Thor: The Dark World
Part of the beauty of what Marvel Studios has done with the past few years has to do with just how different each property is. You get everything from a giant green man, to a super altruistic soldier from the 1940’s, to a powerful alien who travels across space. To make things even more ridiculous, this alien is part of a race of people who look just like the humans on earth do with the exception that they look like they are stuck in the Middle Ages in Scandinavia. Yet somehow, it all just works. Those aliens, the Asgardians, star in Marvel’s newest film Thor: The Dark World.
Directed by Alan Tayler (this is his first Marvel film) and starring Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddleston, and Anthony Hopkins, the film continues on from the conclusion of The Avengers. Chaos has erupted across the Nine Realms and his faithful warriors work hard to bring back the peace. Things slowly begin to settle down but then an ancient enemy appears. A rare alignment of the realms is about to take place and this enemy looks to use this alignment as a means to attain its former glory.
The film was surprisingly well done. I say surprisingly not due to any lack of expectations but simply because Thor’s first film was sort of a grand introduction and then The Avengers was an ensemble type film and so it was hard to see where exactly Thor would be going forward.
The acting was great, the special effects and visual imagery were astounding, but most of all the story told was far deeper and darker (no pun intended) than anticipated. This film digs down to the essence of who Thor is and why he does what he does.
The very dark type of villain and power was also quite enjoyable. We’ve gotten a lot of power hungry type villains recently and this was quite refreshing.
The film also benefits from the high quality writing. There are more than a few major surprises and probably one of the biggest takeaways from the film is that these films aren’t just sideshows to entertain and build up to the next Avengers. These are gripping and entertaining films themselves and are easily capable of standing completely on their own.
This is exactly why the current Marvel Studios roadmap is so exciting. All of these films could easily stand on their own but they are still all connected. Marvel has become the master of creating a wonderful self-contained story that also perfectly fits into a larger puzzle. There are no ‘to be continued’ endings here. Thor: The Dark World has its own beginning and end and even if you’ve never seen a Marvel movie you would still enjoy seeing this film. All of the connections and unanswered lead-ins are pure gravy.
