Thor: The Dark World
Think back to a world of movies
before The Avengers… You probably couldn’t imagine a film being made about an
alien with giant shoulder pads who wields a hammer, flying through space and
battling rock-monsters? But, things have changed. Given the careful planning
and clever execution of the pre-Avengers films, the stage was set for the
ultimate display of unique superheroes. As you know, it paid off in
spades, and now Marvel’s “Phase 2” as it’s been called is well underway. “Iron
Man 3” came and went earlier this year, dominating the cinemas and raking in a
billion bucks. Our central heroes of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Avengers Initiative have
gone their separate ways… for now. Which brings us to the second outing for the
God of Thunder.
Staying true to the events that
unfolded in New York, Thor has returned to his home planet of Asgard, with his
no-good brother Loki (who destroyed half of Manhattan) locked up in the
dungeons below the city. Our back story this time around concerns events from
long ago... where an evil alien race tried to merge the nine realms of the
universe into one, which would have ultimately destroyed each realms planets
and civilisations in the process. This would have occurred through the use of
an energy source called The Ether, but the noble Asgardian’s stopped this from
happening, and hid the energy source on Earth.
Back to present day, Thor occupies
himself by doing battle on other planets to keep the peace, and encounters
pressure from his father Odin (Anthony Hopkins) to take his place on the throne
as King. But Thor is torn between his fate on Asgard and his loyalty to Earth,
especially his affections for the lovely Jane Forster (Natalie Portman) who he
hooked up with in the first film. Speaking of her, the young scientist is
residing in London, where she happens to stumble across a strange anomaly in an
abandoned building. Coming into close contact with it, little does she know
that she’s just discovered The Ether, which had been buried there all those years
ago.
This doesn’t go unnoticed by Thor
and he arrives on Earth, staying only for a moment, and then whisks Jane back
to Asgard. Here, the story unfolds further, with the formidable alien enemy
discovering The Ether is on Asgard. All hell breaks loose as you can imagine,
with a spectacular battle taking place on Thor’s world. With many Asgardian’s
killed and another attack imminent, Thor turns to the person he would prefer
never to ask for help – his brother Loki.
In my opinion, this was the turning
point that really made this film so entertaining, lifting it up above the
average level it could have stayed at. The character of Loki (played with
meticulous craft and menace by Tom Hiddleston) is so sly, sadistic, clever and
complex he should get his own film one day. Given the success of the Marvel
characters journey to the silver screen, it wouldn’t surprise me if in the
future we see a prequel depicting the rise of Loki to the character we know so
well today. As he is just so entertaining to watch, Loki’s presence takes Thor
2 to a much higher calibre of drama and characterization than your average
superhero film.
Thor finds it in himself to trust
his brother once more, despite their history and the attack Loki launched on
earth. But in a surprise turn, Loki shows there may be some good left in him
after all, as he assists Thor and Jane to escape the curse The Ether power
source has put on her. The story then gets complicated, although visually
mesmerising, as a large scale battle takes place in the heart of London. The
people of earth (at least in the vein of the Marvel movies) have been through a
lot. In each film to date, cities have been attacked and almost completely
destroyed, monsters, giant robots and aliens have wreaked havoc and superheros
have come out of hiding. The people of Earth must be getting sick of all this
destruction and confusion by about now. Could there be a future revolt by the
innocent bystanders of the world against our superheroes. Probably not. I just
couldn’t think of anything else to say to end this review. Seeya!
*POST CREDIT SCENES - We get a nice tease
in the first post-credit scene here, where two of Thor’s fellow Asgardians,
meet an eccentric character known as The Collector. They offer him one of the
Infinity Stones, and he vows to protect it. After they leave he quietly says,
“One down, five to go”… The second scene shows the lovely Jane sitting at her
home in London, pining over her breakfast in Thor’s absence. But he surprises her
by beaming down to her balcony where they share a passionate kiss, and then we
cut back to the warehouse area where The Ether was discovered, and an Asgardian
beast, runs out of the warehouse and heads off to London, but we never know how
far he gets.
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