Sunday, November 10, 2013

Thor: The Dark World (2013): Review

This weekend I went and saw the next installment of Marvel's phase two and it was a movie that was a lot of fun throughout the whole experience.  It had a fantastic balanced of humor, gags, action, interplay between characters and references to the other movies. although this movie was a lot of fun and I would recommend it to basically everyone as fun superhero action fun there was little that was memorable about the movie or that really stood out as something special.
Thor: The Dark World is the newest installment of Phase Two of the Marvel Avengers  and follows along the storylines of the movie that came before.  Although it is helpful to have seen the movie before hand, I think that basically everything needed to follow the plot is explained in the movie or from watching the Avengers.  In Thor (2011) you are introduced to the main characters; Thor, played by Chris Hemsworth, is the god of thunder who saves the world with his mighty hammer; Loki, played by Tom Hiddleson, is his adopted brother who is resentful of what he feels he should have gotten as his birthright as a prince of the Frost Giants; Jane Foster, played by Natalie Portman, is a human scientist who assisted Thor in the first movie and is the romantic interest; Darcy, played by Kat Dennings, is the former intern of Jane and works to understand the science what is happening between the realms; Dr. Erik Selvig, played by Stellan Skarsgard, a scientist who played a role in the Avengers when he was taken over by Loki and his knowledge of the different realms used; Odin, played by Anthony Hopkins, who is the King of Asgard and father to Thor and adopted father of Loki; Heimdall, played by Idris Elba, who is the gatekeep between Asgard and the other realms as well as able to see that which is unseen by other; as well as a few fellow Asgardian Warriors and Thor's friends.
In The Dark World, the stories of these characters continue but this time with a new villain trying to send all the realms back into darkness.  Five thousand years ago the Dark Elfs lead by Malekith, played by Christopher Eccleston, who was trying to use a powerful fluid energy called the Aether to plunge the realms back into a state of darkness where their kind used to rule. While trying to do this they majority of the Dark Elves they were destroyed by Odin's Father Bor but Malekith was able to escape and wait until the next convergence to try his plot again.  The convergence is a moment in time that happens every five thousand years when all of the realms are in alignment and their gravity is interacting with each other.  Jane and Darcy discover that physics is going wonky and Jane finds herself become the newest host of the Aether.  Thor and the other Asgardians discover what is happening and that the Dark Elves are once again making a play for the Aether and Thor wants to save the world as well as Jane.  Being at odds with his father on how to do this, Thor seeks the help of the imprisoned Loki, hoping but not really believing that he can be trusted.  Thor tries to find a away to be the hero and save everyone from the deadly Makekith and his fellow Dark Elves.

This movie was a lot of fun all the through it, I found myself entertained by the dialoged between characters, he situations that they were in, the in jokes and gags that were added, and the action sequences (which were kept a reasonable lengths compared to some other recent action movies). For me this had the balance of what I like in these type of action movies.  It was fun, didn't take itself too seriously but didn't go too far into campy humorfest.  It has a story that needed quiet a bit of explanation, but for me it had to have things that were weird because it is a Marvel comic book movie about Thor.  It is difficulty to believe that many villains or entities could stand up to Thor as he is a god, not just an enhanced/ special human.  Although the story tried to explain the physics of what it going on, I recommend not trying to figure it out and just go along for the ride that is the movie and enjoy it.
I think that Chris Hemsworth did a great job as Thor and you can see how in this third installment of him laying the character he has settled into and embodied the character.  There is a moment in the beginning of the film, that is put in there solely for objectification purposes which shows the amazing amount of work the Hemsworth put into to get the physic of Thor and I have to say that he looks really good in that scene, this guy is seriously hot.  Tom Hiddleston continues to be fantastic Loki and the interplay between these two is great.  The acting overall in this movie is overdone and dramatic but that is the type of movie this is and overall works.  The only person I found myself getting annoyed at was Natalie Portman, which surprises me because I usually like her.
I found myself laughing throughout and movie and really liked all things that were put in there, the standard Stan Lee cameo was fun and there was also a cameo from another well know Avenger character in the middle of the movie that is probably by favorite part of the whole films.  You will know what it is when you see it.
Although I did not see this movie in 3D I can see the work that was put into the CG and could imagine how well some of the shots would have looked in 3D, especially all of the depth in the scenery and the floating of the light orbs into the sky. I think that the specially effects were done very well and did not take away from the movie, although I knew that some of the sequences and scenes were significantly CG it was not blatantly there.
This is a movie that I would recommend seeing and although it is nothing truly memorable in components the whole experiences is fun and exciting.  Basically I think you should see this movie.

My Rating: 3

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