Hi, I'm Ian. And this is my blog. I'll do a full introduction later, but for now all you need to know is I'm a geek and I specialise in a very specific form of geekery - comic-book geekery. With that in mind, let's watch the trailer for Thor: The Dark World.
As someone who actually enjoyed the first one (REVIEW LINK MISSING), I have to say this one... underwhelmed me a little. Not that it looks bad; it actually looks rather epic, with Anthony Hopkins rambling about darkness (Heimdall is probably sighing in the background) while things happen for reasons in the background, and ending with Loki looking gleeful that he can cause mischief.
No, my problem is simple:
Where's the fun?
Thor worked for me best when it was a charming romantic comedy between Thor and Jane, with Asgard stuff happening on the peripheral of the frame. When they started and ending with Frost Giants and The Destroyer, I tuned out because I just wanted to see Chris H make jokes about riding dogs. They did the latter so well that the former was utterly dull.
And this trailer...
I've always struggled to enjoy Thor as a comic-book character because it's hard to relate to a God Marvel have to constantly nerf, who (like comic-book Tony Stark) is a self-righteous butthead. Movie Thor's strength is he's likeable, and his first film was a coming of age story where he went from 'I AM A GOD SAYS I' to 'Loki, all your robot belongs to Asgard.' But here, it seems like we're going for Thor as a tortured soul... and it's just not particularly interesting to watch.
That said, I'll see it anyway. First Thor gets better on rewatch (seeing it in 3D nearly gave me a concussion with all the rainbows and crap), and despite The Avengers being okay at best (TROLL-LOL-LOL), I trust Marvel. Sort of. I mean when your worst film is The Avengers, and it still has the best version of The Hulk in any medium (yes, including the comics), you've set a pretty high bar.
