Review: Thor: The Dark World

by Trevor Kirkendall

★★½

There’s no denying Marvel is king right now. The gamble this studio made several years ago to solely finance and release their movies seems to have paid off. They’re now on track to release at least two or three movies every year through 2018. “Thor: The Dark World” is the second film from Marvel to come out this year (yes, I know “The Wolverine” is Marvel property, but that’s not released under the Disney/Marvel banner and does not factor in with the story arcs involving The Avengers). The first release this year – “Iron Man 3” – is already the year’s top grossing film and nothing will dethrone that. It’s also the second film of four planned films that will all culminate with the release of “The Avengers: Age of Ultron” in 2015. Yes, Marvel seems to have everything all planned out the way they want it. Now if only they could hire some better writers.

“Thor: The Dark World” takes place after the events in “The Avengers”, though I’m not sure how much later. Loki (Tom Hiddleston) is being sentenced to a life in the Asgard dungeons by his father Oden (Anthony Hopkins) for his role in the New York City alien invasion from “The Avengers”. Meanwhile, Thor (Chris Hemsworth) is fighting to keep peace on all the different realms in the universe. He still misses Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), his romantic interest in the first film. With the help of the gatekeeper Heimdall (Idris Elba), Thor has kept his eye on her from a distance.

Jane is living in London, continuing her research with Dr. Eric Selvig (Stellan Skarsgård) and her intern Darcy (Kat Dennings). Jane and Darcy aren’t able to locate Selvig as the movie opens; unbeknownst to them, he’s been arrested for running around Stonehenge butt naked babbling about the end of the world. But Jane and Darcy have bigger things to worry about right now. Their research shows readings that are similar to what they saw in the first film right before Thor appeared. Jane is excited since she thinks Thor is coming back for her. What she’s actually stumbled upon is a mysterious weapon hidden by the Asgardians called the Aether. Once she finds the Aether, it attaches itself to her.

The Aether’s sudden reappearance awakens Malekith (Christopher Eccleston), leader of the Dark Elves who wish to use the Aether to turn all the realms into dark worlds. Knowing that Jane is in danger, Thor returns to earth and takes her back to Asgard where he can protect her. The plan is futile, however, since Malekith’s first plan of attack is to hit Asgard. In order to keep Jane safe from Malekith, Thor must turn to his completely untrustworthy and deceitful brother Loki for help.

The original film “Thor” came to us in 2011 and served more as a set-up piece for “The Avengers”.  This was a necessary move for Marvel since the only people aware of the Thor character and the world around him were comic book fans. The film that director Kenneth Branagh gave us was about as good is it could have been given that its only purpose was to be a two-hour introduction piece for Thor and Loki. Now that the characters are established, it’s time for Marvel to really show us all the potential in these characters’ stories.

But “Thor: The Dark World” doesn’t capitalize on this as much as it probably could have. Now that everything has already established, Marvel seems to have dropped additional development of these characters to a secondary status. This film just seems to begin with no solid first act, forgetting the fact that it’s a standalone film. That’s always a major gripe I have with sequels: writers seem to forget the rules of screenwriting when drafting a sequel. Instead of building a completely separate story, they just write as if they were given free rein to extend the first film by another two hours. This is what makes Alvin Sargent’s screenplay for “Spider-Man 2” so good; not only is it a continuation of the character from the previous film two years early, but it’s also a completely different movie with a different set of conflicts and emotions. It stands alone by itself. For my money, that’s still the best superhero movie.

A lack of focus in the story is really what limits “Thor: The Dark World”. There are five credited writers on this film. Don Payne - who was the first writer to work on this film – and Robert Rodat (who wrote “Saving Private Ryan”) receive story credits, while Christopher Yost along with Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely provided the script. Yost has worked with Marvel for quite some time, and Markus and McFeeley are a collaborative team responsible for writing “Captain America: The First Avenger” and its forthcoming sequel. It’s even been said that Joss Whedon had to come in for rewrites and reshoots. With so many people working on the same thing, it’s easy to understand why the film lacks vision.

Problems with the script could have doomed this film for failure, but “Thor: The Dark World” is rescued from certain disaster by two people: Alan Taylor and Tom Hiddleston. Taylor is the film’s director who took a disconnected script and found enough drama, humor, action and emotion to make this a tolerable and fun film to watch. This could have easily gone the other way, but Taylor made sure that his film would not be an utter bore. His work composing shots, especially ones filmed entirely against green screens, is the work of a seasoned professional. Taylor is known for his work on the HBO television series “Game of Thrones” which shares similarities to the mythological subject matter of “Thor”, but he’s not really known for his film work. He’s come through here, adding his own touch to the fantasy worlds already established in the earlier film. The visuals are striking despite an overload of CGI to make it possible. Action scenes are limited to only a handful, but they are very well executed and choreographed making them a lot of fun to experience.

