Thoughts on Thor: The Dark World
I can't believe it's already been a year and that Thor 2's actually out. Thoughts below; ALL SPOILERS. This is NOT a review.
SPOILERS
SPOILERS
SPOILERS
SPOILERS
The plot's pretty simple. In a nutshell: The Dark Elves, erroneously though to be vanquished by Odin's father Borr, are searching for this cosmic liquid weapon called 'aether'. Their leader Malekith plans to unleash it at the Convergence where all nine realms are aligned to bring darkness to the universe once again. Since it's approaching Convergence, the boundaries between the realms are fragile at best; Jane Foster stumbles unwittingly onto the aether and absorbs it, thus painting a huge target on her back. Thor finds and brings her back to Asgard. The Dark Elves attack Asgard, but are thwarted at great cost. Frigga dies defending Jane. Odin becomes a broken shell of a king. Thor seeks Loki's help to spirit Jane (and aether) away, lure the Dark Elves over, and destroy the aether and the Elves at the same time. Of course this goes wrong, and Malekith makes his merry way with aether to Greenwich, all ready for the Convergence. Thor distracts Malekith while Jane and company do magic with two tripod-like device and one remote controlled circuit board that somehow...distort gravitational fields and displace Malekith elsewhere. Hurray, the day is won.
Now for the breakdown:
** The Set **
We get to see more of Asgard this time: the streets, the people, the children, their celebrations. It's snowing in Asgard in this movie, which makes for some really pretty scenes.
According to this, Svartalfheim, the realm of the Dark Elves, was filmed in Iceland - possibly at Skógarfoss, the largest waterfall in Iceland; and Landmannalaugar, a hiking area near the volcano Hekla. The stark, desolate beauty of the landscapes is astounding. (I'm being a nerd and taking down these details because I've been planning for a trip to Iceland next year. Will bring my Loki and Thor lego figurines along.)
The Dark Elves-vs-Asgard battles are terribly, terribly reminiscent of Star Wars. The Elves look like Stormtroopers, do they not? With their white faces and blaster rifles and spaceships. And Asgard ACTUALLY has its own cannons and airships and what not! It was exciting to watch, but a bit disconcerting. Really, the Dark Elves could have just taken EVERYONE out with their rifles and black-hole-creating grenades. End of story, aether not even required. And...huge mothership? Very Star Trek.
** The Characters **
Frigga. Frigga is so awesome in this. She gets dialogue, shows that she is a wife, a mother and a queen. To her credit, she welcomes Jane warmly with none of the goat-analogy nonsense that Odin treated us all to. She completely outclasses Malekith with her sword-wielding prowess; I really didn't expect her to all and I really did cry at that. The funeral scene with the boats was tragic and beautiful and I don't have any more words for that.
Thor. I must say that I watched Thor and Avengers for Loki, and that this is the first movie starring Thor that I really, really started to like him. Thor is older, wiser, more caring, and more cynical here. Gone is the brash, inexperienced idiot from the earlier two films. He's also given up any hope of Loki's redemption. He's still idealistic: he isn't ready to sacrifice his people to the Dark Elves, and he would rather lure the Elves away and somehow...destroy the aether and destroy the Dark Elves with just his hammer and Loki. Of course, such a Gryffindorish scheme would never work, and it certainly doesn't. He looks amazing with the longer hair and cloak. And that final post-credit scene where he thunders down to Earth looking so extremely heroic was just breathtaking.
Loki.. He is still unrepentant of his actions on Earth; still jealous, angry, bitter and still harping on Odin lying to his about his birthright. The former, fine. The second bit...it's been two movies and he hasn't quite moved on from that; it's quite disappointing, but then again, no one's bothered to sit down and give him a good course of psychotherapy. I wanted to slap him, and then hug him.
