards of Marvel films do need to be increased for the sequels to make them much better than the one before and I am interested to see if that will happen in the third instalment of Thor's standalone movies. Next will be Captain America: The Winter Soldier!

I salute you for reading! :)

Comments

  1. Easily my least favourite MCU movie. Like you said, it wasn't sure whether it wanted to be sci-fi or fantasy (laser anti-aircraft cannons in Asgard, wtf), the love triangle didn't need to be there, and Chris Eccleston was wasted potential for what could have been a really great villain. Love Kat Dennings though, and the ending was pretty awesome

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    1. Fair enough, I wasn't too sure about this film when I first watched it and I'm still not. Yeah Eccleston was definitely wasted as are so many other villains in the MCU movies and when I came round to watching this one I just accepted the fact I won't be seeing much of him. What annoys me the most is that these great actors they get to play villains can play them so well, yet their abilities aren't even stretched and that's to do with the way the villains are written in I think. Although some exceptions come in the form of Tom Hiddleston as Loki and James Spader as Ultron because he acted out the movements and voiced him as well.

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    2. Wow talk about a late reply XD agreed, they're easily my two favourites, and I'm hoping in future movies they don't just get killed off after one outing (reeeally crossing my fingers for Daniel Bruhl and Chiwetel Ejiofor in Civil War and Doctor Strange)

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