Thor: The Dark World **** (2013, Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddleston, Anthony Hopkins, Rene Russo, Idris Elba, Stellan Skarsgård) – Movie Review

‘I gave you my word, that I would return.’ – Thor.

With ads and premieres everywhere, it won’t have escaped your attention that the new superhero tale from Disney-owned Marvel Studios is the sequel to the 2011 hit Thor. I’m chuffed to say that this head-banging thrill ride is more of the exactly the same, but with a bit more dark edge maybe, even more glorious visuals, better battles and happily less jittery and more effective performances.

Kenneth Branagh having disappeared, there’s a new director in TV segment veteran Alan Taylor, who helms with a cool, Teutonic efficiency. There isn’t a lot of heart but there’s no other way to go on a mega budget superhero movie if you want a blockbuster.

The humour and human warmth are a bit spotty but they are there and they do raise quite a lot of smiles and a few laughs. That’s largely taken care of by Stellan Skarsgård’s silly scientist Erik Selvig, Kat Dennings’s Darcy Lewis, the friend of heroine Jane, and Chris O’Dowd as Jane’s new date. She’s given up on Thor ever coming back after two years! How could she? He promised he’d be back! Even Thor has moments of fun back here on Earth among all the deadly earnest mayhem up there on Asgard.

Meanwhile, up there on Asgard things are getting very troublesome indeed, upsetting old king Odin (Anthony Hopkins) quite a lot and his wife Frigga (Rene Russo) too. Luckily, the bad son Loki (Tom Hiddleston) is still in his designer jail cell, but that’s about to change when Thor gets so desperate he needs his help against the evil Malekith (Christopher Eccleston), all against Odin’s orders. Treason!

Idris Elba’s Heindall stands around grimacing a lot, but I’m not sure what he’s supposed to be doing this time. The same is true with Jaimie Alexander’s Sif, who looks ready for love or war but gets neither. There are not really that many characters, but the ones we have aren’t all used effectively by a script that looks like it’s been developed and developed, then got longer and longer, then needed to be hacked back, leaving dozens of loose ends. Never mind, we can pick up the loose ends in Thor 3 and see what we can do with them.

Like its hero, Thor 2 is a handsome looking beast, thoroughly likeable and engaging, fast moving with never a dull moment. Chris Hemsworth, with his perfect smile, perfect frown, perfect teeth and perfect body is a whole hunk of a man, a bit Aussie maybe as a Norse god, but otherwise totally godlike.

They’ve found villains strong and powerful enough to throw against him, so you really do feel the superhero’s in real trouble most of the way. It’s a shame Natalie Portman isn’t a shade taller (she’s 5’3 and Hemsworth’s a man mountain over 6’ 3”) because she looks as though Thor’s going to crush her instead of cuddling her. Though her size does help with the character’s vulnerability. She may be clever, scientific and egg-heady, but she does need saving (and loving) by Thor. Portman’s fine.

Performance wise, the main virtue this time is that the acting level is toned down a notch. This time Hiddleston takes his cue from his character’s name and turns in a low-key moustache-twitching turn as Loki, and it’s hugely all the better for it. He drops the camp act and goes for genuinely sinister. Spot on Tom! It’s important that he’s right because he’s got loads to do and he has to be funny and well as menacing. And he is both.

All the dialogue’s handled in a naturalistic, conversational way, which does have the problem that you can’t hear it all, but that’s all for the best with these kind of lines. We can hear the good ones. Using the same upper-class British drawl he uses in Rush as racing driver James Hunt, Hemsworth tends to mumble and chew his words, which are often lost. But, so what, we just want to see him in action anyway. And he’s great in action.

That’s a great superhero costume he’s got, (and a fine hammer by the way), but very few actors could get away with wearing it, let alone look as though they were born for it. Don’t get your mum to run you up one of these costumes on the sewing machine at home, guys. Trust me, you’ll look silly in it.

There’s one brief scene where Hemsworth steps out of his costume and removes his shirt to show off his rippling muscles and stands gleaming in the Asgardian moonlight. It’s supposed to make sense in the context of the superhero’s need to clean off the bloodstains of a recent battle, but Hemsworth looks exposed in more ways than one, like he’s appearing in a beefcake calendar.

Hemsworth’s great actually. OK, there’s no acting required, but whatever is required, he provides it.

Hopkins, I liked too, with all his low-key gravitas and plenty, but not too much to do, this time. He manages to find room for a serious acting role in a superhero movie! Skarsgard’s funny, especially running around Stonehenge naked. Dennings and O’Dowd are amusing too. And Stan Lee’s cameo provides him with a huge laugh line, and so does Chris Evans’ cheeky Captain America appearance.

Best of all, this movie is a Marvel comic perfectly come to life thanks to CGI magic. The visuals are truly amazing throughout. I know that’s expected now, but they are anyway. And the 3D’s effective, though not especially necessary. The sets (the production design is by Charles Wood) and cinematography (director of photography is Kramer Morgenthau) are absolutely glorious.

All this is a tribute to the British technicians and artists at Shepperton Studios, who are no doubt glad of the work and happy to show they’re the best in the world. There’s some exterior filming in Iceland and on London locations like the Old Naval College, Greenwich, where the impressive climax takes place, and Blythe House, West Kensington, as well as Stonehenge and Bourne Woods in Farnham, Surrey. But this is a studio-based production and a brilliant one.

Why is the Earth stuff all unfolding in London, as though the rest of the world isn’t even there? I’ve no idea. It just is. London’s a trendy kind of place for filming, and we have to make sure Big Ben, The Wheel and St Paul’s appear in the frame to keep film fans who can only be tourists through the movies happy.

Finally, I’m afraid, the plot. Basically, there isn’t one. Even the one they sort of have doesn’t make any real sense. I tried desperately hard to follow it, then eventually gave up and thought, I know, I’ll just enjoy the film. No one’s ever gone to ask me to describe the plot anyway, and if they do, I’ll just say it’s all about this aether/conjunction stuff that started to sound a bit Lord of the Ringsy. Please don’t ask, it really doesn’t matter.  It motors the action, that’s all that matter. But, the again, a comprehensible coherent story. Well, that would have been good.

The storywriters are Don Payne and Robert Rodat. Scriptwriter on Thor 1, Payne is dead this year at 48, so I don’t want to speak ill of him. Christopher Yost, Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely wrote the screenplay, so I’ll blame them. Couldn’t they have hacked out a plot somehow?

Still I liked Thor quite a lot. With all its adrenaline-pumping thrills and nice laidback sense of humour, it always keeps you firmly on its side. Its many virtues way outweigh its few downsides. It’s my kind of stuff, all pretty well done, mostly really well done. I’m happy to see it again any time and happy to own it on DVD. Bring on Thor 3, the sooner the better.

Before moving on to TV, Alan Taylor started out in 1995 as director of the crime movie gem Palookaville.

http://derekwinnert.com/palookaville-classic-film-review-340/

(C) Derek Winnert 2013 derekwinnert.com