It's got a few little plot conveniences early on, but mostly it's pretty solid. I enjoyed it. Spoiler
Plot convenience: The first attack on Asgard, Malekith can sense the Aether enough to go straight there, but can't tell Jane Foster's actually in the next room. And then he runs away and withdraws all his troops, even though his people seemed to have superior firepower, and later on you see that Thor isn't really a threat to either Malekith or the other Kursed guy. They could have just carried on, found Jane Foster, and the movie would be a whole act shorter.
The companions could have been better used in the film. Instead of having a real role, each of them seperately says goodbye and does their "You go on, I'll hold them back," thing. Even the last one, who could've jumped straight back onto Thor's ship and gone with him.
Sif in particular was built up early on for a conflict between Thor loving Jane, and his mother implying he should marry Sif, but that thread was never followed up on apart from a single meaningful look from Sif to Jane when the first attack started.
But yeah, minor things. The film works well enough.
I think they retreated solely because Malekith's face was partially roasted by Thor....though it is odd that Malekith was fooled by the illusion...
But I did enjoy the film overall as well. Much mores so then Iron Man 3, since there was...well, STAKES involved. The humor was also fairly well balanced... except for Darcy's character...she was just annoying most of the time.
'Tis dream to think that Reason can
Govern the reasoning creature, man.
- Herman Melville
I am Lazarus, come from the dead,
Come back to tell you all, I shall tell you all!
"All creation is a huge, ornate, imaginary, and unintended fiction; if it could be deciphered it would yield a single shocking word."
-John Crowley
I didn't care for it at all, thought there wasn't much of a story. Thor seemed to be, well, puny. He just didn't seem to have the strength that he had in the first Thor film or The Avengers.
No, Thor's physical power level has not changed; however, Kurse's physical power was, after his enhancement from the Beyonder, raised to twice that of Thor. Algrim the Dark was already the toughest Dark Elf before but afterwards he was technically stronger than the Hulk. The way Kurse is portrayed in the movie, although not technically accurate to the comics, was just fine--a powerhouse of destruction who is supposed to be extremely difficult to stop.
I concur that the Warriors Three and Sif were ashamedly underused. There could have been an entire "I am jealous of you but now we are bonding and will soon be like sisters" thing between Jane and Sif. At least we got to see some of Hogun's homeworld, though. Where are Volstagg's wife and children?
They rebuild quickly in Asgard. We'll chalk that up to "sufficiently advanced technology". Spoiler
Now for the good stuff.
"One down; five to go." Marvel just tipped their hand--they are setting us up for the Infinity Gauntlet. Taneleer Tivan, the Collector, will also be in Guardians of the Galaxy so the threat they face will be backed by another Infinity Gem, which they are calling Infinity Stones for the movies. The Aether is red and is clearly the Power Gem so that means the Tessaract, being blue, is the Space Gem. I knew that Marvel's "Phase 3" was "cosmic" so we can see where things will be going.
Loki still hasn't revealed that he had previously worked for Thanos and no one has guessed it. I am guessing that he suspects what the Tessaract and the Aether are, given that Thanos wanted to use the Tessaract. I am also guessing that he suspects why Thanos might want them. I am also guessing that he has been doing all this stuff in an effort to gather the forces necessary to oppose Thanos' ultimate goals--he jump-started the Avengers on Earth to make them more prepared and now he is sitting on the throne in Odin's guise so that he can use Asgard's army in the coming battle. He is having to maintain this charade of "I am the bad guy" until the time is right.
Stark got close in The Avengers, correctly surmising that Loki was playing the diva and was putting on a show but he didn't ask the next question--putting on a show for whom?
Do you think that the Collector is involved in the whole thing with Thanos, then, or is his "One down, five to go" thing just him naturally wanting to collect the full set for himself, separate from other things going on?
Hashi Lebwohl wrote:No, Thor's physical power level has not changed; however, Kurse's physical power was, after his enhancement from the Beyonder, raised to twice that of Thor. Algrim the Dark was already the toughest Dark Elf before but afterwards he was technically stronger than the Hulk. The way Kurse is portrayed in the movie, although not technically accurate to the comics, was just fine--a powerhouse of destruction who is supposed to be extremely difficult to stop.
I concur that the Warriors Three and Sif were ashamedly underused. There could have been an entire "I am jealous of you but now we are bonding and will soon be like sisters" thing between Jane and Sif. At least we got to see some of Hogun's homeworld, though. Where are Volstagg's wife and children?
They rebuild quickly in Asgard. We'll chalk that up to "sufficiently advanced technology". Spoiler
Now for the good stuff.
"One down; five to go." Marvel just tipped their hand--they are setting us up for the Infinity Gauntlet. Taneleer Tivan, the Collector, will also be in Guardians of the Galaxy so the threat they face will be backed by another Infinity Gem, which they are calling Infinity Stones for the movies. The Aether is red and is clearly the Power Gem so that means the Tessaract, being blue, is the Space Gem. I knew that Marvel's "Phase 3" was "cosmic" so we can see where things will be going.
