Single-sentence review of Thor: The Dark World

I admire a film with the balls to stage its climactic fight as a slapstick farce.

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Watched it with the kids last night, and though there are a number of females in the mix, MGK has some real truth behind him. Female characters, even when they do jump up and kick some ass (and they do) are mostly there to show just how much stronger Thor is compared to them.

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The best female character in Thor 2 is Darcy, who actually has a personality. Jane Foster is so terrible it’s sad.

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Frigga beating up Malekith and then getting killed to give Thor and Loki motivation went from awesome to sucky so fast it almost gave me whiplash.

The main character does need to be the main character, but that doesn’t mean he needs to be the best at everything.

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“regressive gender politics” is Marvel Studios’ middle name. Only makes sense since Whedon is high on the hog over there.

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The gender politics were weird. There are some ways in which it was admirable (as a few people have pointed out, the movie passes the Bechdel test) and Jane and Darcy are certainly memorable, likeable characters. But then there’s the way Jane almost literally becomes a MacGuffin to be fought over, Frigga being a borderline fridging even as the character is pretty cool up til then, and even Darcy falling into the intern’s arms was a bit dodgy.

I’ve heard Sif was meant to have a bigger role in this but Jamie Alexander was injured during filming, so her role had to be rewritten. Real shame–they were setting her up for something interesting.

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Seriously, Darcy has swept the intern off his feet. and that’s why Katt Dennings is the best. and the ‘meow meow’ callback.

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I specifically noticed on my second viewing the comment that Erik makes to Jane about his spikes being meant to detect, not create, gravimetric effects. Between that line and Jane being the one at the controls, I get the sense that she actually modified his work before getting to Greenwich (remember her comments in the apartment about wanting to see all of the research on gravity effects and such after her experience with the Aether). It’s something that could have been made more clear, but that seems the most logical reading to me.

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Selvig kind of deals the final blow, by pushing the button when Jane gets distracted by the possibility of Thor being crushed.

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Did anyone else get an Amy/Rory vibe from Darcy/Intern or was it just me?

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During the final battle I had a great idea what Jane would be doing: use her iPad thingy to manipulate the spatial rifts to help out. Teleport some debris flying at bystanders toward Malekith, teleport Malekith away from some crucial energy flow before he could seize it, teleport herself or others to safety. They got halfway through the fight without doing anything like that – the new guy intern got to throw a car, even, not Jane or Darcy. But I figured there’s still time. And then at the climactic point when Thor is randomly teleported out of town, that would have been the perfect time for it. All they needed was to stall Malekith, so it would have been perfectly plausible and yet still cool and important for Jane to do it for a crucial minute. But no, Thor just takes the train back. In the end all she did was push the button to activate the things Thor stabbed Malekith with. That’s it? Seriously?

The intern throwing the car and Thor on the subway were fun, funny scenes, but they weren’t more important than having the female characters make any noticeable contribution to the fight.

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For me, the annoying part of relegating Foster to the damsel to be defended role for most of the movie is that given she was “infected” by the all-powerful McGuffin, they could have very easily written a few scenes with her using it to kick ass. It wouldn’t be any more implausible than the idea Thor could learn how to fly one of the Dark Elves’ ships by himself in a few seconds.

My other problem with the film was one more based on my feelings from the comics, where I prefer the rest of Thor’s supporting cast, from Volstagg to Sif to Heimdall, over Thor himself, and I thought it was a waste of the cast to chuck them off one by one. I know it’s Thor’s movie, but I’d still rather spend time with them.

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Funnily enough, I heard that Loki was to have a smaller role in this until the studio realised his popularity, so you can lay some of the blame for Frigga’s death (as the Very Big Reason for Thor to even think of teaming up with Loki)at the door of the Tom Hiddleston fangirls.

I think Thor and Loki were always intended to team up for the Svarthelheim mission, though. The added Loki scene was the one at the beginning, with Odin, and possibly also the last scene… I think they mentioned not initially intending him to survive. (And for that matter, Frigga’s death was one of the very earliest spoilers that leaked, so it clearly wasn’t a late addition due to studio pressures.)

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I just saw Thor 2, MGK what ” regressive gender politics” did you see in this movie?

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