Marvel's Phase Two continues with the sequel to Thor, a film that I had poor expectations to originally but ended up liking quite a bit. Does this one measure up to the first, surpass it and improve on it, or fall victim to the usual problems that plague sequels? It's time for another REVIEWPOINT as we break down the film's hits and misses.
WARNING: SPOILERS BELOW
As always, let's start with the bad news first.
THE MISSES
1. ONE-DIMENSIONAL VILLAIN
It's incredibly hard to find someone nowadays that doesn't try to argue that their villainous character (or love interest, for that matter) isn't one-dimensional. Unfortunately, it's almost always true. This is another one of those situations where Eccleston had said during interviews that he gave more purpose to the character than just being a villain, but I saw none of that. Malekith literally is introduced to the audience in the opening as nothing more than "this dude is evil and a murderer, so, yeah..." and nothing else happens to give him more depth. Why, exactly, does Malekith want to destroy the universe? Just because he's old? Does that mean he's senile like Erik Selvig? Or is he just bitter that the new kids on the block are the hit (and I'm not talking about the boy band), so he feels the need to prove his value? Maybe he's just overcompensating for something, which if you look at the size of those ships, I think we can draw some conclusions. Speaking of which...
2. SPACESHIPS
Don't get me wrong. I know that Thor isn't supposed to be 100% the mythological character and that in the Marvel universe, he's just an alien. But still, it was kind of odd seeing all of the Asgardians with their medieval weaponry fighting it out with the dark elves that have laser rifles and legitimate spaceships which seem more out of Star Wars than Thor. In fact, the whole chase scene in the skies felt incredibly reminiscent to me of the prequel Star Wars trilogy. You've got speeders and blasters and everything else, coupled with some kind of iffy CGI.
3. DIALOGUE
Granted, it's nowhere near as bad as the dialogue in the Star Wars prequels, but it still wasn't nearly as sharp as it was in the first Thor film. Chalk that up to a lack of Kenneth Branagh, I assume.
4. MUSIC
Again, not as sharp as the first time around. It's not bad by any means, and I'll definitely be listening to some songs from the score at a later time, but I loved the soundtrack on the first film and this just didn't resonate the same with me.
5. JANE FOSTER
I just still don't like her character. I'm not the biggest fan of Selvig and Darcy's a bit heavy-handed at times, but Foster is just kind of an annoyance. She was a downer in the first film and she's a downer in this one as well.
THE HITS
1. LOKI
Loki is the man, for sure. Tom Hiddleston just has the audience by the balls whenever he's on screen, whether he's playing it up for laughs or he's plucking at the heartstrings. It's a good thing that they found a way to incorporate Loki into the film (and in a good way, too, rather than shoehorning him in there) because he made it so much more enjoyable.
2. PACING IS NOT A BORE
This film doesn't really drag at all. Almost from the very beginning, it keeps things flowing. There are some slower parts, of course, but that's necessary to prevent it from being exhausting. This is very easily a movie I could see people loving subconsciously because of how it's pretty much all systems go from the start, instead of how the first one admittedly crawls a bit at times.
3. CAPTAIN AMERICA
You had to love that hallway scene, right? This was a total gem that I didn't expect whatsoever. Kudos to Chris Evans for his part in it.
4. DEATH OF FRIGGA
As I had said before, I wanted at least one character to die, if not multiple, and Frigga was in my core group of targets. They gave her a fitting death for a character that isn't all that important, but should still have some honor, rather than just being offed like a random mook.
5. HUMOR
The jokes were overall done well and it wasn't overpowering, which Marvel can sometimes do (as evidenced in Iron Man 2).
END NOTES
Thor: The Dark World feels very much like a sequel not only to Thor itself, but also amongst the other films in Phase 1 and Phase 2 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I got the feeling that this was a very "lived in" canon and that things felt natural. It seemed as though this was a fun side-mission in a video game, wherein you can kind of step back and look at the scenery a bit and play around with things. The inclusion of people taking pictures of Thor, referring to him as such and being astounded like they were seeing a celebrity was a great indication of that. This helps strengthen Phase 2 in some ways and doesn't particularly hurt it in any.
Would I recommend it? Definitely, especially if you're already going into this as a Marvel fan. It may not be the best film of the franchise, but it's a more entertaining film overall than some other installments. It could have been tightened up and polished with maybe one more draft of the script to iron out some things, and I think a different director could have put a better spin on things to give it a more realistic outcome, but when all things are said and done, I was pleased.
If you want to check out some more comic book film Reviewpoint articles: The Lone Ranger | Man of Steel | Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox | The Wolverine | Kick-Ass 2
What were your thoughts on the movie? What should the next Reviewpoint be?
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