Review: Thor - The Dark World
The great brilliance of the two Thor movies now is that they remember that comic books are inherently comedic.
Think about that for a moment. Even grimdark Batman at his grimdarkiest has comedic moments even if the humor is also dark. Usually Batman plays the straight man but he also gets in some quips, some put-downs, some insults to jibe his opponent's spirit as well as his face. You can see the pattern over and over again.
It may be related to the beat-structure explored in Robin D. Laws' 'Hamlet's Hit Points' where every scene is examined for 'beats' - whether the mood raised or lowered by the end of the scene. One of the lessons learned is that three downbeats in a row is relentlessly depressing. So depressing, in fact, that it makes us want to put down the book, or leave the theater. It's too much, and we need hope to continue engaging.
"But we're dealing with a serious topic!" shouts the author. "We need to keep on message!" No, you don't. Even in times of war, disease, and death, human beings seek to lighten their mood. Jokes are told on the battlefield. Bodies are arranged humorously. While I was on the operating table having a lump of fatty gristle removed from the skin under my neck I cracked the slightest of jokes - I mentioned that this was like being in a medical TV show where I was patient of the day - and got the primary doctor, the trainee, and the nurses all cracking wise about Gray's Anatomy throughout the procedure.
Humor, light or dark, is a defense mechanism. A coping mechanism. It engages our joy to battle our hurts.
The examples are manifold, but the recent Speed Racer movie is a wonderful example. For all the brilliant colors, the movie is pretty darn serious. It deals with the death of a brother and the thought of surpassing his memory. It deals with treachery and corruption in the highest places and the revelation of societal manipulation through fixed sporting events - sporting events that the main character has devoted his life to excelling in. The sporting event that killed his brother in fact.
If you didn't lighten the mood, you'd probably die. That's why Spritel and Chim-Chim are there. Monkeys are funny and so are little kids. They enter a scene, they lighten the mood. it's not so serious. Back to bright colors. Zoom! We can resolve it all with an automobile race! That'll show 'em!
Back to Thor. The great innovation of the first Thor movie was that the second act was a romantic comedy. That doesn't mean it wasn't serious. Love is serious. But it's also funny. And guess what, the love of a beautiful woman redeems the man. Who'd have thought?
The second movie focuses more on quips and dialogue for its comedy. We draw a villain and a relatively stock situation - ancient power source released, ancient villain, convergence of a thousand spheres, Voilodion Ghagnasdiak is looking to destroy the universe, wait a second, that was Michael Moorcock there. Same difference anyway.
The problem that many have noted is that no one knows who Voilodion Ghagnasdiak, aka Malekith, is. Sure, his name is cool, but he's nowhere in any mythology anyone has read. To quote from 'How Underdog Was Born' a name needs to have what's called 'topspin' in order to be relevant. 'Underdog' is a great name for a superhero because it's also something we commonly use in other contexts. 'Captain' and 'America' both have great topspin. 'Hulk' has good topspin because we use it to describe anything massive, and 'Thing' has awesome topspin. 'Thor'... topspin mostly for mythology geeks. And Malekith? El zippo except that his name begins with 'Mal-' for evil.
So we have to draw this new guy in broad strokes, tell stories about him, give him some stuff he's done and will do, build him up from nothing because we have nothing to build on other than 'generically evil'. And that's competently enough done, but not exactly special. And that means we have a movie that isn't exactly special.
Until they break that mood. And that's what makes it special. Timing and dialogue, jokes and jests flying in the face of the world's demise. The movie always has an upbeat ready for when we might get too bored or lose the thread. It gives us something to hang on for. I mean, it would be nice if we were hanging in there to root for Thor to save the world, but come on. We're really hanging on for the next quip about the ludicrousness inherent in the situation that this setting places them into. It'll come mostly from Loki, or from Darcy, but it can even come from Thor himself who handles it sometimes with mild physical comedy, sometimes with a dry smile.
I like dry smiles, and I like Thor.
PS: Now we know what happened to Mr. Eko after he died on the island in LOST. (He plays The Undying, Malekith's lieutenant.) And The Collector's cameo is de-lightfully goofy, and wonderfully meant to set up Thanos and the Infinity Gauntlet in Avengers 3.
