{"id":28023,"date":"2013-11-11T09:14:03","date_gmt":"2013-11-11T14:14:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/?p=28023"},"modified":"2013-11-11T09:14:03","modified_gmt":"2013-11-11T14:14:03","slug":"thor-the-dark-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/2013\/11\/thor-the-dark-world\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cThor: The Dark World\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Bob Garver<\/p>\n

\"\"\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I believe Thor to be the second most popular of the Avengers, and here\u2019s the breakdown. Iron Man is the most popular; his solo franchise is already at three movies, they get the best reviews, and make the most money. Hawkeye and Black Widow are the least popular since neither has been asked to carry a film yet. The Incredible Hulk probably went into the \u201cAvengers\u201d franchise as the most popular, but his solo films have been plagued by bad reviews and casting changes. And this may just be my opinion, but Captain America is lame and I think people are onto him. I\u2019m sorry, but I just can\u2019t get behind a superhero that got his powers from taking questionable injections.<\/p>\n

Thor (Chris Hemsworth) is the second most popular because his films\u2019 releases feel like the second-biggest events (he\u2019s the only one other than Iron Man to be granted an opening in the coveted first-weekend-in-May slot). It also doesn\u2019t hurt that his series contributed the official villain for \u201cThe Avengers\u201d in his adopted brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston). It is therefore no surprise that \u201cThor: The Dark World\u201d dominated the box office this past weekend despite being largely unimpressive.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The new film sees the universe under attack from a bland villain named Malekith (Christopher Eccleston), who is trying to obtain a powerful weapon that will destroy everything in the world, allowing him to conquer all the nothing he wants. Thor, meanwhile, wiles away his days enforcing peace on various planets with the help of his trusty hammer before going home to his planet Asgard. He\u2019s doing good work, even earning the approval of his withholding father Odin (Anthony Hopkins), but he isn\u2019t happy. Some of this has to do with the family drama triggered by Loki\u2019s imprisonment, but mostly it\u2019s because he misses his girlfriend Jane (Natalie Portman). Luckily he gets an excuse to go to Earth and see her when she stumbles across the weapon that Malekith is seeking. The weapon inhabits Jane\u2019s body and Thor takes her to Asgard for medical attention. Malekith invades Asgard and kidnaps Jane, so Thor has to stop him for three reasons: 1) to save his girlfriend, 2) to save the world, and 3) for revenge. The third part even motivates Loki to join him, though it\u2019s pretty evident that his brother can\u2019t be trusted.<\/p>\n

The plot is hard to follow and it really shouldn\u2019t be. It\u2019s not like the film is truly concerned with developing its characters or universe, it\u2019s just Thor being Thor and saving the world from the threat du jour. Personality has been sucked from all but three characters, one of whom (a friend of Jane\u2019s played by Kat Dennings) is super-annoying, another which is good for a few scenes before making a grand exit (email me for the character\u2019s identity), and Loki. Yes, Loki has gone from being the wimpy villain in \u201cThor\u201d to being the wimpy villain in \u201cThe Avengers\u201d to actually being a decent character. His lines and jokes provide more entertainment than anyone else\u2019s and there\u2019s a surprising emotional impact to a scene where he just doesn\u2019t feel like playing a trick.<\/p>\n

\u201cThor: The Dark World\u201d has three things going for it; Loki, a Viking funeral, and the choice of venue (or should I say venues?) for the final battle. Other than that, it\u2019s a routine and charmless superhero movie. It adds little to \u201cAvengers\u201d lore, yet fans will have to see it strictly for continuity. Its release comes only six months after \u201cIron Man 3\u201d and only five months before \u201cCaptain America: The Winter Soldier.\u201d The world clearly isn\u2019t going to lose interest in the Avengers any time soon, and with success so certain, can you blame the various entries for making increasingly weak efforts?<\/p>\n

One and a Half Stars out of Five.<\/p>\n

The film is rated PG-13 for sequences of intense sci-fi action and violence, and some suggestive content. Its running time is 112 minutes.<\/p>\n

Contact Bob Garver at rrg251@nyu.edu<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Bob Garver \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I believe Thor to be the second most popular of the Avengers, and here\u2019s the breakdown. Iron Man is the most popular; his solo franchise is… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[108],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28023"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28023"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28023\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}