Loki still hasn't revealed that he had previously worked for Thanos and no one has guessed it. I am guessing that he suspects what the Tessaract and the Aether are, given that Thanos wanted to use the Tessaract. I am also guessing that he suspects why Thanos might want them. I am also guessing that he has been doing all this stuff in an effort to gather the forces necessary to oppose Thanos' ultimate goals--he jump-started the Avengers on Earth to make them more prepared and now he is sitting on the throne in Odin's guise so that he can use Asgard's army in the coming battle. He is having to maintain this charade of "I am the bad guy" until the time is right.
Stark got close in The Avengers, correctly surmising that Loki was playing the diva and was putting on a show but he didn't ask the next question--putting on a show for whom?
I am uncertain as of yet whether he is working for Thanos, acting as his middleman to collect the Stones, or if he is collecting them for himself and Thanos will simply show up to take them. If the overall movie plot arc follows the comics then the Collector is working with his fellow Elders for their own scheme which will be thwarted by Thanos' intrusion.
Those questions notwithstanding, if we presume that Marvel ultimately gets to some sort of Infinity Gauntlet movie with all the actors from Thor, Avengers, GotG, and whatever other movies fall under the umbrella of Phase 3--there is talk of a Dr. Strange movie, which could involve the Reality Gem--then this would be the largest and costliest gathering of big-name actors and characters in the history of film. I would wager a $1 billion production cost spanning three movies and it would be worth seeing just for that scope alone. We can only hope that all the actors live that long.
On an unrelated note, we never saw Red Skull die, only disappear. Where did he go and when will he be back?
Hashi Lebwohl wrote:No, Thor's physical power level has not changed; however, Kurse's physical power was, after his enhancement from the Beyonder, raised to twice that of Thor. Algrim the Dark was already the toughest Dark Elf before but afterwards he was technically stronger than the Hulk. The way Kurse is portrayed in the movie, although not technically accurate to the comics, was just fine--a powerhouse of destruction who is supposed to be extremely difficult to stop.
I concur that the Warriors Three and Sif were ashamedly underused. There could have been an entire "I am jealous of you but now we are bonding and will soon be like sisters" thing between Jane and Sif. At least we got to see some of Hogun's homeworld, though. Where are Volstagg's wife and children?
They rebuild quickly in Asgard. We'll chalk that up to "sufficiently advanced technology". Spoiler
Now for the good stuff.
"One down; five to go." Marvel just tipped their hand--they are setting us up for the Infinity Gauntlet. Taneleer Tivan, the Collector, will also be in Guardians of the Galaxy so the threat they face will be backed by another Infinity Gem, which they are calling Infinity Stones for the movies. The Aether is red and is clearly the Power Gem so that means the Tessaract, being blue, is the Space Gem. I knew that Marvel's "Phase 3" was "cosmic" so we can see where things will be going.
Loki still hasn't revealed that he had previously worked for Thanos and no one has guessed it. I am guessing that he suspects what the Tessaract and the Aether are, given that Thanos wanted to use the Tessaract. I am also guessing that he suspects why Thanos might want them. I am also guessing that he has been doing all this stuff in an effort to gather the forces necessary to oppose Thanos' ultimate goals--he jump-started the Avengers on Earth to make them more prepared and now he is sitting on the throne in Odin's guise so that he can use Asgard's army in the coming battle. He is having to maintain this charade of "I am the bad guy" until the time is right.
Stark got close in The Avengers, correctly surmising that Loki was playing the diva and was putting on a show but he didn't ask the next question--putting on a show for whom?
Thanks for the explanations.
Spoiler
However, Loki used the Tesseract (which isn't a Tessaract at all,*sob*) to control minds... so could it not be the Mind Gem?
'Tis dream to think that Reason can
Govern the reasoning creature, man.
- Herman Melville
I am Lazarus, come from the dead,
Come back to tell you all, I shall tell you all!
"All creation is a huge, ornate, imaginary, and unintended fiction; if it could be deciphered it would yield a single shocking word."
-John Crowley
However, Loki used the Tesseract (which isn't a Tessaract at all,*sob*) to control minds... so could it not be the Mind Gem?
Spoiler
That is possible but I think that was his own magic focused through the scepter. Its primary use was to open the gateway for the Chitauri (or however you spell it)--if it were the Mind Gem then Loki would have been using it for mass hypnosis not making a door.
No, technically it isn't a tessaract but that name itself ties in with the spatial/dimensional aspects that causes me to classify it as the Space Gem.
Yes, unfortunately many people are being left behind because they don't know relatively obscure comic book trivia from years ago when these overall plots were originally developed.
By the way, where oh where is Baldur? Two movies now and we haven't seen him at all. Not even a cameo.
