Thor Needs Light

Since I cancelled my Disney+ subscription, I remembered I'd been watching through the MCU movies again. Maybe I'll see if I can finish them before August 15th, when my subscription ends. Last night I watched Thor: The Dark World, which used to be considered the worst MCU movie. Now several films have surpassed it, of course. It's still a little dull. Christopher Eccleston is sadly playing a not especially interesting villain. But I did like how it felt more like Norse mythology than any other Thor film. Nice to see taverns on Asgard instead of everything being rainbows and chrome.

I don't quite understand why Stellan Skarsgard running around naked is supposed to be so funny. I like how Loki is actually a trickster in this one. Kat Dennings sure is a buxom beauty, is she only doing Marvel projects now? Her filmography has been fairly sparse the past few years.

The scene where Idris Elba takes down a spaceship with a knife was pretty badass. The scene where a ship crashes through Odin's palace (I don't think that's supposed to be Valhalla, is it?) has a nice feeling of catastrophe. Anthony Hopkins has not had good things to say about working in the MCU but he does a fine job as Odin, managing to inject some mystery into a fairly unremarkable treatment of the character in the script. Natalie Portman . . . She kind of gave a good performance in Black Swan but mostly I don't think she can act. Seeing her in a Thor movie reminds me of the story that leaked about Taika Waititi offering her a role in a Star Wars movie, evidently forgetting or not knowing she was in the prequels. With all the bad press Waititi got for Love and Thunder, looking back now, it really seems like some people were out to get him.

Alan Taylor of Game of Thrones directed Dark World and it's competent work, lacking the real sense of life Waititi gave to Ragnarok. Taylor has said Marvel made a lot of changes he wasn't comfortable with. If that was the problem, it's a shame Disney didn't learn from it.

Thor: Dark World is available on Disney+.

X Sonnet #1864

Reflective suits were kept beneath the waves.
The normal talk revolved around the King.
At home, he kept his empty paper graves.
The frugal fist proclaimed the ground a ring.
With floating symbols holding hands was rice.
The meal of choice emits a steam for men.
In savage hearts, a leopard skin is nice.
A nanny mixed some sugar cubes with sin.
The storms would gather just to smell the meal.
A champ was forged with broken chairs and cuffs.
A trick has made the haunted king for real.
The court was filled with idle boasts and bluffs.
When time decays the wooden space, we fly.
When plastic stars would melt, we wouldn't cry.