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#1 Frigid watched Thor: Dark World.

Posted: Fri Nov 08, 2013 12:44 am
by frigidmagi
This review is rated moderately spoiler free.

I was invited to a marathon today where I saw 3 movies in 3D. The first was the original Thor which I found I enjoyed even more on a second viewing and I'm gonna continue rating as a solid B. The second was Avengers which I was delighted to find still rocks the house, the block and the whole fucking city (as you might guess I rated the Avengers an A). Thor: Dark World, while entangled in the fall out of those movies (Loki, LOKI, LOKI!) is telling it's own story, that said that story is in many ways the result of the last two stories (and in many ways... not).

Basically this movie grabs you and says "You saw Avengers, you saw Thor, you know what's happening, get in the car!" and moves!

That said my alternate title (I STEAL WHAT I WANT!) for this movie? Asgard should stop storing all their shit on our planet.

No seriously guys, we're smart enough now to start fucking with this shit and crazy enough to do it just to find out how it works.

Moving on, the bad guys as you may have heard are the Dark Elves. A bunch of crazy fantasy aliens who want to turn off all the lights. Seriously, they want to extinguish all the stars in the universe because they first came into being in a time before there was light and they see this whole life based off the energy provide by a giant glowing fusion reactor to be just one big mistake and besides it's not even sustainable bro totally not enough heavy elements in the universe to keep this going past a few billion trillion years (I may be making the hippie angle up)...

The Asgardians, being guardians of people who depend on said giant glowing fusion reactors (although honestly do they need natural sunlight? I mean their whole world is a damn giant artifact of fuck you physics) decided this was bad and exercised their Veto power. When I say Veto power, I may mean the power of ass kicking applied to entire civilizations (this is the 2nd civilization we've seen that is utterly wrecked by Asgardian military action, these guys do not fuck around). The Dark Elves were unhappy about that and after lying low for 5000 years, they're back for round 2 and it's gonna be all out and that's the story of the movie. It's the Dark Elves attempt to destroy a universe they see as poisonous and a mistake, while our heroes battle it out to maintain the very forces that make our existence possible.

Honestly? This is more like what I want from a Thor movie. The comics are best when they embrace the screaming fantasy of it all, alien worlds, fantastical magic/super science thingies and thrown down, knock out fights that bring the Lightening!

That said... Marvel movies seem to really like being about magical Macguffins, we had the cube in Captain America and Avengers and in Thor II we got the ether that I'm not telling you about. They also continue their awful Crusade to wrap up Kat Dennings in as much cloth as humanly possible, possibly to keep us focused on Natalie Portman, who doesn't really need the help (okay I'm being a guy here). I think we need less fetch quests here guys, I mean there are other stories you can tell other then "get the thing!" Also while the Dark Elves give us a bit about their motivation and desires, I really wish we had spent more time with them and less with Dr. Erik (who has some consequences from Loki knocking about in his head) and

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Spoiler: show
I didn't really buy the idea of them killing Loki, I mean it was a good try and all but...
Thor the Dark World is a B+ movie and edges into my list of great fantasy movies. Interestingly enough I'm told there will be a director's cut DVD and that has more scenes with the Dark Elves, we'll see if those address my complaint.

#2 Re: Frigid watched Thor: Dark World.

Posted: Wed Nov 13, 2013 6:03 am
by Cynical Cat
frigidmagi wrote: Asgard should stop storing all their shit on our planet.

No seriously guys, we're smart enough now to start fucking with this shit and crazy enough to do it just to find out how it works.
Nitpick: the crazy shit wasn't on Earth. It was found during the shifting between worlds caused by the convergence. She moved from Earth to the the Aether vault.

Also the movie was great.

#3 Re: Frigid watched Thor: Dark World.

Posted: Tue Nov 19, 2013 11:41 pm
by Hotfoot
Marvel Studios Movies:

Iron Man: Bad guy with suit
Iron Man 2: Bad guy with suit and lots of drones
Iron Man 3: Bad guy with lots of super soldiers versus good guy with suit and lots of drones

Captain America: Bad guy with supertech weapons aimed at the USA. The Cube was really secondary because it never really came up as an objective for Cap, just the Skull. Admittedly, it did power all of his supertech, but taking it didn't seem to stop the supertech from working, so...
Captain America 2: Bad guy with a cybernetic arm, also possibly nukes or something. We'll see.1

The Incredible Hulk: Bad Guy Hulk vs. Good Guy Hulk

Thor: Redemption Quest vs. Bad Guy Brother, no real MacGuffin. Actually there was a nice fakeout on that one, because it seemed for a moment there like the MacGuffin was going to matter, but then nope! Loki!
Thor 2: MacGuffin ended up with the Good Guy very early on, sort of a reverse MacGuffin, but it still counts I guess.

Avengers: Admittedly, MacGuffin chasing, as removing the MacGuffin effectively ended the threat.

Which brings us to...at most, 3/9. A fair chunk, I'll grant, but not enough to warrant me getting up in arms about it. That said, it's clearly going to be a concern for Avengers 2 or Guardians of the Galaxy, most likely the latter, I'm thinking.

That said, I finally saw the movie today, and I had a really good time. I feel they overplayed Odin's anger and pride just a bit, making him seem more an asshole than the last movie had him, but with the wars and the utter repentance of Loki, I can see him getting a little pissy. The end was a nice touch, and I'm glad we'll see more of Hiddleston in the future.

I am looking forward to trusting Loki to be Loki though. Thor 3 should be fun.