There are two main comic-book publishers whose stories are being trawled through for content for the big screen constantly for the last few years, DC and Marvel. If you are not familiar with some of their work, DC are the powerhouse behind the amazing Batman stories, Superman, the Justice League and various others. Marvel, on the other hand, are behind the likes of Thor, X-Men and the Incredible Hulk on their books.
When Christopher Nolan released Batman Begins, it didn’t seem that there was going to be any real competition. Begins was not only one of the best comic book adaptations ever to grace the silver screen, it was an extremely good film, tense and brilliantly written. However, Nolan was in for some serious competition from Marvel.
Besides Batman, DC are flailing about with the other characters, Man of Steel was a critical flop, The Green Lantern was listed as one of the worst film of 2011 and the Justice League, which has now been pushed back to 2017 with rumours that it may not happen at all.
Marvel have certainly played their cards right, instead of opting for seriousness and very dark storylines, they employed Joss Whedon to write an extremely funny and witty script for the Avengers. With that, they made solid, fun films in the lead-up to the big assemble, Thor was just fun, Captain America was not as bad as other critics would have you believe and Iron Man, well Iron Man, just in another league.
Following the Avengers, many were sceptical of a sequel to Thor, but thankfully they didn’t have to be. The second instalment takes place just after the Avengers, Loki is now imprisoned on Asgard, Thor is battling to bring peace to the nine realms and Jane still waits for any word from her lost love. Despite his hectic schedule, Thor still finds time on a daily basis to find time to check in on Jane on Earth, but becomes worried when he can no longer see her.
Jane has discovered that the realms will all align on a certain day, but on making the discovery finds a rare element which an enemy of Asgard will do anything to get a hold of. This discovery brings danger to Earth and Thor is forced to return to save not only Jane, but the entire Universe. All in a day’s work really for an Asgard King.
The Dark World works for one predominant reason, the script. Hilarious in places, witty in others with some great lines and cameos, the script writes every character exactly how they should be interpreted, playing up on Loki’s mischievousness, ruling with Odin’s iron fist, it somehow manages to perfectly balance the emotional with the hilarious.
That’s not to say that Thor doesn’t have its faults, it certainly has them if you go looking for them but the point should be that you won’t want to look for them. As I outlined above, Marvel have won the battle on comic-book adaptations with characters who are both hilarious and flawed and somehow manage to make the entire affair enjoyable (Iron Man will always be the best example).
There is no doubt that even though the film is called Thor, it is entirely owned by another lead character, Loki. Tom Hiddleston takes on the role with such relish that it is incredibly difficult to imagine anyone else could ever play it. Kat Dennings again brings the fun with Darcy and Natalie is, of course, a joy.
Watch out for one of the greatest cameos on the big screen, if you are a fan of the Avengers, you won’t be disappointed.
