thor the dark world
8 ICU admissions, 2 trauma calls and 1 cardiac arrest...it was All Hallow's Eve and clearly something was on the rove.
It's never a good idea to watch anything after an extremely long and exhausting night shift...but then again, there is probably no better judge of quality than whether a movie is still enjoyable for someone who's too tired for patience or humour.
A lot of reviews said the movie was incredibly funny, but though it did make me smile a few times it wasn't as comical as people made it out to be.
Once again, Loki is the highlight of the film. Every time I watch something with him, I fall more and more in love with this character. As Chris (Hemsworth) and Tom himself have pointed out, Loki is loveable because underneath all that charm and mischief, there is a raging storm of jealousy and grief and anger and indignation, yet underneath all that, he is driven by a deep yearning for a place of belonging, a family, a home, a clan to call his own.
Most characters in these high budget blockbusters get called well-developed with two layers...a villain with three conflicting sides that all form an integral part of him...is almost cheating. Now play that off against Thor, who forms the core of his negative feelings as well as positive connections, you get a very watchable onscreen dynamic, even without all the "bromance" calls.
The two central characters (...sorry Jane, but Loki definitely seems to wrangle more weight) and the family dynamics carry the emotional weight of the film...though when I say weight it wasn't very heavy even with the film's one emotional turning point. Oh, the scene was very well-done, but it was (probably appropriately) overshadowed by the fallout from such an event. Last film the family dynamic was chiefly focused on Odin's growing frustration and Frigga's milder exasperation with Thor's arrogant antics. It's nice to get a bit of Loki versus the parents in this movie...which almost parallels that of Thor's in the first: the son they still love and clearly had better expectations of, caught up by his own obsession with power and authority and an arrogance he doesn't even realise he has.
As likeable as Loki is, he needs Thor to play off against and vice versa. Thor is unfortunately a much more two-dimensional character. He is - as Tom calls it - the sun to Loki's moon, and like the sun it shines with the same drearily immutable brightness everyday. He is more mature now; the sight of him smiling, quietly lost in thought, at the banquet table is a far cry from the boy-man at the beginning of the first movie. It's hard to say whether the events of The Avengers touched him - certainly not as much as it's freaked Tony Stark out - but he's a guy seasoned by battle, and now seasoned by life. But he comes alive when Loki enters the scene. It's nice to see him hold his own against Loki this time, to surprise the God of Trickery with his own tricks.
Jane unfortunately becomes fodder. She spends two-third of the film being the damsel in distress, and it's not quite redeemed by her achievements in averting Malekith's efforts in the final scene. Speaking of Malekith, he was probably the most maligned villain next to the Mandarin. It was very hard to care for a character whose motivations were never explained, especially when you've preceded him with the incredibly nuanced Loki. In fact, a lot of the side characters are maligned. I found Darcy to be really annoying this time around. Her perkiness seemed shoehorned in and jarred against the rest of the tone. The fatherly Erik Selvig similarly was reduced to a delirious old man who was introduced running around Stone Henge buck naked...and it was never explained.
It was an enjoyable film, and personally I think it's a bit more cohesive than the first one (though people's mileage vary). The climax actually feels like a climax, and the stakes are better matched to a movie that encompasses multiple realms. That said, strip away the family dynamics between Odin, Frigga, Thor and Loki, you get an flaccid film with a weak plot and pointless villain and pathetic heroine. So...watch it for the messed up Odin family.
Random aside: to me, Tony Stark and Loki are likeable for similar reasons. They're both outwardly charming, mischievous...almost anarchist characters. But both of them hide this incredible vulnerability that are so perfectly portrayed by their respective actors. Both are very lonely people who don't know how to form solid relationships, and while superheroes are inherently lonely, they're both very bothered and driven by their loneliness. You can argue that Stark became Iron Man because he became so aware of his loneliness that he wanted to do everything in his power to protect the bits of warmth that he knows. Loki is just given an extra layer of a misplaced revenge story.
