Last night we went to an early showing of Thor: The Dark World and there are definitely some split opinions from the Whiskey & Waffles team on this one. In the video after the break, you’ll see WallE’s take on it.
A for me, I will say I didn’t dislike Thor: The Dark World. It is a solid enough super hero movie, along the same lines as Iron Man 3 and certainly better than the abomination that was The Wolverine. There are some fun moments but two things really stood out that got in my way of fully embracing the movie(and don’t worry, I’ll keep it spoiler free).
The first is the technology. All of the tech in Asgard and the realms is based off of mythology and magic but the Dark Elves, the main antagonists have laser guns and hand grenades that look like they have come out of Star Wars. Actually, they have ships with full digital panels that don’t look magical at all. They try to make a joke about it at one point with Natalie Portman’s character. Had they originally put science and technology into Asgard and the nine realms, it probably wouldn’t have stood out as much to me but this was so divergent from the original Thor in this way it kept coming back and bothering me every time it came on screen.
The other is the similarities to Star Wars. This may sound like a stretch but hear me out. As mentioned before, there are laser guns and starships that look right out of George Lucas’ demented sketchbook. There are also swords that for some reason light up. There’s no reason for it and it is never explained but there are fight scenes early on that look like lightsabers. The Dark Elves armor also reminds me of a mashup of Stormtrooper armor combined with the Sith face paint from Knights of the Old Republic. And finally there is an injury that is quite common in the Star Wars universe.
Not to be negative but I also had to slightly offset WallE’s overwhelming excitement just a little bit. I will say what got me most excited were the cameos (yes, 2), the interaction between Thor and Loki and their natural back and forth and the first of the two post credit scenes. Like Matt has blasted already on social media, Guardians of the Galaxy is going to be completely insane and I can’t wait to see it.
