Into The Dark World

        This last Sunday, I went to Sioux Falls with a group of friends to go see the newest chapter of the Marvel saga. At the end of the night, the majority of my friends and I thought that Thor: The Dark World was a fantastic movie.

        The plot of the movie was quite simple: Ancient civilization with advanced technology--which had seemed to be destroyed thousands of years ago--reaper and threatens the universe. The development of the characters, humor, and themes of this movie were all rather simple. But what the movie did with these simple elements was create a story that felt well paced and naturally progressing. It also had very little wasted time. Almost every scene had at least one part to play in moving either the characters or the plot forward towards the conclusion.

Warning! Spoilers are ahead, proceed at own risk. 

        Diving into the specifics of the movie, let me start with the setting. One strength of this movie was that it worked very well with the world set up by the first Thor movie. We heard about the 9 realms, but in the end we saw a little bit of Jotunheim, Asgard and Midgard (Earth), and then told about the other realms. In this movie, we got to see many more realms. Svartalfheim, home of the dark elves which has become an abandoned wasteland after their battle with the Asgardians. This world is as dark and desolate as its former inhabitants. The world of Vanaheim has the first main action we see with Thor in it, reminding us of Thor's power and that there are more worlds than just desolate wastelands, beautiful cities on water, and earth. It also gives us an idea that there is more than just Asgard and Earth at stake with these impending dooms. 

         While we saw these two new realms, it was also nice to get a new look at Asgard. We got to see new locations within Asgard, including the prison. Not only this, but we saw many more Asgardians as troops, civilians and even doctors. We even saw more of their technology such as their ships and defenses. I felt much more like I truly saw the heart of a powerful realm than I did after the first Thor movie. It was also nice to see more of Earth than the simple deserts of New Mexico. We even saw a brief look at Jotunheim again, which was a nice reminder that it was there. And of all the realms we didn't see directly, we did get a chance to see through tiny portals at least. Also, the tree of Yggdrasil (which connects all the realms) was a nice touch, especially since it was mentioned in the first movie.

        Moving on from the setting, I come to what is probably my favorite part of any movie--the characters. And I was not disappointed. Starting with more minor characters, I found myself pleased that we saw Thor's Companions play a much more important role in this adventure. In the first one we saw them go in and out of two points in the adventure, and it was rather quick. And the two moments we mainly saw them had little dialogue and were mostly battle. This time, we saw them plan and pull off a prison breakout. We saw them more often, and they felt like major players within Asgard rather than people swinging around swords and axes for the fun of it. Sticking with more minor characters, I thought that matching Darcy up with the new intern, Ian. They made a nice team, and it gave someone for Darcy to talk with when she was all alone otherwise. The relationship growing between them also gave a great comical side. Speaking of comic relief, probably the greatest character surprise for me was what they did to Dr Erik Selvig. In the first Thor movie, Erik was a dry bone and bored me with all his exposition. It was important but it was all he did. In Avengers, he was a bad guy and we didn't see his true self much. In this movie however, he has been turned into an eccentric scientist who has lost his marbles--and it is hilarious. Probably the funnest moments came from his character and it was a refreshing change and felt totally natural. I hope that his transition to normalcy takes some time, because he was one of my favorite comic reliefs I've seen in a movie for a long time.

        Back to the Asgardians, I enjoyed seeing Heimdall again, as he played his role as gate keeper and counselor to Thor very well. Odin also provided a fantastic role as he gave Thor a standard to which he could measure himself to see what he would have to give up and become in order to become a great king like his father. Thor's mother, Frigga, also served a vital role in the movie for several characters. She showed herself to be the moral center of her husband Odin, the encourager of her son Thor, and revealed the humanity within Loki. Her death put into motion many changes in the life of these three men, hardening Odin and Loki, and motivating Thor to strong action. I personally believed that for Thor to grow much in this movie, someone close to him had to die, and I feel that his mother was a good choice as it gave impact to not only Thor, but also to Loki.

