Chatterbox: Pudding's Place

Movie Review: Thor the Dark World. I FINALLY saw this after so long, and here's the usual review.

@ Joe the Stickfiddler: I beg to differ on one thing. Thor may be a little one-dimensional, but I think the Hulk is the least awesome of the Marvel heroes. I mean, Thor at least lives in a pseudo-fantasy realm where warfare isn't entirely restricted to blowing things up.

All right-- 

Loki, as always, is the only character who has any development at all. Leaving world-dominating villain, he deepens his part of anti-hero and really becomes the trickster, with a fragile heart and a steely determination to get back at everyone who wronged him. Besides, Tom Hiddleston is the only actor who seems take his part seriously and is not kind of looking sideways at the audience saying, "I know, this is stupid, but I do it anyway, because it pays."

Thor, as always, doesn't have character, but he's not so goody-two shoes for once and actually disobeys his almighty, overbearing father. When Chris Hemsworth's not trying to be all profound and heroic and actually lets a little real emotion through, he does give Thor soul and likeability. However, as some other reviewer said, the only chemistry that exists is between Thor and Loki. If every film didn't "need" a romantic subplot, Jane Foster could be gotten rid of and not missed.

Natalie Portman as Jane Foster is a little less irritating this time, but she still doesn't seem to me like a Ph.D. astrophysicist (Darcy points out that an astrophysicist should be able to change their ringtone; an A-list actress should be able to create a part convincingly). Darcy is pretty awesome as usual and adds a healthy dose of humor.

The Asgardians are here and gone before you can actually tell they were in the scene; I wish more was done between Jane as a stranger on Asgard and Sif, both of whom like Thor quite a bit. They don't necessarily have to be all catty and competitive, but just to get the sense of where we all stand here. It's never like anything emotional is advanced between Thor and Jane; he just goes back to Asgard again after being the knight in shining armor and she's sitting around with Darcy and Erik Selvig eating, like nothing even happened!

The plot and villains are thin, as can be expected. It's one thing to have a lot of magical fighting in these Old Norse-mythology worlds with Old Norse names, but to transpose it into Greenwich and have Jane's scientific equipment save the day is a little hard to believe. And the last scene is so totally creepy, since we have NO IDEA why Loki is...still around.

Total score: 7.5/10. It's less like an opera or a novel than the first Thor and less action-based than Avengers, but it's still a pretty good follow-up to both. If Natalie can act as if she actually has a brain and Chris's thoughtful, reflective scenes can be executed with his shirt on, so as not to be entirely distracting, it would be better.

I think they're going to make a third Thor, considering this one's success.