The forgotten age of swords and lasers has finally returned. “Thor: The Dark World” is far superior to its disjointed predecessor “Thor,” proving its superiority with more action and a more detailedMarvel storyline.
In this chapter of the Thor film series the superhero Thor, Norse God of Thunder and heir to the throne of Asgard, has to protect the universe from Malekith the Accursed and his army of Dark Elves who are determined to plunge the universe into eternal darkness.
The first 20 minutes of the movie are a little slow, but once the action starts, it doesn’t stop until the very end. This doesn’t mean that the movie just involves Thor mindlessly killing monsters left and right. It’s full of colorful characters who are necessary to the plot, and the cast really does them justice. Stellan Skarsgård’s known for “Good Will Hunting” and “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” has an incredibly insane performance as the mad, yet, good-hearted scientist. Adding to his role also has several great one-liners that reveal the character’s sense of humor and wit.
Other great characters include Darcy, played by Kat Dennings, assistant to Thor’s love interest Jane, played by Natalie Portman. Darcy adds a layer of reality and comic relief to the movie, representing the viewers as outsiders to the crazy world of the other characters. She continually shows that she’s just as dumbfounded as the audience when it comes to the technology in the story.
However, Loki, played by Tom Hiddleston, steals the show. Hiddleston’s performance in this movie is far superior to any other cast member’s, and his character had great chemistry with his brother Thor, played by Chris Hemsworth. Their complex sibling relationship kept me on the edge of my seat. Loki schemes for world domination and the audience realizes this through Hiddleston’s body language rather than his words. This movie should have been called “Loki: The Dark World.”
As far as the writing goes, it’s not Shakespearen, but it’s much better than most current action films. My only problem with the writing is that the main antagonist Malekith the Accursed, played by Christopher Eccleston, could have been a bit more dynamic and thought-provoking. Instead, he was very cliché, another predictable I-just-want-to-destroy-the-universe-because-I-can kind of villain.
The film’s cinematography is fantastic, but that has become standard for superhero films. What separates this movie from the other Marvel films is Asgard itself. Thor’s home world is beautifully portrayed and intricately designed, evoking the feel of 1980s sci-fi films, such as “Masters of the Universes,” “Krull,” “Conan the Barbarian,” and “The BeastMaster.” this movie had to be a homage to those films; many of the battle scenes in Thor: The Dark World seemed ripped right out of the now-forgotten “Krull.” The dark elves, the villains of the film, and their technology in the movie also seem to be a direct homage to the Slayers, the antagonists in “Krull.”
Even “The Dark World’s” sci-fi references don’t damage its beautiful cinematography. Though the film isn’t true to the story of the Thor comic book series, it still evokes the comic’s spirit. No comic book movie follows the source material completely, so the best portrayal a die-hard comic fan can hope for is a movie that captures the feel of the comic book, and this movie does not disappoint.
