The scene with the Collector was neat, and we learn that apparently, the Aether is one of the cinematic universe's analogues to the six Infinity Gems. On the other hand, he's also blatantly up to something all through the scene, so you've got to ask, "why in the Nine Realms are Sif and the other guy entrusting the Aether to someone who's so obviously up to no good?" (By the way, I've never read his comics either, but according to TV Tropes, he's a character in the upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy movie, which I'm already psyched for because it has Amy Pond as one of the villains.)
The LOTR backstory was indeed great (and actually makes quite a lot of sense, when you consider they have a shared source for their inspiration: Norse Mythology). As a Star Wars fan, I think it's pretty cool the way they essentially recycled the invasion of the Jedi Temple sequence from the Deceived trailer for "The Old Republic" for the attack on Asgard.
Something else which I think my sisters especially appreciated was that all the fanservice in the movie was directed at the Female Gaze. (They like to bring up the part on the Tube where the woman "accidentally" bumps into Thor's large, muscular chest, to which he responds with just a sort of knowing look.)
I also think that the balance of drama and comic relief in this movie was as close to perfect as I have seen in any movie or television show ever; and I think the part where that really came through for me was during the climax.
I completely missed that Loki was putting on act both when he appeared to turn on Thor, and when he was impersonating Odin (though I should've seen it coming the second time, at least, as I knew for sure he wasn't really dead). My sisters weren't taken in for a second, though, which I think undermined the effect for them.
Unfortunately, I think The Dark World also had some serious missteps which prevented it from being as great as it really should've been. Apart from being incredibly white and aggressively straight, and despite the awesomeness of the female characters and all the fanservice, the film wasn't as feminist as it initially shaped up to be.
Frigga was indeed awesome against Malekith, but she's still ultimately a Woman in the Refrigerator. Also, I find it significant that whereas when male characters such as Boromir or Agent Coulson get a Dying Moment of Awesome, they go down fighting, while Frigga was first captured and rendered helpless by Kurse, then killed.
I was a bit uncomfortable with way Ian rescuing Darcy caused her to start making out with him (because I think it ties into some unhealthy cultural narratives about romance and gender relations). More broadly, I was annoyed that while in this movie men are the Rescuers of Women (Thor, Loki, even Dr. Selvig and Ian), the reverse is never the case except for one brief sequence with Sif and Thor at the very beginning. Jane and Darcy are great, but they never get the chance to display life saving heroics the way practically every male character does at some point.
The movie was great, but it came so close to being substantially greater and ultimately failed to do so, which is too bad.
(My sister KorraWP also had a criticism that action sequences in the movie were too same-y, in that it was like a big climactic battle every single time. She seems to be the only one who felt that way about it, though - it certainly wasn't my reaction.)
(Also, I expect Nash's show is a lot more interesting in the Marvelverse. What a tie-in that would make.)
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timeasmymeasure
Part 2
Date: 2013-12-11 12:36 am (UTC)The LOTR backstory was indeed great (and actually makes quite a lot of sense, when you consider they have a shared source for their inspiration: Norse Mythology). As a Star Wars fan, I think it's pretty cool the way they essentially recycled the invasion of the Jedi Temple sequence from the Deceived trailer for "The Old Republic" for the attack on Asgard.
Something else which I think my sisters especially appreciated was that all the fanservice in the movie was directed at the Female Gaze. (They like to bring up the part on the Tube where the woman "accidentally" bumps into Thor's large, muscular chest, to which he responds with just a sort of knowing look.)
I also think that the balance of drama and comic relief in this movie was as close to perfect as I have seen in any movie or television show ever; and I think the part where that really came through for me was during the climax.
I completely missed that Loki was putting on act both when he appeared to turn on Thor, and when he was impersonating Odin (though I should've seen it coming the second time, at least, as I knew for sure he wasn't really dead). My sisters weren't taken in for a second, though, which I think undermined the effect for them.
Unfortunately, I think The Dark World also had some serious missteps which prevented it from being as great as it really should've been. Apart from being incredibly white and aggressively straight, and despite the awesomeness of the female characters and all the fanservice, the film wasn't as feminist as it initially shaped up to be.
Frigga was indeed awesome against Malekith, but she's still ultimately a Woman in the Refrigerator. Also, I find it significant that whereas when male characters such as Boromir or Agent Coulson get a Dying Moment of Awesome, they go down fighting, while Frigga was first captured and rendered helpless by Kurse, then killed.
I was a bit uncomfortable with way Ian rescuing Darcy caused her to start making out with him (because I think it ties into some unhealthy cultural narratives about romance and gender relations). More broadly, I was annoyed that while in this movie men are the Rescuers of Women (Thor, Loki, even Dr. Selvig and Ian), the reverse is never the case except for one brief sequence with Sif and Thor at the very beginning. Jane and Darcy are great, but they never get the chance to display life saving heroics the way practically every male character does at some point.
The movie was great, but it came so close to being substantially greater and ultimately failed to do so, which is too bad.
(My sister KorraWP also had a criticism that action sequences in the movie were too same-y, in that it was like a big climactic battle every single time. She seems to be the only one who felt that way about it, though - it certainly wasn't my reaction.)
(Also, I expect Nash's show is a lot more interesting in the Marvelverse. What a tie-in that would make.)