It's never a good idea to watch anything after an extremely long and exhausting night shift...but then again, there is probably no better judge of quality than whether a movie is still enjoyable for someone who's too tired for patience or humour.
A lot of reviews said the movie was incredibly funny, but though it did make me smile a few times it wasn't as comical as people made it out to be.
Once again, Loki is the highlight of the film. Every time I watch something with him, I fall more and more in love with this character. As Chris (Hemsworth) and Tom himself have pointed out, Loki is loveable because underneath all that charm and mischief, there is a raging storm of jealousy and grief and anger and indignation, yet underneath all that, he is driven by a deep yearning for a place of belonging, a family, a home, a clan to call his own.
Most characters in these high budget blockbusters get called well-developed with two layers...a villain with three conflicting sides that all form an integral part of him...is almost cheating. Now play that off against Thor, who forms the core of his negative feelings as well as positive connections, you get a very watchable onscreen dynamic, even without all the "bromance" calls.
The two central characters (...sorry Jane, but Loki definitely seems to wrangle more weight) and the family dynamics carry the emotional weight of the film...though when I say weight it wasn't very heavy even with the film's one emotional turning point. Oh, the scene was very well-done, but it was (probably appropriately) overshadowed by the fallout from such an event. Last film the family dynamic was chiefly focused on Odin's growing frustration and Frigga's milder exasperation with Thor's arrogant antics. It's nice to get a bit of Loki versus the parents in this movie...which almost parallels that of Thor's in the first: the son they still love and clearly had better expectations of, caught up by his own obsession with power and authority and an arrogance he doesn't even realise he has.
As likeable as Loki is, he needs Thor to play off against and vice versa. Thor is unfortunately a much more two-dimensional character. He is - as Tom calls it - the sun to Loki's moon, and like the sun it shines with the same drearily immutable brightness everyday. He is more mature now; the sight of him smiling, quietly lost in thought, at the banquet table is a far cry from the boy-man at the beginning of the first movie. It's hard to say whether the events of The Avengers touched him - certainly not as much as it's freaked Tony Stark out - but he's a guy seasoned by battle, and now seasoned by life. But he comes alive when Loki enters the scene. It's nice to see him hold his own against Loki this time, to surprise the God of Trickery with his own tricks.
Jane unfortunately becomes fodder. She spends two-third of the film being the damsel in distress, and it's not quite redeemed by her achievements in averting Malekith's efforts in the final scene. Speaking of Malekith, he was probably the most maligned villain next to the Mandarin. It was very hard to care for a character whose motivations were never explained, especially when you've preceded him with the incredibly nuanced Loki. In fact, a lot of the side characters are maligned. I found Darcy to be really annoying this time around. Her perkiness seemed shoehorned in and jarred against the rest of the tone. The fatherly Erik Selvig similarly was reduced to a delirious old man who was introduced running around Stone Henge buck naked...and it was never explained.
It was an enjoyable film, and personally I think it's a bit more cohesive than the first one (though people's mileage vary). The climax actually feels like a climax, and the stakes are better matched to a movie that encompasses multiple realms. That said, strip away the family dynamics between Odin, Frigga, Thor and Loki, you get an flaccid film with a weak plot and pointless villain and pathetic heroine. So...watch it for the messed up Odin family.
Random aside: to me, Tony Stark and Loki are likeable for similar reasons. They're both outwardly charming, mischievous...almost anarchist characters. But both of them hide this incredible vulnerability that are so perfectly portrayed by their respective actors. Both are very lonely people who don't know how to form solid relationships, and while superheroes are inherently lonely, they're both very bothered and driven by their loneliness. You can argue that Stark became Iron Man because he became so aware of his loneliness that he wanted to do everything in his power to protect the bits of warmth that he knows. Loki is just given an extra layer of a misplaced revenge story.