Plot
After saving the Earth from his brother Loki’s (Tom Hiddleston) alien invasion and restoring order to the 9 realms, Thor (Chris Hemsworth) is forced to return to Earth, and love interest Jane (Natalie Portman), after she mysteriously vanishes. Upon reuniting, she has become charged up with the power of an ancient dark artifact – the Aether – which the dark elves, a race of creatures who predate the known universe, and their leader Malekith (Christopher Eccleston) will do anything to retrieve.
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| The most remarkable things in this picture: 1) that dude's hat, 2) Thor's hair. |
Review
Marvel and their Avengers strategy has been, well…a marvel. In an industry where blockbusters flop as often as they succeed and everything is talked about under a veil of fear and danger, Marvel, with nothing more than good business sense and logical intelligence, worked the perfect set-play to make their Avengers Assemble set the world afire. Of the build-up movies, Thor was perhaps the most surprising. And weird. It wasn’t even expected to make any real money. But it did. A lot. Such is the power of a strong cast and mind-blowing art direction.
Now the eponymous god of thunder is back, and he’s looking as good as ever. If not maybe a little bit tired, like he could do with a good shoulder rub after all that apocalyptic-hammer wielding.
Thor 2’s dialogue is often clunky, hammy and garnished with a healthy dose of cheese. Its narrative is doggedly simplistic (“science” and techie mumbo jumbo aside) and not lacking the odd oversight. But isn’t that the point?
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| Thor wins the 'Most Eye-Tearingly Attractive Screen Couple' award. |
The first Thor was all about watching a ridiculously handsome man smash everything in sight to tiny pathetic pieces with his ludicrous chunky hammer in an outrageously beautiful world. And Thor 2 is just like that. Only more. Because it’s a sequel and therefore obviously bigger.
The trademarked Marvel cheeky sense of humour is back (minus that ‘fish out of water’ motif that worked so well last time) as is, thankfully, Tom Hiddleston’s Loki, who turns scene stealing into an art form in the disappointingly small amount of the film he graces.
In fact, it’s Loki’s presence that really highlight just how dull and cookie-cutter new big bad Malekith is. He’s evil because of some reason by way of a dark magic McGuffin. That’s cool I guess but…Marvel villains are often more fascinating and likeable than their shiny do-goody heroes (of whom there is a fantastic cameo), so it’s hard to label the dark elf king of evil as anything other than ‘disappointing.’
Having said that, the army of dark elves certainly looks bloody great, sort of like a nightmarish Dr. Who villain appropriately enough. In fact, all of Thor 2 looks great. As an aesthetic endeavor it picks up heartily from where its predecessor left off, throwing as much colour, things, stuff and techie-fantastic weaponry at your face that it can handle. And then some more. Because this is Thor’s film and Thor does whatever Thor wants. God of thunder, bitch.
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| And here he is, holding the gun he just stole from Halo. |
There’s a snappy pace at play here too, a sense of eagerness to move on to the next bigger and flashier set piece which helps to offset the film’s general narrative frailty. Again, Thor finds itself as the designated set-up pack mule, this time for Avengers 2 or Guardians of the Galaxy, meaning it’s actual narrative arc is a little, well…dull.
While most returning characters comfortably pick-up where they left of – Hemsworth is still great as the cocksure Thor, kinda like James Hunt in space (with magical thunder powers) - such a fast pace has apparently come at the detriment of a few characters. Most notably Thor’s merry band of warrior buddies who don’t get near enough screen time and also his mother, who is so heavily in the spotlight for a ten minute or so section it can only conclude with something being stuck by the pointy end. Most grievously though, Loki is depressingly short on screen-time, forcing his personal arc to come off as forced and stuffy, not to mention causing a significant decrease in quippy sarcasm.
So yeah, dialogue (seriously) whiffs on occasion, the story is largely stunted and the villain seems like he was bought from Villains R’ Us. But…this is a film where a man whacks another man(thing) with a hammer the size of a blue whale’s dingdong literally into the next dimension. 'Nuff said.
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| Inter-dimensional bros. |
Verdict
Thor 2 is a resolute success, managing to hold into what made the original great without collapsing under its own weight in an effort to out-do it. The climactic battle is simply outstanding (and oddly humorous) and exemplifies what Marvel is getting so right while D.C. (and Man of Steel) is getting it so wrong. It’s like Portal…but with gods. I can dig it.
4/5
I am the thunder:
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