So first off, Thor. Chris Hemsworth is, of course, brilliant as Thor, noble and headstrong, and the threat of Malekith and the dark elves reaching closer to his home of Asgard gives Idris Elba and Rene Russo. With his band of trusty friends in Sif, Volstagg, Fandral and Hogun, returning - albeit briefly - to aid Thor in his quest, things are as action-packed as the original, if not more so.
The plot is thicker too: Thor is fully powered, and fighting to bring the nine realms under control after the events of Thor. Back on Earth, Natalie Portman's Jane Foster is busy finding strange portals in the middle of London, as the nine realms come into alignment and the boundaries between each weaken. This is how she stumbles across - and absorbs - the aether, an ancient fluid used by Malekith in his attempt to return the universe to darkness. Which is when Thor finds her, and how she comes to be transported to Asgard. Meanwhile, Erik Selvig has gone mad and is running around Stonehenge naked, and Darcy is having a hard enough time getting the new intern, Ian, to do anything at all...
And that, I'm afraid, is where it all falls apart. The Asgardians and the dark elves all feel real; even the kursed elves, huge, unstoppable brutes, have more personality than the humans in this film. I get the feeling that Marvel decided they didn't need to try after Avengers - these people had been introduced, now it was time to focus on the heroes. But it leaves the film feeling empty - as the nine realms converge, Selvig gets slightly less crazy, but still a whole lot less like his original, sensible, fatherly self, and things get sillier - I'm talking floating cars, mad battles through portals, a call-back to the Jotunheim scenes in Thor midway through the final battle, and mooks in spandex suits and plastic masks chasing Ian and Darcy around London like an old Dr Who episode - until we're at the point where the screenwriters must have given up.
That's not to say this isn't a good movie. Just don't watch it if you're after a sensible ride. But watch it for Rene Russo's stand-out action scene - Frigga's action mom status is safe, and she's one of the most badass women in the Marvel universe right now. Having taken out an ice titan in Thor, here she takes on Malekith himself - played by an autotuned Christopher Eccleston, which doesn't help the Dr Who feel - and is more than a match for him at one point. But her scenes aren't long enough to give her credit for turning around what would, arguably, be a pretty terrible movie.
No, the stand-up stand-out act is none other than the guy we love to hate, Tom Hiddleston's twisted trickster Loki. The Dark World sees him reluctantly teaming up with Thor to take on Malekith, a guy even he couldn't stand to see win. Which is fine by me - it's great seeing Loki using his abilities as a trickster god for the right side again, and we can't really hate him for what he did. I know he tried to level New York, but he's got issues. Loki is an incredibly sympathetic villain, and if this movie doesn't make you think of him as a hero, then nothing will. From his funny moments to the most emotional ones, Loki is one of the most real characters in this movie.
Which brings me to Captain Phillips. Talking about reality, here is a film which couldn't be much more real. Based on the 2009 kidnapping of captain Richard Phillips by Somali pirates, it charts his journey from his home in America to the lifeboat in which his captors try to make their escape once they capture him. In this film, the tension never wavers as the Somali pirates attempt to board Phillips' Maersk cargo ship and then, once aboard, attempt to root out the crewmen. Tom Hanks' portrayal of Phillips is incredibly human, and the documenting of both sides of the story means it feels much more balanced and even than it could have been. Nonetheless, I found there was no doubt as to who was good and who was evil. On the one hand we had our chaotic, anarchic band of Somalians, who kill each other aboard their boats and shoot their guns into the air when they feel the need. On the other, we have Captain Phillips and his crew, who have a plan in place, and despite their superior numbers and better technology feel very much of the back foot here. Without weapons, as soon as the Somalians board they are sitting ducks, and it always feels as though they are the underdogs despite everything. They are our brave defenders, forced back by the evil invaders. The threat of the pirates to them is much more real and immediate than the threat of the pirates' faction leader to the pirates themselves. Everyone in this film is a victim, but the crew of the cargo ship are in a much more immediate situation.
The slightly shaky, documentary-style filming makes it feel more realistic, and the aerial shots of the ship ploughing through the ocean serve to remind us how isolated they are. Switching from Navy battleship to Somali pirate ship and back to the cargo ship gives the film a sense of immediacy and action, and the tense scenes between Phillips and the Somali's Muse give the movie a real atmosphere. The months that director Paul Greengrass spent in researching this have clearly not gone to waste. I'd recommend watching it solely for the ending, which shows just how much damage being in that situation can do to a person - it's utterly heart-wrenching to watch, and it just goes to show the depths Tom Hanks can bring to a role in his acting.
Anyway, that's all from me for now. I'll see you soon with some more films to review - I intend to see Gravity when it's released, it looks... interesting.
Peace out, y'all.
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