Westside Steve Posted November 23, 2013 Report Share Posted November 23, 2013 Thor The Dark World Marvel PG 13 112 min Reviewing a sequel always presents a problem, especially a super hero film. More often than not the original will be based, at least in part,on some version of how the hero came to exist and came upon his decision to do what he does. It is almost always within that initial offering that we decide whether or not we like the actors, their motivations, the look and feel of the film, and so forth. We already know that Thor is based on an extremely loose version of the Norse gods and the goings on between Earth and Asgaard. I also know that I like Chris Hemsworth in the title role. Until I get to see him play a more challenging part I will withhold judgement on his ability but in this situation looking the part is 90 percent of the job. I liked Tom Hiddleston as the untrustworthy sorcerer brother Loki and Anthony Hopkins as Odin himself. I also didn't mind the light romantic hook and the addition of a couple miner comic relief characters. Well, all those elements have returned for the second edition of the Thor saga. In this outing, however, it seems the new director Alan Taylor has relied even more on the over the top special effects. If you didn't speak English and were watching this film you'd be hard pressed to tell if this were Scandinavian legend or deep space science fiction. With everyone flying around on strange looking spaceships the scenery reminded me a lot of the destruction of Krypton from the recent Superman flick. So, since the basis of the story has already been told, now it's time to think up a new and more dangerous situation in which the heroes and villains will interact. These days, and for a good many recent years, the easy road seems to be finding a villain who really really wants to either destroy the universe or plunge it into darkness or both. Here apparently the leader of the dark elves (not nearly as attractive as the ones in Middle Earth) is in the market for a super energy source to be used as a weapon at the time that the nine realms, whatever they are, will be aligned in the universe. Apparently that alignment is set to happen pretty soon. So now, as it is unfortunately the case with so many films these days, the good guys have to devise a plan to blow up whatever the bad guys have put in place. In this instance Thor and Loki are forced to put their differences behind them and fight together, for once, toward a common goal. Anybody think Loki can be trusted? I didn't think so. With modern day computer generated imaging it's much easier to put together an explosion than to write a spectacular ending. I admit there was one little hook in the climax that I hadn't expected which actually adds the plus to my final grade here. C+ WSS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gftChris Posted November 25, 2013 Report Share Posted November 25, 2013 1) Argh! Maassive font!!! 2) I saw this a couple of weeks ago and I have to say I generally agree. It was all very nice, a couple of humorous points in the whole things, heavy on the action, not so much on the anything else. It was so extremely generic, you could almost name the different parts it stole from. In fact: Spaceship landing on earth destroying some buildings - Star Trek into Darkness Ancient power that couldn't be destroyed, had to be hidden and can be used to destroy the world - lord of the rings Good guys have to break the rules to save the day - pick a film, any film Use enemy technology to save the day - again, pick any film The previous enemies team up to fight for greater good - pulp fiction, blade trinity, thousands more Bad guys awakening from slumber when someone finds the bad thing - lord of the rings again Bad guy can 'sense' a disturbance in the 'Ether' - star wars The destruction of the planet/army - superman, as pointed out above I'm sure I've forgotten some - we were pointing them out as we went along in the cinema. Maybe others can point some out. But it was so incredibly formulaic it was almost painful, rescued, barely, by good effects, Anthony Hopkins and Natalie EyeCandy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Westside Steve Posted November 25, 2013 Author Report Share Posted November 25, 2013 Last outing was directed by one of my favorite guys, your countryman, Kenneth Branagh. WSS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Cysko Kid Posted November 26, 2013 Report Share Posted November 26, 2013 It's setting up the next avengers/x men/spider man crossover "the infinity gauntlet" it was a major comic event in the nineties, so although I have yet to see it I'm guessing the energy source was an infinity gem and the "dark elf" was Thanos of Titan. Correct? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Westside Steve Posted November 26, 2013 Author Report Share Posted November 26, 2013 There is some premonition about the collector and some gems and a gauntlet. I had assumed that the dark elves were sort of a bastardization of the ice monsters who were the bad guys in the final battle of Ragnarok. Then again I don't guess these guys took the Scandinavian mythology all that seriously. WSS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
miktoxic Posted December 1, 2013 Report Share Posted December 1, 2013 HOLD ON! i still got the original DandD board game. anyone wanna play? hehehehehe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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