Kara Views: Thor: The Dark World

Because movies (especially like this) are long, sometimes (like now) I will opt to break it into a couple (or more) posts. This one will be two.

I have seen Thor: The Dark World before, but it’s been a while, and I had not seen the rest of the Marvel movies leading up to it when I did. Then, about 6 months ago, I decided to start with Iron Man and watch them in order of release (skipping only The Hulk with Edward Norton). About a month and a half ago I watched Iron Man 3, which brings us to today. I’m really mostly watching it again since I now have more context for it and may catch more references this time around (don’t hold your breath), and I also really want to watch Cap 2, which I won’t do until I’ve seen this again. Plus, who doesn’t love a little Zac Levi? (That’s right folks, he’s in this one.) ;)

The Marvel music begins (listen!)
  with the Marvel pre-credits logo rolling and what began as an “I’ll-watch-this because-I’m-making-myself” has turned into an “I-can’t-wait-for-this-to-start.” The type of excitement you feel in your chest because the anticipation has grown so high. Music goes a long way fast, people. Good composers are not appreciated enough. I am seriously grinning where moments ago I looked like I couldn’t be more bored.

Ah, Anthony Hopkins with the intro voice over. “Dark elves…” will never cease to make me think of The Lord of the Rings. Sorry not sorry. And hello, Nine. Oh wait, I mean Malekith. Right – he’s evil in this one (like most other things he’s been in). Good to see Christopher Eccleston anyway, even if he’s an evil alien-god-type creature.

The Aether looks terrifying. It’s like blood that floats through the air. Oh this is history, right. Ok so Odin’s father Bor fought this war against Malekith. You have to admit, even in alien tongue, Chris Eccleston has a great voice. Very commanding. Terrifying. The dark elves fall because Asgard takes the weapon from Malekith, who then sacrifices his people to keep the chance to rebuild his homeworld.

Odin: And the Aether was no more. Or so we believed.
Bor: Bury it deep where no one will find it. Yeah, that’ll work.

Loki in chains, still smirking as always. It’s in these moments that I see why people find him appealing. Of course Tom Hiddleston is, himself, but Loki is evil. Perhaps not the same evil as Malekith, but not good like Thor, or even Odin.

Odin, for having been a fairly good father, is suddenly very harsh and mean with Loki. Which, given what happened in Thor makes some sense, but taking and raising Loki as a son to then simply yell at him (literally) that his birthright is not a kingdom (though he was born a prince) but rather was to die seems to be going a bit overboard.

Thor and his friends are in battle on Vanaheim presumably to “fix what Loki has done” as Odin said, and we get our first glance at Zachary Levi taking over the role of Fandral.

Side note: I just remembered we’ll get more Darcy in this movie, and I cannot wait. I love her.

Uh, giant stone looking giant thing. Not good. Of course, as were only about 5 minutes into this movie, I’m sure Thor will beat him. Probably easily. Yup. One swing of the hammer.

Thor: Anyone else?
Cheeky.
Fandral:

 Oh, you.






Seems the peace is nearly won and Thor thanks the leader there saying he can come to Asgard later. Heimdall takes them home.

Odin: You must think I’m a piece of bread, that needs to be buttered so heavily.
Ooh, son, don’t tell me I should be there, you did just fine without me.

Odin warns Thor of his confused and distracted heart, and Thor immediately mentions Jane. Odin tells him that the lives of humans are short, and he should embrace his victory and prepare to ascend the throne as king.

Celebrations. Men with arms around multiple women and drinking to celebrate success of the battle. This is what it is always like in these historic type settings in movies. Um, probably for historical reasons?

Meanwhile, on earth, Jane is on a date. Why is Jane on a date? But that guy… (who is he? … ah, yes, Chris O’Dowd.) I like him, but he certainly won’t win out against Thor. Poor guy. OH, poor guy! Poor cheated on guy. Aw. :(


DARCY! Yay! I love that she just sits down and starts eating. She never stops talking, does she? Jane says she better have ReASONS for interrupting. Oh, she has reasons. She mentions the “science-y thing” and that it seems to be malfunctioning but that the readings are ones that Erik was talking about. Wait, I can’t recall if Erik (Selvig) got… er… fixed? or not. Is he still under Loki’s spell? Or is he crazy because he has been?

