Thor: The Dark World

Except for a climactic showdown set in Greenwich, this quasi-mythological film is a bore

Thor is a huge figure from Norse mythology. Though he is associated with thunder, and his hammer with lightning, the Vikings turned him into a warrior and he became their mascot in battle. So powerful a symbol is Thor’s mjölnir (hammer) that miniatures of it were once worn around people’s necks, like crosses.

In this film, Thor (Chris Hemsworth) comes down to London, circa 2013, and, on entering a home, with due respect to British tradition, hangs his mjölnir on a coat rack. Later, he takes the Tube at rush hour, in full battle regalia, and politely asks a nonplussed passenger if Greenwich station is next. These attempts to throw in humour and make light of gods don’t quite work in Thor: The Dark World—mainly because the film’s character development is so poor.

For example, back home in Asgard, Thor’s adoptive brother, the slippery Loki (Tom Hiddleston), is in jail for war crimes. He is the polar opposite of Thor: inclined to evil and keen to grab the throne from Odin, King of Asgard (Anthony Hopkins). Yet the uneasy relationship between the siblings fails to evoke interest, and what you get from the actors is just a sense of one trying to upstage the other, as in amateur theatre. In fact, even the movie’s central conflict, between Thor and the villain Malekith (Christopher Eccleston), has no edge to it and you really don’t care who gets possession of the ‘Aether’, a weapon that can destroy the universe.

The only interesting idea in the film is the ‘convergence’, a pseudo-astronomical event that takes place every 5,000 years and brings the ‘9 realms of the universe’ into perfect alignment. Naturally, the exact point of convergence is Greenwich. Thor goes there by Tube, as mentioned, while the villain uses more updated transportation. They both reach the Meridian and we have a wonderful view of their battle from the Royal Observatory.

Apart from this, Thor is a bore.

Chris HemsworthNorse mythologyThor