Dear Thor,
At some point, you might want to take on board the fact that Loki just can’t be trusted. I know it’s difficult but you can do it. He is the master of lies and deceit and a villain of the highest order, so I’m sure that, although you were never the smartest of Norse gods, you will figure it out in the end. You also might want to speak to the powers at Marvel and ask them to get a more experienced director for your third outing. As much as I love Game of Thrones, it’s TV and TV needs TV directors, but Thor: The Dark World needed a director that understood cinema. Also it needed a script that wasn’t so heavily written by committee. Again, I love Game of Thrones and Lord of the Rings, but did we really need an opening that seemed to be ripped off both?
Thor: The Dark World is an enjoyable enough romp with a few highlights: Tom Hiddleston‘s Loki moment in his cell when he reveals his anger at the murder of his mother (a criminally underused Rene Russo – although her fight scene was cool) was nice, as was Chris Evans‘ brief “appearance” as Captain America. Chris Hemsworth portrays Thor in a way that continues to please and surprise, but he gets let down again and again in a script that relies on a plot that basically I can’t remember the morning after – dark elf king wants to destroy everything, basically, and poor humour – Thor hanging Mjolnir on a clothes peg was pretty sad. Oh, and try getting from Charing Cross to Greenwich in three stops. I dare you to try. An example of lazy scriptwriting and poor research. Oh, and didn’t that “drop something heavy on a baddie at the end” look kind of silly in Prometheus, so why do it here?
Where Thor works best is the interactions between characters – Thor/Odin, Thor/Loki, Thor/Sif, and at its weakest when the battles rage. Man of Steel worked with the battle between Superman and Zod, but in Thor: The Dark World it looks like a cheaper version of Avengers Assemble. And what exactly where those strange poles Erik Selvig was carrying? They open up or close some kind of portal and…. oh, whatever.
Natalie Portman‘s Jane Foster faints a lot, then doesn’t, then does, then I lost interest. Pepper Potts she isn’t. A bit reminiscent of Queen Amidala, another underused and underwritten female character. This unfortunate comparison wasn’t helped by the scenes in Asgard.
Thor: The Dark World suffers from the same kind of inconsistencies that affected Iron Man 3. It’s as though Marvel are so busy with The Avengers that they’re not totally focused on the solo outings. Stan Lee gets another cameo: “Oh, look, it’s Stan Lee! He’s not Hitchcock!”
Thor: The Dark World is entertaining enough, but could have been so much better. It’s better that Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., but that’s not saying much. If there’s a third outing for the Norse god of thunder, please bring Loki back.
At least Captain America: Winter Soldier looks like it’ll be cool.