Loki and Frigga. Argh! Frigga's passing! A guard visits Loki in his cell to give him the bad news; Loki acknowledges with a small, careful nod of his head, then stands up with his back to the camera, pauses, and uses his magic to smash all the furniture in his cell. Remember that scene from the second official trailer where Loki looks devastated after Thor says that he's given up all hope on Loki's redemption? Back then I'd assumed it was because he realised he'd finally succeeded in pushing Thor away, but now I know it was because Frigga had been killed. He'd earlier being struck silent when Frigga reprimanded him, "Am I not your mother?" and that was the last conversation they'd had. He gets mad at Thor for not being able to save Frigga, but that's a bit rich seeing that he kinda gave the Dark Elves directions. Blame stage, I guess. Hiddleston is AMAZING in this; he conveys every single nuance of Loki's emotions perfectly. The last scene where Loki masquerades as Odin was wicked. (where's Odin!? Offed by Loki? Or just conveniently elsewhere and unaware?) Tom Hiddleston is a sweetheart in real life and there's a tonne of fic where Loki's a much nicer person that he is in the movie or comics, so this is a great reminder that Loki's still callous and still the god of mischief.
Loki and Thor. We get some light-hearted brotherly banter: Loki shapeshifts into various forms after he's broken out of his cell, including Captain America with accompanying propragandish background music. The bit where Thor clumsily flies the abandoned Dark Elf starship out of Asgard with Loki snarking in away in the background ("I think you missed a pillar". "You just decapitated your own grandfather".) just killed me. They were grieving together on the way to Svartalfheim. I was also fooled by Loki's pseudo-betrayal. Nice bit of planning there, just that I guess someone should have anticipated what to do if the aether proved indestructible. Loki protects Jane during the skirmish - we could probably read lots of motives into that, but I like to believe he isn't malicious when he doesn't have to be. I would have cried at Loki's death scene if I hadn't been absolutely sure that he would return. I do think that there was no way he could have foreseen for sure that he'd be stabbed by the Elf, and that his panicked apologies to Thor were genuine.
Malekith. What a waste of Christopher Eccleston. We got very little backstory and very little insight into Malekith, apart from that he's an evil guy who sacrificed his race to live another day and is now back to reclaim this universe. Malekith is all makeup and guttural Elven language and thus makes a rather boring villain. I do hope that there'll be more in the extended cuts on the DVD. I guess he might be back someday, since he was merely displaced back to Svartalfheim.
MARVEL Physics. I don't get it and I suspect that if I spoke to a physicist they'd tell me that Jane Foster wasn't talking sense. But this is Marvel. *shrugs*
Overall I did enjoy watching this movie and I'll definitely be getting the DVD/Blu-ray when it's out.
SPOILERS
SPOILERS
SPOILERS
SPOILERS
The plot's pretty simple. In a nutshell: The Dark Elves, erroneously though to be vanquished by Odin's father Borr, are searching for this cosmic liquid weapon called 'aether'. Their leader Malekith plans to unleash it at the Convergence where all nine realms are aligned to bring darkness to the universe once again. Since it's approaching Convergence, the boundaries between the realms are fragile at best; Jane Foster stumbles unwittingly onto the aether and absorbs it, thus painting a huge target on her back. Thor finds and brings her back to Asgard. The Dark Elves attack Asgard, but are thwarted at great cost. Frigga dies defending Jane. Odin becomes a broken shell of a king. Thor seeks Loki's help to spirit Jane (and aether) away, lure the Dark Elves over, and destroy the aether and the Elves at the same time. Of course this goes wrong, and Malekith makes his merry way with aether to Greenwich, all ready for the Convergence. Thor distracts Malekith while Jane and company do magic with two tripod-like device and one remote controlled circuit board that somehow...distort gravitational fields and displace Malekith elsewhere. Hurray, the day is won.
Now for the breakdown:
** The Set **
We get to see more of Asgard this time: the streets, the people, the children, their celebrations. It's snowing in Asgard in this movie, which makes for some really pretty scenes.
According to this, Svartalfheim, the realm of the Dark Elves, was filmed in Iceland - possibly at Skógarfoss, the largest waterfall in Iceland; and Landmannalaugar, a hiking area near the volcano Hekla. The stark, desolate beauty of the landscapes is astounding. (I'm being a nerd and taking down these details because I've been planning for a trip to Iceland next year. Will bring my Loki and Thor lego figurines along.)
The Dark Elves-vs-Asgard battles are terribly, terribly reminiscent of Star Wars. The Elves look like Stormtroopers, do they not? With their white faces and blaster rifles and spaceships. And Asgard ACTUALLY has its own cannons and airships and what not! It was exciting to watch, but a bit disconcerting. Really, the Dark Elves could have just taken EVERYONE out with their rifles and black-hole-creating grenades. End of story, aether not even required. And...huge mothership? Very Star Trek.
