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Thor:
The Dark World
Think
back to a world of movies before The Avengers… You probably
couldn’t imagine a film being made about an alien with giant
shoulder pads who wields a hammer, flying through space and battling
rock-monsters? But, things have changed. Given the careful planning
and clever execution of the pre-Avengers films, the stage was set for
the ultimate display of unique
superheroes. As you know, it paid off in spades, and now Marvel’s
“Phase 2” as it’s been called is well underway. “Iron Man 3”
came and went earlier this year, dominating the cinemas and raking in
a billion bucks. Our central heroes of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Avengers
Initiative have gone their separate ways… for now. Which brings us
to the second outing for the God of Thunder.
Staying
true to the events that unfolded in New York, Thor has returned to
his home planet of Asgard, with his no-good brother Loki (who
destroyed half of Manhattan) locked up in the dungeons below the
city. Our back story this time around concerns events from long
ago... where an evil alien race tried to merge the nine realms of the
universe into one, which would have ultimately destroyed each realms
planets and civilisations in the process. This would have occurred
through the use of an energy source called The Ether, but the noble
Asgardian’s stopped this from happening, and hid the energy source
on Earth.
Back
to present day, Thor occupies himself by doing battle on other
planets to keep the peace, and encounters pressure from his father
Odin (Anthony Hopkins) to take his place on the throne as King. But
Thor is torn between his fate on Asgard and his loyalty to Earth,
especially his affections for the lovely Jane Forster (Natalie
Portman) who he hooked up with in the first film. Speaking of her,
the young scientist is residing in London, where she happens to
stumble across a strange anomaly in an abandoned building. Coming
into close contact with it, little does she know that she’s just
discovered The Ether, which had been buried there all those years
ago.
This
doesn’t go unnoticed by Thor and he arrives on Earth, staying only
for a moment, and then whisks Jane back to Asgard. Here, the story
unfolds further, with the formidable alien enemy discovering The
Ether is on Asgard. All hell breaks loose as you can imagine, with a
spectacular battle taking place on Thor’s world. With many
Asgardian’s killed and another attack imminent, Thor turns to the
person he would prefer never to ask for help – his brother Loki.
In
my opinion, this was the turning point that really made this film so
entertaining, lifting it up above the average level it could have
stayed at. The character of Loki (played with meticulous craft and
menace by Tom Hiddleston) is so sly, sadistic, clever and complex he
should get his own film one day. Given the success of the Marvel
characters journey to the silver screen, it wouldn’t surprise me if
in the future we see a prequel depicting the rise of Loki to the
character we know so well today. As he is just so entertaining to
watch, Loki’s presence takes Thor 2 to a much higher calibre of
drama and characterization than your average superhero film.
Thor
finds it in himself to trust his brother once more, despite their
history and the attack Loki launched on earth. But in a surprise
turn, Loki shows there may be some good left in him after all, as he
assists Thor and Jane to escape the curse The Ether power source has
put on her. The story then gets complicated, although visually
mesmerising, as a large scale battle takes place in the heart of
London. The people of earth (at least in the vein of the Marvel
movies) have been through a lot. In each film to date, cities have
been attacked and almost completely destroyed, monsters, giant robots
and aliens have wreaked havoc and superheros have come out of hiding.
The people of Earth must be getting sick of all this destruction and
confusion by about now. Could there be a future revolt by the
innocent bystanders of the world against our superheroes. Probably
not. I just couldn’t think of anything else to say to end this
review. Seeya!
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