Hiddleston is the saving grace on the acting side. While Hemsworth is excellent as Thor, he brings nothing new to this film that we haven’t already seen. Portman’s role is reduced to that of damsel in persistent distress, which is such a poor use of a talented Oscar winning actress such as herself. Hiddleston, however, continues to surprise us as Loki. This is also the third time we’ve seen him in this role, but he gets better at it every time. He has a great grasp on this character, much more than any of his costars. Yet they do work very well as an ensemble which also helps cover up the story flaws.

I’m not saying “Thor: The Dark World” is a bad film. It has is disappointing downfalls, but it is enormously enjoyable from start to finish.  It’s a fun and exciting fantasy adventure. But I can’t ignore the problems with the writing. That’s the most basic and most important component to every film regardless of the target demographic. A good story isn’t something that’s reserved for low budget indie features; every film needs to excel at this. I did enjoy the film and I’m sure most everyone who watches it will too, but I have to call out what is a glaring flaw affecting far too many movies today. Marvel is on top of the world right now and they’re not going to be unseated anytime soon. But if they continue to release films with mediocre stories and scripts, the box office receipts will drop off, especially from the diehard fan base of these comics. 

Review: Pacific Rim

by Trevor Kirkendall
★★★½

There will not be a more adrenaline pumping motion picture to come out this summer than “Pacific Rim”. Its been a very long time since a movie has come out in the theaters during the summer months that’s been as much fun as this film. Despite minor flaws - that might actually be by design from the filmmakers – “Pacific Rim” is summer movie magic at its absolute best.

Not too far into the future, humanity is waging war with giant monsters that come from the sea known as the Kaiju. The Kaiju rise up from a portal from another world found deep in the sea and lay waste to the major cities on Pacific Ocean coastlines (San Francisco, Hong Kong, Sydney, etc.). To defeat these beasts, man has built giant robotic war machines called Jaegers. The Jaegers are piloted by two people joined together through a neurological bond; they think and act as one by sharing each other’s memories and experiences.

Our hero is Raleigh Becket (Charlie Hunnam) who is a Jaeger pilot along with his brother Yancy (Diego Klattenhoff). When battling a particularly vicious Kaiju, Yancy is tragically killed leaving Raleigh to pilot the Jaeger himself, but this will be his final mission. He’s too broken up about the loss of his brother to continue with the program.

Five years pass and Becket is no longer a Jaeger pilot. He’s working on a coastal wall that’s supposed to keep the Kaiju away. The Jaeger Program is being shut down. Its been reassigned to Hong Kong where it will keep up defenses until the wall is complete. Becket’s former commander, Marshall Stacker Pentecost (Idris Elba), shows up and recruits Becket to come back for one final mission. They think they have a plan to stop the Kaiju once and for all and they’re running out of time to pull it off.

Once in Hong Kong, Becket meets Mako Mori (Rinko Kikuchi) who is tasked with helping him find his new co-pilot. She too has a tragic history involving the Kaiju, much like Beckett losing his brother. He also meets two doctors, Dr. Newton Geiszler (Charlie Day) and Dr. Gottlieb (Burn Gorman), who are researching the Kajiu and provide the bulk of the film’s comic relief.

There is much to pick apart in “Pacific Rim”, but I don’t really want to because this movie is so much fun. I can’t remember the last time I went to the theater and had as much fun watching a film as I did “Pacific Rim”. Its truly a reminder of what the summer movie season used to be.

Think back long ago to the big studio tent pole movies that opened in the summer. They were fun, enjoyable, humorous and exciting. Very rarely do we see such films like that now. Now they’re just dark and lack even the slightest bit of humor. Movies that fit this bill could be the recent “Man of Steel” or the “Dark Knight” Trilogy. I’m not saying these films are bad, but they don’t bring out the kid in you when you watch them.

“Pacific Rim” does! It reminds me of the summer movies when you were carried away by the spectacle of the film and not on creating something so dark and mysterious. I’m reminded of films like “Jurassic Park” or maybe even “Independence Day”. While neither are masterpieces by any stretch, both movies do give you that sense of wonder and amazement. This is what makes “Pacific Rim” so great. Its an amazing film that demands you never take your eyes off the screen. It also demands you see it on the biggest screen you possibly can.

Director Guillermo del Toro wanted to make a film that felt like the summer movies of old, and that is what he’s accomplished. Having previously done one of the greatest films of the last decade, “Pan’s Labyrinth”, de Toro has proven himself to be a visionary master. The scale of “Pacific Rim” is enormous and he has been extremely successful in pulling this off. Every frame of this film is amazing to see.

