Stars Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Natalie Portman, Anthony Hopkins, Christopher Eccleston, Jaimie Alexander, Zachary Levi, Ray Stevenson, Idris Elba, Stellan Skarsgård, Kat Dennings, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje and Rene Russo Directed by Alan Taylor From the movie stylings of Kenneth Branagh to the direction of TV (cable / satellite) mainstay, Alan Taylor, Asgard itself seems to have gotten a very good makeover. Taylor is more known for his current work on fantasy epic, Game of Thrones, and he brings that aesthetic with him, giving Asgard a more earthy tone, very lived in, and in some cases, it might even be doubled sets from Game of Thrones itself. That earthy, slightly more grounded aspect extends to the characters and action as well. And that lends itself to the overall plot, which does take us way beyond Asgard, into the nine realms and beyond. A quick prologue sets up the MacGuffin - the Aether - as well as The Dark Elves, led by Malekith (an unrecognisable Christopher Eccleston). The Dark Elves were defeated millennia ago and the Aether was hidden away. Flash forward to the present day, which is about a year after the events in The Avengers, and Thor is busy quelling uprisings across the nine realms, the result of the destruction of the ‘Rainbow Bridge’ at the end of the first Thor movie. Loki (Tom Hiddleston), having been ‘arrested’ by Thor, in locked away in an Asgardian prison. When Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) accidentally stumbles onto the Aether and subsequently gets infected by it, the Dark Elves reawaken and start to wreck havoc in search of the Aether (and Jane by default). Bear in mind that a lot actually happens in the movie, the stakes are raised with nothing less than the destruction of life across they galaxy at hand. And despite the title, this is still a Marvel movie, so there are moments of levity, decent character beats and some snappy dialogue to balance agains the doom and gloom. I won’t go too much into the plot or story here, it’s best for you to discover it for yourself. The stars themselves do well with Chris Hemsworth leading the way as the title character. Tom Hiddleston continues to steal every scene he gets as Loki with only Natalie Portman getting a short shrift in terms of character. She seems almost incidental to the proceedings.Eccleston really is unrecognisable under the make-up, delivering most of his lines in a different and made-up language to the point that it could have been any other actor in the role. Kat Dennings and Stellan Skarsgård help to provide some laughs while Anthony Hopkins and Rene Russo bring the gravitas. Ray Stevenson and Jaimie Alexander also return to their respective roles while the character of Fandral gets a slight make-over with Zachery Levi taking over the role. Weirdly, Levi was the original choice for the role but a scheduling conflict on Levi’s TV show, Chuck, led to Josh Dallas taking the role. With Dallas busy with his TV series, Once Upon A Time, the role reverted to Levi. Taylor’s direction is less operatic and stagey in comparison to Branagh, taking us to more worlds or realms, and that includes Space. There are interesting design choices where Asgard and technology is concerned, staying partially true to the designs one might expect of Viking Gods, but also acknowledging the technology of a civilisation that’s been around for tens of thousands of years. One scene in particular, when an energy barrier is going up around the Asgardian palace, thoughts of Gallifrey crossed my mind. We tread very closely to the Science-Fantasy worlds of Star Wars here. Brian Tyler’s score complements everything very nicely too. Overall, it is on par with the first movie, perhaps a smudge better at times. The movie is fairly busy although the plot and story is fairly linear. There is enough of a loose end to warrant a third movie (you’ll know it when you get to it. I ended the movie with a huge question on my mind). There are two clips after the movie, The first comes after the main titles, and it is fairly distracting because it completely side-steps everything else that is in the movie. the aesthetic and design is so jarring, even if it’s a cool geeky moment for Marvel fans, and it obviously sets up next year’s Marvel movie. Then post credits, there’s a proper epilogue to the movie itself. So, stick around and applaud the talent behind the screens. And just how cool is the new Marvel Studios logo?
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