Repeating sea bass isn’t gonna help, Jane. Give up. Go with Darcy. Good girl. Thank you. Bye O’Dowd. Good luck with the next one.

Darcy has an intern. Hilarious. He’s adorable. Darcy is a crazy driver, as you would expect. Not sure where they’re going. Maybe to their lab to check out the “science-y thing.”

Oh, I’m recalling as Jane calls Selvig, that he’s nuts in this one. Yup. iTV news with the story. We are in London, after all.

Darcy: Come on, this is exciting. Look! The intern is excited!
Ian: Ian.
Darcy: (ignoring him completely, speaking to Jane) Do you want the phase-meter? Look dude, I can’t be bothered to remember who you are. I’m just excited there’s an intern, ok? OK. (my insertion)
Jane: No.
Darcy: Bring the phase-meter. (chucks the keys at Ian) The toaster-looking thing.
Ian: (mostly to himself) Yeah, I know what the phase-meter is.

Oh Ian, don’t worry. I bet you’ll get her in the end (he does, right? I can’t recall)
They walk toward an abandoned building.

Darcy: (to Jane) The intern says it’s this way.
Ian: Ian, my name’s Ian.

Makes you wonder how long Darcy’s had him around. Too funny. She’s like Fandral in reverse. Poor Ian. Now there’s a floating truck. Weird. I forget what this means. Portal? It’s very Doctor Who. Or, ahem, Portal. And now we’ve lost the phone. Sometimes they come back, sometimes they don’t. Now you tell me.

Jane: I haven’t seen readings like this since…
Darcy: New Mexico? (smirks) Gimme your shoe.

Car keys in the portal. Good idea Ian. Good grief.

Um. Jane just got sucked through a wall. Not good. She shouts for Darcy, but of course she’s likely on another world now. Hey, that looks like the Aether. Not good at all! I’m didn’t remember that this movie was this dark. Oh, things are coming back to me now. This is NOT GOOD. Jane collapses and we see Malekith’s ship floating in space and it seems he is waking up out of a deep slumber.

Malekith: The Aether awakens.

No crap, dude.

On Asgard, Thor comes to speak with Heimdall.

Heimdall: You’re late.
Thor: Merriment can sometimes be a heavier burden than battle.
Heimdall: Then you’re doing one of them incorrectly.

Haha. Nice jab, Heimey.

Heimdall and Thor discuss the convergence and Jane. Heimey (yes, I'm calling him that from now on) says he can no longer see her, at which point we cut to her being enveloped by the Aether. She awakens in the middle of the warehouse and rushes outside and starts yelling at Darcy. And uh, it’s not raining on her. Weird.

Thor’s here! She runs to him, leaving Darcy in the rain, and smacks him. Haha. Twice. Ok, gimmicky, but whatever. This is the sappy part. Not gonna lie, sappy as it is, I do love it. I am a chick-flick girl, after all.

Seriously, this could just be a post of the things Darcy says which crack me up. Which is about 99% of her dialogue. One more interaction, and then I’ll try to stop.

Darcy: (interrupting said cheesy moment with Thor and Jane, pointing to sky, addresses Thor) Is this you?
The rain stops.
Jane: Uh, we’re kinda in the middle of something here.
Darcy: Um, I’m pretty sure we are getting arrested.
Jane: (to Thor) Hold that thought. (She heads toward the police.)
Darcy: (to Thor, poking his chest and grinning) Look at you! Still all muscly and everything. How’s space?
Thor: Space is fine.

Seriously. Laughing out loud and bothering my neighbors.

Jane blows up the whole (little) area when the policeman tries to take her arm. It’s the Aether, and it’s creepy. Thor runs to her and helps her up. Then they are beamed up (sorry, don’t know what else to call it) by Heimey (not Scotty haha, ok sorry) to Asgard. At least this time Darcy sees it happen so she knows Jane’s not exactly lost.

On Svartalfheim, his homeworld, Malekith discovers that the Aether has indeed woken, but is no longer there. He declares his intentions to make Asgard pay and to reclaim his world.

Jane is being cared for on Asgard as Thor looks on. Oh, that girl, the nurse talking to Thor… she’s from Doctor Who too. She was in the Library. Sorry, chute. Back to the movie. This nurse tells Thor Jane won’t survive the amount of energy surging through her. Jane proves her smarty pants brain by knowing what it is they’re doing – even if they use a different name for it.