“Pacific Rim” isn’t without its faults. The story itself is solid with several decent subplots that tie everything together nicely. The screenplay itself, however, is littered with typical action film clichés. From the first minute all the way to the final frame, you can practically see every plot point coming before it arrives. Its predictability puts a damper on some of the epic battle sequences and tense moments because we know what’s coming before it happens. Not to mention, there are also numerous moments of coincidence that help get the plot out of a jam. It’s just lazy writing and it insults the intelligence of the audience.

It also suffers from poor dialogue. Its borderline “Star Wars”-prequel bad. There are many moments where you just have to shake you head at the disbelief that another human could ever say something so cheesy. Additionally, the heartfelt dialogue meant to pull on your emotions is overacted and far too melodramatic. Its laughable at times. There’s plenty of comic relief built in, but I don’t think these were supposed to be the comical parts.

But couldn’t all that cheesy dialogue and all the plot coincidences be by design? Del Toro has made a movie that pays a lot of homage to the old monster movies of his childhood. The old “Godzilla” movies are very cheesy in their own right, but they’re very fun to watch. If that’s the case, then it really doesn’t matter what faults “Pacific Rim” has. It’s been a long time since we’ve seen a summer film show us how much fun can be had at the movies. Poor acting and bad dialogue aside, “Pacific Rim” is the blockbuster event of the summer. An original story that’s full of the same thrills and excitement we haven’t seen in a summer film in many years.

Review: Pacific Rim

By. Joe Moss
★★★

  Alien invaders [Kaiju; Japanese for “strange creatures”] coming from the “breach”—a portal from another dimension that manifested in the middle of the Pacific plate.

This is the premise for Guillermo del Toro’s (Pan's Labyrinth, Hellboy) summer, big-budget action thrill-ride “Pacific Rim.” While the story-line is spectacularly original (given Hollywood’s recent panache for remakes and sequels/pre-quels) , it does evoke thoughts of classic Godzilla meets “Aliens” meets “Transformers.” But this movie works thanks to the dynamic writing duo of Travis Beacham (Dog Days of Summer, Clash of the Titans) and Guillermo del Toro! The cast, while not littered with an ensemble of big-name stars (with the exception of a few appearance by Ron Perlman), really work well together to fulfill del Toro’s vision.

  To fight the Kaiju, large, robotic, war-machines (Jaegars) are developed through world-wide collaboration. Two pilots are mind-melded together and “synced” with the machine to run it as a human-like combatant—only 500 feet taller. The plot focuses on Raleigh Becket (Charlie Hunnam; “Sons of Anarchy,” Green Street Hooligans) and his ability to overcome the debilitating loss of his brother from a battle-gone-wrong with a Kaiju off the Alaskan coastline. He disappears from the lime-light (and the front line of battle) only to be pulled back into reality as the Jaegar program is threatened by budget cuts and mounting defeats by the ever-evolving Kaiju invaders.

  Raleigh is brought back into the fold of the remaining Jaegar pilots—only 7 remain—and is reunited with he and his brother’s former machine, the Gipsy Danger. The last remaining analog-programmed, nuclear powered Jaeger. The search begins for his new copilot. Not an easy process as they have to be able to be compatible in fighting ability and mind-flow processing. Raleigh easily bests all of the top candidates, but is drawn to a military analyst, Mako Mori (Rinko Kikuchi), his commanding officer’s (Idris Elba) ward. Is it an attraction of lust, or of perfect compatibility? I… will leave that for you to discover…

  The plot continues much as expected in all alien-based thrillers. The humans are trying to vanquish the alien invaders only to be thwarted at each turn by an ever growing (and seemingly endless) array of Kaiju. They just keep getting bigger and more powerful.

  Enter the science research department headed by biologist Dr. Newton Geiszler (Charlie Day) and chaos mathematician Gottlieb (Burn Gorman). Gottlieb theorizes that the invasion is on the verge of exponential increase as the attacks keep getting closer and more precise; while Dr. Geiszler is attempting to understand the thought process behind the creatures invasion. Through his research, he “mind-melds” with a partial, living frontal lobe of one specimen and determines they are all mentally congruent—also sneaking a peak at their ultimate intentions and history in the process. Finally the military is able to develop a plan to destroy the “breach” and remove the invaders once and for all. IF everything can go according to plan.

  An amazing ride from the opening sequence to the final clip after the credits. I was drawn into the story through all of its twists and turns. Well acted and amazingly edited by the team of Peter Amundson (Star Wars episode 5, Hellboy) and John Gilroy (Warrior, Micheal Clayton), there was not a lot of downtime to allow your mind to wander. The sound effects were mind blowing and the visual effects are another great example of the efforts at ILM and Ghost VFX for combining green screen and animatronics into a seamless vision.