8: thor: the dark world

“Trust my rage.”

— Loki

Main takeaways:

• Aly: This movie was very interesting. It was overall a good movie – I liked the plot, I understood it about half of the time, and I liked the character development that took place over the movie. I think that all of the science-y stuff was too confusing, though – every time Jane started talking about gravity or wavelengths, my brain went numb. I think that the confusion that caused overshadowed the plot. There was a real possibility that this movie could have been one of Marvel’s best, with the awesome plot and cast, but the amount of science they tried to weave into the plot lost me. I think Endgame was a very good example of how that can work, since all of the time travel stuff was actually understandable – Thor: The Dark World definitely fell short in that sense. This movie was overall fairly good, but it just wasn;t quite up to par with the other MCU movies. Ragnarok, don;t let me down.
• Ally: This was the most exciting movie for me because it’s one of the few I haven’t seen before, and the first one in our marathon that was new to me. I’ve heard bad reviews about this movie, so I was expecting to be let down. I was actually pleasantly surprised by this film, and I genuinely enjoyed it for the most part. The cast is amazing as always and I love almost every character in this movie. The plot was engaging and the Aether is a big part of it, and having the backstory of the Aether was interesting, because it appears later in the MCU. However, Jane’s scientific research continues to leave me confused and her ability to warp gravity and create portals (?) resulted in a rather confusing action scene at the end. Still, the actions was exciting and the movie was fun to watch overall. Thor’s mother dying added another layer of tension and emotion, and it’s one of the few major character deaths we’ve seen thus far. Additionally, Loki is on screen for a long time and is an integral part of the plot, and we really get to see his mischievious tendencies and his relationship with his family. 

Favorite scene:

• Aly: My favorite scene was when Loki faked not helping Thor and Jane, only to actually turn out to help them. Loki pretends to stabThor, and we all thought he was a bad guy, but then after the dark elves extracted the Ether from Jane, he decided to help Thor save Jane. Loki is one of those characters that I can’t decide whether I love or hate, but I think that I only really like him when he proves me wrong. In any case, this scene was my favorite of the movie – it was the plot twist I wanted. 
• Ally: The final action scene, albeit confusing, was my favorite scene. To be honest, I couldnt’e even tell you who they were fighting. I also couldn’t tell you what the plot was and how they ended up at this point, but Jane sacrificing herself for Thor was quite moving. Also, Darcy and Ian got together in this scene. Yay! 

Favorite / least favorite character:

• Aly: My favorite character in this movie was Thor’s mom. I think that she brought everyone together, and acted as a catalyst for many events. Her and Loki’s relationship was very interesting, since he kind of stricized her by saying she wasn’t his mother. She also fought so hard for Jane, since she knew how much she meant to Thor, and ended up sacrificing her life in that battle. She was so selfless and eager to give up her life for her kids. My least favorite character would have to be the big elf man. He was obviously the villain, but he was just really annoying. He killed Thor’s mom, so I was mad for sure, but he also tried to hurt Jane,. Trying to take out 2 of my favorite girls? That’s a no go.
• Ally: Loki has to get my vote on both ends of this one. He’s the trickiest character in the MCU, and you can tell from our reaction video that I felt betrayed by him when he stabbed Thor. In that moment, Loki was my least favorite character because I had started to believe in him and I felt like he was letting me down. I put my trust in him and that was how he repayed me? It was tragic. Then, a mere minute later, Loki redeems himself. The joy I felt upon realizing he was not the villain was indescribable. I’m actually a little concerned with how invested I am in Loki’s character arc. I was even upset when he died, which is odd considering the fact that I was fully aware that he survives. Seeing Loki at the end was a religious experience for me, even though he was being rather evil and manipulating Thor into giving up the throne. 

Ranking (out of 10):

• Aly: 8/10. This movie had the opportunity to be amazing, and that;’s what makes it even more sad that it missed the mark. The science aspect and appearing/disappearing parts made everything way too confusing for it to be a good watch. 
• Ally: 8/10. I liked this movie a lot more than I thought I would, based on what I heard going into it. It gives some clarifying information about the Aether, but it’s not exactly necessary to your understanding of the rest of the MCU, so it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world to skip this one.