Dear old dad (Odin) says to send her to earth for their doctors to deal with her – that is, until she can’t be touched without her body (the Aether, really) defending itself. Ah, yes, now Odin will help. As it’s related to the Aether. Apparently, it can take host bodies and uses their life force to bring darkness. And the book Odin has doesn’t give instruction for removing the Aether. Great. Also, Odin believed the Dark Elves were all killed by Bor, his father, which we know isn’t true, and that the Aether was destroyed, which he now knows isn’t true because it’s there, in Jane. Super smart, aren’t you, Odin.

Malekith’s servant Algrim is very true. He will sacrifice and destroy everything for his leader’s cause. Always good to have a loyal servant.

Loki in prison. His mother visits him, how nice. But he is ungrateful and rude to her.

Loki: …I was born to be a king.
Frigga: A king? A true king admits his faults.

Touché, my lady.

He tries to touch her hand and she disappears. She was only there as a projection or perhaps she can appear and disappear like Loki can. In any case…does that mean she’s projecting in, or that he’s imagining her there? Odin did say he’d not see her again. Perhaps not in physical proximity.

Thor and Jane talk on a balcony. He’s always the protector of Jane while sort of guarding her with his stance. He explains the convergence of the worlds to her. All I can thing is that her hands are tiny compared to his. It’s sort of funny.

Ew. Down in the dungeons someone has just pulled a heart out of someone (or maybe out of himself), and the guy looks like he’s gonna explode…so his heart was a grenade pin? Yep. He’s some kind of fire being. Trying to escape. Prisoners dying by being forced against the cages’ electrical-magical barriers. Who is this guy? He looks sort of like Malekith’s armor, so maybe it’s Algrim? Or one of their race at least? In any case he kills a couple guards and frees other prisoners, but does not free Loki, despite their touching moment staring at each other. Loki suggests the real way out for him.

Fandral’s making the jokes while trying to subdue the prisoners. Loki sitting in a corner reading like he’s a content as anything. Thor comes to help get everything under control Odin gives instructions to his army to deal with the issue. Frigga obviously has a plan and tells Jane to do everything she asks, no questions.

Cut to Heimey running up the bridge because he’s amazing and could see the ship even though it was invisible. Nice but not quick enough. Sorry Idris. He does manage to crash it, but as it was only a decoy, the others come quickly behind it. Just like that, they’re at war with Malekith.

Many are dead in the halls of Odin, and the guy we saw in the prison (not Algrim, turns out he’s with Malekith) walks into the heard of the palace and disables the shield. The ships fly directly into the building. So much damage. Fandral and Thor react to the dust falling on their heads in the dungeon. Loki looks smug, and not at all surprised. Creepy as usual.

Malekith apparently didn’t lose all his people because there are many of them fighting for him now. They have a weapon that seems to disintegrate whomever it hits. Malekith saunters in, heading toward the throne, and destroys it with a disintegrating bomb thing. We get a shot of Loki as the only one still in his cell. Odin realizes that Frigga will be attacked in her rooms. Malekith walks into her chambers and they fight. Jane hides as she has been instructed, but Malekith knows she has the Aether, and he wants it back. But of course, Frigga has projected her there so she is safe. Frigga dies at the hand of Algrim, and Thor arrives a moment too late. He attacks Malekith, but he gets away. Odin and Thor grieve over Frigga and Jane enters the room.

The scene shifts to Frigga’s funeral. It is a somber moment, but there are few tears. She is put out to sea on her berth, and arrows are shot to light it aflame as it sails over the waterfall. She turns into starlight and is drawn into the heavens of Asgard. Loki is informed, and after the guard leaves him, we see the slightest emotion from him as he throws all his furniture with one swift movement of his power.

Erik Solveig is teaching the details of the alignment to... the mental ward, and we get our Stan Lee cameo.

The Aether calls to Jane. She sees it taking over all of Asgard. Her eyes look like a demon’s. But when she blinks it clears and she’s herself again. She’s brought before Odin. Fandral tells the King
that they are all but defenseless. Thor comes to discuss his plan with Odin, which involved Malekith taking the Aether from Jane and destroying it and him when it is vulnerable. Odin would rather use every drop of Asgardian blood to wipe him out than risk losing against Malekith. Thor asks him how he is different from Malekith, and Odin says “because I will win.” Ok, then.

Until next week....