** The Characters **
Frigga. Frigga is so awesome in this. She gets dialogue, shows that she is a wife, a mother and a queen. To her credit, she welcomes Jane warmly with none of the goat-analogy nonsense that Odin treated us all to. She completely outclasses Malekith with her sword-wielding prowess; I really didn't expect her to all and I really did cry at that. The funeral scene with the boats was tragic and beautiful and I don't have any more words for that.
Thor. I must say that I watched Thor and Avengers for Loki, and that this is the first movie starring Thor that I really, really started to like him. Thor is older, wiser, more caring, and more cynical here. Gone is the brash, inexperienced idiot from the earlier two films. He's also given up any hope of Loki's redemption. He's still idealistic: he isn't ready to sacrifice his people to the Dark Elves, and he would rather lure the Elves away and somehow...destroy the aether and destroy the Dark Elves with just his hammer and Loki. Of course, such a Gryffindorish scheme would never work, and it certainly doesn't. He looks amazing with the longer hair and cloak. And that final post-credit scene where he thunders down to Earth looking so extremely heroic was just breathtaking.
Loki.. He is still unrepentant of his actions on Earth; still jealous, angry, bitter and still harping on Odin lying to his about his birthright. The former, fine. The second bit...it's been two movies and he hasn't quite moved on from that; it's quite disappointing, but then again, no one's bothered to sit down and give him a good course of psychotherapy. I wanted to slap him, and then hug him.
Loki and Frigga. Argh! Frigga's passing! A guard visits Loki in his cell to give him the bad news; Loki acknowledges with a small, careful nod of his head, then stands up with his back to the camera, pauses, and uses his magic to smash all the furniture in his cell. Remember that scene from the second official trailer where Loki looks devastated after Thor says that he's given up all hope on Loki's redemption? Back then I'd assumed it was because he realised he'd finally succeeded in pushing Thor away, but now I know it was because Frigga had been killed. He'd earlier being struck silent when Frigga reprimanded him, "Am I not your mother?" and that was the last conversation they'd had. He gets mad at Thor for not being able to save Frigga, but that's a bit rich seeing that he kinda gave the Dark Elves directions. Blame stage, I guess. Hiddleston is AMAZING in this; he conveys every single nuance of Loki's emotions perfectly. The last scene where Loki masquerades as Odin was wicked. (where's Odin!? Offed by Loki? Or just conveniently elsewhere and unaware?) Tom Hiddleston is a sweetheart in real life and there's a tonne of fic where Loki's a much nicer person that he is in the movie or comics, so this is a great reminder that Loki's still callous and still the god of mischief.
Loki and Thor. We get some light-hearted brotherly banter: Loki shapeshifts into various forms after he's broken out of his cell, including Captain America with accompanying propragandish background music. The bit where Thor clumsily flies the abandoned Dark Elf starship out of Asgard with Loki snarking in away in the background ("I think you missed a pillar". "You just decapitated your own grandfather".) just killed me. They were grieving together on the way to Svartalfheim. I was also fooled by Loki's pseudo-betrayal. Nice bit of planning there, just that I guess someone should have anticipated what to do if the aether proved indestructible. Loki protects Jane during the skirmish - we could probably read lots of motives into that, but I like to believe he isn't malicious when he doesn't have to be. I would have cried at Loki's death scene if I hadn't been absolutely sure that he would return. I do think that there was no way he could have foreseen for sure that he'd be stabbed by the Elf, and that his panicked apologies to Thor were genuine.
Malekith. What a waste of Christopher Eccleston. We got very little backstory and very little insight into Malekith, apart from that he's an evil guy who sacrificed his race to live another day and is now back to reclaim this universe. Malekith is all makeup and guttural Elven language and thus makes a rather boring villain. I do hope that there'll be more in the extended cuts on the DVD. I guess he might be back someday, since he was merely displaced back to Svartalfheim.
MARVEL Physics. I don't get it and I suspect that if I spoke to a physicist they'd tell me that Jane Foster wasn't talking sense. But this is Marvel. *shrugs*
Overall I did enjoy watching this movie and I'll definitely be getting the DVD/Blu-ray when it's out.