Thor: The Dark World Movie Review

Nothing like a Summer movie in November for a bit of relief from all the "Oscar" films that have come out recently? Here is my review for Thor: The Dark World...

Thor: The Dark World is the sequel to the 2011 film Thor and the Avengers, directed by Alan Taylor and starring Chris Hemsworth in the lead role.

In Thor: The Dark World, the mythology and story is explained to us by a narration from Anthony Hopkin's Odin. Before light, he explains, there was darkness, and in that darkness lived a race called the dark elves, led by Malekith. Malekith, after a defeat by the Asgardians thousands of years ago, has awoken again and wishes to cover the 9 realms in darkness during an event called the convergence; this is where all 9 realms (including Earth and Asgard) align in a "once every 5000 years event" which sees the laws of physics go ballistic. He wishes to harness the energy of the Aether in order to perform this evil feat. Thor, must stop him.

Now before watching Thor: The Dark World I watched the first Thor to prepare myself. I really enjoyed the film but it did have numerous issues. Thankfully, I walked out of the movie feeling like a lot of them had been addressed. Yes, like all of the superhero movies that have come out this year, this is a very good movie.

Thor and Asgard have a lot of mythology behind them which these movies can play off to create a larger scale movie within Marvel Cinematic Universe. In this movie they do go bigger, and of course better!

In this movie we got to see more of Asgard, plus more of the 9 other realms, which is always cool and interesting to see.

Kenneth Brannagh did not direct this movie, that task went to "Game of Thrones" director Alan Taylor and boy does that show. The titled camera style is now gone to the relief of neck muscles all around the world and in comes a man who films this movie beautifully.

Some of the scenic shots in this movie were, I thought, very well handled which is a refreshing thing to see, as it also uses this as well as the special effects to create a clear looking comic book film. I thought the CGI elements had improved as well which was awesome to see.

The first Thor was a good movie in the sense that Thor was stuck powerless on earth and has to become himself again by learning humility. However, this one saw our hero kicking-ass in true Thor-like fashion, His entrance to the movie is exactly how it should be. Chris Hemsworth proves in this film that he can lead a superhero movie.

However, it is hard to strut your stuff when you have to share a scene with Tom Hiddleston's Loki. I think Marvel have realised that Loki is the best part of this branch of the story and yes they are right for thinking that. He is awesome, plus has so many lines which are delivered with such humour and sarcasm. Tom Hiddleston plays up this man so much and he steals every scene he is in.

I was also thankful that we saw more of practically every other character. Natalie Portman, Renne Russo, Jaimie Alexander, Anthony Hopkins and Idris Elba all have more to do and that's really good because they are all interesting characters that needed more screen time. It really is an impressive cast..

The villain Malekith is played by Christopher Eccleston and I really like the guy, he was a great ninth Doctor! But he let's me down in Thor: The Dark World as I never found him to be that imposing or intimidating, he seemed to be a 1 dimensional villain with 1 dimensional goals. That is unfortunate but that is the way it is..

Also, I came to realise the sheer scale of the humour in this movie, as well as other Marvel properties, recently. Admittedly, a fair amount of it does work but some really does fall flat and creates kind of an awkward theatre atmosphere.

As for Kat Dennings, I have nothing against her as a person, but her character really annoys me. There is this whole story-arc with her character and her intern which hurts the movie due it being completely unnecessary! I just think her and Malekith could have been better written and as a result, more interesting to see on screen.

The film's finale is pretty cool and the laws of physics seem to fly out of the window! Some of the science-fiction elements could be seen as over-complicated for some but the movie does stay on point in that it's absurdly entertaining and Loki steals the show.

It also has one of the coolest cameos I have ever seen. The theatre erupted with laughter!

Thor: The Dark World, like Iron Man 3, does have a fair amount of issues but it's fair to say that both are ludicrously entertaining and are both welcome additions to this growing cinematic universe, plus improve a lot from their predecessors

I enjoyed Thor: The Dark World, and like most superhero movies this year, I'm going to rate it like this:


Rating - B+


1 sentence summary - An improved sequel, a thoroughly entertaining experience!


Next up, Captain America: The Winter Soldier. We have a while to wait though but I do recommend seeing Thor: The Dark World in theatres.

Thanks for Reading,
Matt

Pacific Rim Movie Review

One of the most eagerly anticipated films of the year came out earlier this Summer. If you haven't seen it, then use this review/post to help make your decision if you are so far undecided. Here we go..

Pacific Rim is an original story about an apocalyptic world where the human race is under attack by a huge race of monsters called the Kaiju, who make their way to Earth via a portal between dimensions in the Pacific Ocean. The human race's response is to come together to stop this menace and they decide to create huge robots called Jaegers in order to fight them off. This is our movie.

With a fresh premise and an original plot, Pacific Rim had a job of setting the scene for us and placing us into the conflict. They do this very well. The first 5 minutes is a narrated prologue where the stage is set. This is ultimately a good thing, as it saves us from a slow 30 minutes at the beginning of the movie which would have made it drag on for longer than it should have. That being said, the first 5 minutes could have been longer. I would have liked to have seen Cloverfield style events from the perspective of the people when the first Kaiju starts wrecking San Francisco. That would have been more effective, but I understand why they made the prologue as short as possible.

The main protagonist is played by Charlie Hunnam. His performance is Ok, but I saw nothing special from him. At times, some of his lines weren't delivered with the passion and drive I would have expected. More interesting characters include Rinko Kikuchi's character and Idris Elba's character. Elba is the star of the show. The man steals all of his scenes plus delivers one of my favourite lines from any movie that's come out in 2013.

Charlie Day and Burn Gorman both play scientists who are both relevant to the story and their relationship, at times, is quite humorous. However, at times it felt like they were just forced comic relief. That's probably the best way I can describe it.

The acting overall in the film is up and down. As for character development, it was poor. Very poor indeed. In the middle of this movie there is a slow hour where you sense they're trying for character development, but it is just not working. I don't think I've ever been so emotionally unattached from a group of characters than I was in Pacific Rim. Events happened at the end and I couldn't care less. I was just screaming for some action.

Now, the action. The whole point of Pacific Rim was to show off large robots fighting giant monsters. Both of them are visually stunning, as are the special effects. The robots themselves are really cool; they establish early on why 2 people need to pilot them and the monsters are just as cool.

The fight scenes are epic and are backed up with a very good soundtrack. The overall noise, effects and visuals present during the fight sequences are all mixed so well and make an extremely pleasant viewing experience. Also, props have to go to the cinematography. It's done so well that the size of the 2 things fighting is perfectly illustrated and is also adding to the overall pleasure of the experience. It's not all in your face, it excites you and you thoroughly enjoy yourself! Best visuals of the year by far, even better than Man of Steel!

Overall, I'm torn with this film. Poor character development and non attachable characters bring it down. But, the fact that the film does such a good job at what it was meant to do (cinematography, visuals, effects) this movie was a lot more enjoyable to watch.


Rating - B-

1 sentence summary - Poor character development but stunning and exciting action!


I think that's the best way to put it. So, have you seen Pacific Rim? Did you like it and is it better than Man of Steel? Please leave a comment.

Thanks for reading,
Matt