Thor was actually my favourite of the first wave of Marvel movies – and
not just because of it’s blatant objectification of Chris Hemsworth’s beautiful
body (although that helped). So I was super excited to see The Dark World and I’m happy to say that I wasn’t disappointed. While
the sequel is not quite as good as the original, it was still incredibly
enjoyable. In fact I would go so far as to say that I enjoyed it more than Iron Man 3.
Thor might not be everyone’s favourite hero (although Chris
Hemsworth certainly makes him hard to hate) but Tom Hiddleston’s Loki is
without a doubt the best villain of the Marvel movieverse. So it’s hardly
surprising that the general consensus is that Loki it the best part of this
film. I can’t disagree with that because he’s such a compelling character but I
think there are a lot of reason’s to love Thor:
The Dark World.
For starters there is the fact that there are FOUR dynamic female
characters that all have their own purpose and storyline. Natalie Portman is
back as Jane Foster and despite the many complaints that all she does is faint,
I liked her just as much this time around. Sif got a much more significant role
in this film – yay – although for a moment I thought they were going to push
for a love triangle. They didn’t, thank god! They even managed to kill a female
character – Frigga, who totally rocked this film – without fridging her. See, I
told you it was possible.
This movie is funny, heartwarming and exciting and really does
everything I wanted from a movie about a buff Norse god and his dysfunctional
adopted brother. To be perfectly honest I don’t understand why so many
reviewers disliked this film – perhaps they are just bored of superheroes in
general, which is entirely possible, but IDK I think we could use more films
like this.
Despite having fantastic female characters – THAT TALK TO EACH OTHER
– it does fall short as far as race representation goes. This film is very
white and loses points for benching Hogun fairly early on. But then Heimdall
(Idris Elba) gets a pretty hefty role, which is nice.
Christopher Eccelston is wasted as Malekith who is basically just
there to give everyone a common enemy but that’s fairly routine in this kind of
narrative. Also it seems to be the done thing to inject super hero girlfriends
with some kind of volatile explosive substance effectively turning them into a
passive weapon. I’m not really a fan of that trend to say the least.
That said the final fight sequence is phenomenal and Loki’s mischievous
tactics make for some interesting twists and turns. All in all I highly recommend
seeing Thor: The Dark World and I can’t
wait to add it to my superhero film collection (my Marvel movieverse marathons
are getting ridiculous).