Movies: Thor 2: The Dark World

Score:  *** out of ***** (C+)

Long Story Short:  Thor gets his second shot to be the main man, and while the series further separates itself from the other franchises, it also remains perhaps the weakest link overall.  Thor 2 is certainly a lot of fun with its big battles, and Chris Hemsworth is a likable lead while Hiddleston is making Loki one of the great comic book villains.  But plot holes, convenient timing and deus ex machina reach pretty ridiculous levels here, and the parts on Earth (I'm looking at you, Jane/Natalie Portman) leave much to be desired.


The fall movie season rolls right along.  Looking ahead on IMDB, there seems to be a good mix of genres coming out, from blockbuster to Oscar-bait, that I may see in the theater.  And 12 Years a Slave was released in my local theater this weekend - just in time for the gap between Thor and Hunger Games (talk about contrasts!).  Marvel's film studio seems to be an unstoppable machine now, propelled to the forefront by The Avengers and led by a Batman-level star (Iron Man/Robert Downey Jr.).  Hey, I'm not complaining - I love superhero films, and the Avengers universe has yet to deliver a bad one.  So while the first Thor wasn't great, I still wanted to see the second.  Thor 2: The Dark World was directed by Alan Taylor and stars Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, and Natalie Portman.

Set just a few years after the first Thor, the film begins with Thor (Hemsworth) and his Asgardian (pseudo-gods from another "realm") team of warriors mopping up some chaos in the other realms.  Back on Earth, Jane (Portman) is interrupted from trying to develop a normal life by the discovery of a bizarre physics-based phenomenon.  Snooping around, Jane stumbles into an ancient, forgotten substance from another realm.  The Asgardians notice this, and Thor shoots down to Earth to check on his mortal object of affection.

It turns out some bad dudes are out to capture the substance that Jane discovered.  Thor and the rest of Asgard are caught off guard by this new threat.  With his father stubbornly opposed to him, Thor is forced to work with his imprisoned brother Loki in order to stop the threat to the entire universe.

Even action films need competent actors, and Thor 2 has them - even if not all their characters are all that great.  Chris Hemsworth reprises his lead role as Thor.  While Chris has the right features - easy confidence, sometimes sliding into arrogance or righteous fury (understandable of a pseudo-god); nice comic timing (if not always utilized fully by the script); and the brawniness of a superhero - he still has yet to really distinguish Thor as a true leader/primary character in any of his films.  Much of this is due to the script strangely downplaying his role, but Hemsworth should assert himself more.  Thor's brother Loki, however, upstages him with glee, as played by Tom Hiddleston.  While I thought he was underwhelming in The Avengers (apart from one or two scenes), Loki completely dominates this movie.  Hiddleston truly owns this role now, and he gives Loki phenomenal range and depth of character almost effortlessly.  Poor Thor.

Natalie Portman's character Jane is as frustrating and useless as she was in the first film.  Certainly, the scripts have been the main culprit - Jane basically serves as motivation for Thor and a connection for him both romantically and to Earth.  All the "scientist" parts have been utter nonsense.  Here is where Portman's failure comes in, though:  if Jane were really this science dork, she would not be anywhere near as aloof and "cool" as Natalie plays her.  They need to kill Jane off ASAP.  Notes on other characters:  Kat Dennings as Darcy continues to be a great comic foil (keep her, dump Jane)... Idris Elba's gateway guardian Heimdall was a total bad-ass in the first film, but he goes disappointingly rogue in this one... Thor's merry men (and woman) remain an interesting but underused gang of Lord of the Rings-like buddies.

The Thor universe is really quite different from the other mainstream superheroes, as it allows for many more fantasy elements.  This is both a blessing and a curse.  The result in Thor 2:  there's a lot of fun in ways that you won't see anywhere else, but there is also plot chaos in just about every scene.  Actually, Thor 2 adds in sci-fi to the mix; while its combination with fantasy elements is a little rough, it's not too bad (nothing like Cowboys and Aliens... *shiver*).  But there also need to be some ground rules within whatever universe you're occupying, and Thor 2 throws them to the wind with abandon - and when it doesn't do that, the right-place-right-time effect fills in.  Still - while Thor 2 is no parody - it pokes gentle fun of itself occasionally, and the general feeling I got was mostly fun.  Also, it's not just good guys beating the living snot out of bad guys (aka Transformers); evil wins some impressive victories in this film, but I'll leave it at that.

***

Thor 2 doesn't diverge as much from its predecessor as this year's Iron Man did, but it takes similar, commendable chances for such a lucrative studio.  Like Iron Man 3, some of these efforts worked, while others didn't - and there's still plenty of room for growth and change in the next one.  On the positive side, Thor 2 has decided that this is the appropriate franchise for doing the kind of crazy, fantasy-based action that you can't pull off in any other superhero film.  On the downside, they will have to be very careful to prevent future installments' plots from spiralling out of control like this one did - audiences' (or at least my) tolerance for things just working only goes so far.  While the politics/culture/people of Asgard are becoming fleshed out nicely, a LOT of work needs to be done if they want to keep recurring characters from Earth.  So, three recommendations going forward:  1) get rid of Jane (sadly unlikely); 2) strengthen Thor's role (can Hemsworth do it?); and 3) give Loki a big part in every Thor movie going forward (I'm not too worried about this one coming true).  If you want to be entertained and can paper over gaping plot holes with the good aspects, go ahead and try this one in the theater.