Think about that for a moment. Even grimdark Batman at his grimdarkiest has comedic moments even if the humor is also dark. Usually Batman plays the straight man but he also gets in some quips, some put-downs, some insults to jibe his opponent's spirit as well as his face. You can see the pattern over and over again.
It may be related to the beat-structure explored in Robin D. Laws' 'Hamlet's Hit Points' where every scene is examined for 'beats' - whether the mood raised or lowered by the end of the scene. One of the lessons learned is that three downbeats in a row is relentlessly depressing. So depressing, in fact, that it makes us want to put down the book, or leave the theater. It's too much, and we need hope to continue engaging.
"But we're dealing with a serious topic!" shouts the author. "We need to keep on message!" No, you don't. Even in times of war, disease, and death, human beings seek to lighten their mood. Jokes are told on the battlefield. Bodies are arranged humorously. While I was on the operating table having a lump of fatty gristle removed from the skin under my neck I cracked the slightest of jokes - I mentioned that this was like being in a medical TV show where I was patient of the day - and got the primary doctor, the trainee, and the nurses all cracking wise about Gray's Anatomy throughout the procedure.
Humor, light or dark, is a defense mechanism. A coping mechanism. It engages our joy to battle our hurts.
The examples are manifold, but the recent Speed Racer movie is a wonderful example. For all the brilliant colors, the movie is pretty darn serious. It deals with the death of a brother and the thought of surpassing his memory. It deals with treachery and corruption in the highest places and the revelation of societal manipulation through fixed sporting events - sporting events that the main character has devoted his life to excelling in. The sporting event that killed his brother in fact.
If you didn't lighten the mood, you'd probably die. That's why Spritel and Chim-Chim are there. Monkeys are funny and so are little kids. They enter a scene, they lighten the mood. it's not so serious. Back to bright colors. Zoom! We can resolve it all with an automobile race! That'll show 'em!
Back to Thor. The great innovation of the first Thor movie was that the second act was a romantic comedy. That doesn't mean it wasn't serious. Love is serious. But it's also funny. And guess what, the love of a beautiful woman redeems the man. Who'd have thought?
The second movie focuses more on quips and dialogue for its comedy. We draw a villain and a relatively stock situation - ancient power source released, ancient villain, convergence of a thousand spheres, Voilodion Ghagnasdiak is looking to destroy the universe, wait a second, that was Michael Moorcock there. Same difference anyway.
The problem that many have noted is that no one knows who Voilodion Ghagnasdiak, aka Malekith, is. Sure, his name is cool, but he's nowhere in any mythology anyone has read. To quote from 'How Underdog Was Born' a name needs to have what's called 'topspin' in order to be relevant. 'Underdog' is a great name for a superhero because it's also something we commonly use in other contexts. 'Captain' and 'America' both have great topspin. 'Hulk' has good topspin because we use it to describe anything massive, and 'Thing' has awesome topspin. 'Thor'... topspin mostly for mythology geeks. And Malekith? El zippo except that his name begins with 'Mal-' for evil.
So we have to draw this new guy in broad strokes, tell stories about him, give him some stuff he's done and will do, build him up from nothing because we have nothing to build on other than 'generically evil'. And that's competently enough done, but not exactly special. And that means we have a movie that isn't exactly special.
Until they break that mood. And that's what makes it special. Timing and dialogue, jokes and jests flying in the face of the world's demise. The movie always has an upbeat ready for when we might get too bored or lose the thread. It gives us something to hang on for. I mean, it would be nice if we were hanging in there to root for Thor to save the world, but come on. We're really hanging on for the next quip about the ludicrousness inherent in the situation that this setting places them into. It'll come mostly from Loki, or from Darcy, but it can even come from Thor himself who handles it sometimes with mild physical comedy, sometimes with a dry smile.
I like dry smiles, and I like Thor.
PS: Now we know what happened to Mr. Eko after he died on the island in LOST. (He plays The Undying, Malekith's lieutenant.) And The Collector's cameo is de-lightfully goofy, and wonderfully meant to set up Thanos and the Infinity Gauntlet in Avengers 3.