        Speaking of Loki, his character proved to be one of my favorites in the whole movie. Once again, Tom Hiddleston stole the show with his performance of this amazing character. From beginning to end, you are contently guessing whether or not he is good or bad, hating Thor or caring for him and Frigga on the inside (albeit on the deep inside). He is tricky and humorous and he continues to be a fantastic element in the story. Probably the greatest accomplishment of this movie was including Loki in this story, using him to further Thor's story (as that is what this movie is about), yet furthering Loki's own personal story and giving him almost his own side movie in all of this. If there had been any more focus on Loki, it would have had to been called "Loki: The Dark World"--which I'm sure some people wouldn't have minded. I look forward to seeing him more in the future and to see how long he will keep up his Odin charade, and find out what he has done to Odin altogether. Along with villains, there is also the villain of this movie: Malekith, leader of the Dark Elves. While I felt like he was not the most developed villain in the Marvel Universe, he did have many pluses. I liked that he was made into a long time villain that felt as much as Odin's enemy as Thor's. His bitterness was clear, and you could easily tell that he would stop at nothing to accomplish his goal, no matter the sacrifice. This became a great comparison between himself and Odin, as Thor pointed out how similar they both were, to which Odin could only say that the difference was that he planned to beat Malekith.

        Now, I turn my attention to the two main characters: Thor and Jane Foster. In the last movie, we saw a blossoming relationship between these two. And it is good I think that they addressed the fact that Thor left promising to return yet hasn't for some time. They showed that Jane was tired of waiting and even going on dates with other men, and they showed that Thor still had feelings for Jane by subtle messages such as one of his companions pointing out that "there is more than one realm to care about." Yet in the end, his decision not to become king is less about Jane, and more about himself and the price he is unwilling to pay to be king. In fact, this movie is really about his journey to deciding if he is willing to do what he must to be a "great king." Thor has matured so much now in the last three movies, moving from the arrogant prince who wanted nothing more than the power to the throne, to a wise warrior who realizes the cost of the throne and rejects it. It will be interesting to see how he will deal with the consequences of his choice now that Loki is moving in to take his place. It was good to see Jane take a bigger role in this movie as well. In the first movie, I actually disliked her and saw her as a weak romantic interest, hoping she would fade away eventually. But she showed real strength in this movie, and proved there was more to her than at first glance. She showed intelligence, will, and courage that gives good reason to why Thor would pick her as his romantic interest.

         Finally, moving away from the characters, we arrive at the plot. As I said earlier, the plot is rather simple as plots go, but it is well crafted non the less. There were very few scenes that were wasted in this movie, and everything seemed to have a purpose. The battle at the beginning on Vanaheim showed us one of the other realms Thor was fighting to protect, and placed one of Thor's companions for us to look back to and show that all the realms saw Thor fighting to protect them. Loki's humorous shape shifting in the palace showed his abilities and even revealed a form he would later take to fool his father. Even all the shoes and other objects being thrown into the odd space anomaly was used later to further their journey later in the adventure. The mid credit scene was also gave great insight to future Marvel movies, revealing The Collector (who will be appearing in the upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy), and the plot of the Infinite Stones. It was short, but effective, peaking my interest and leaving me eagerly awaiting the next installment of the saga.

        In the end, I think the movie can be summed up by the end credit animation of the movie itself. The end credits were minimalistic paintings of various characters and scenes with mostly black paint and a touch of color. The brush strokes were added not all at once but with layers that felt naturally laid down. It was simple, yet one of the best end credits I've ever scene and one that I will not forget soon.

Welcome!

Hello, and welcome to my review blog! I created this blog to share my opinions and observations about various events, movies, media and more that I experience. I love storytelling and the magic that comes with it, and this is my attempt to share and show this love with other people.

While my main love is movies, I will review many other things, and I am interested in taking requests. As long as it's available at little to no cost to myself (AKA: Netflix), I will review almost any movie that comes my way. TV shows and books are a bit harder as they can take lots of time, but I'll give it my best shot to get around to it.

To start off this blog, I'm going to work on a review for Thor 2: The Dark World, which I saw on Sunday, and one for the 6th Series of Dr Who, which I am currently on the third to last episode. I will do my best to make them spoiler free for the first part of it, and then a part marked as having spoilers. There's little more that I hate than spoilers, so I don't want to do that to other people.

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