Mike Flanagan just gets Stephen King. Having previously adapted Gerald’s Game and Doctor Sleep, and now holding the television rights to The Dark Tower opus, he understands that King’s work isn’t about the horror, it’s about the people experiencing it. That insight is essential to THE LIFE OF CHUCK, a story told in reverse.
Based on the 2020 novella from If It Bleeds, Flanagan’s screenplay follows King’s original three-act structure. We open on the end of the world. Teacher Marty Anderson (Chiwetel Ejiofor) is watching civilisation collapse: the Internet dies, California sinks into the sea, cities are ablaze. Amid the chaos, he and his ex-wife Felicia (Karen Gillan) begin spotting strange billboards and ads all over town: Charles Krantz: 39 Great Years! Thanks, Chuck! The world unravels, but the ads only multiply.
In the second act, we meet Chuck (Tom Hiddleston), a genial accountant who is blissfully unaware of his own mortality. In one spontaneous moment, he bursts into dance to the rhythm of a street drummer. As the story winds backward, we glimpse his younger self (Jacob Tremblay), learning to dance with his grandmother Sarah (Mia Sara) and studying math(s) under his grandfather Albie (a quietly excellent Mark Hamill), who fears the ghosts that haunt the house’s cupola and may just glimpse the future.
On paper, these might seem like loosely connected vignettes, and they are. But that’s precisely the point. A life is a series of fragmented moments. By telling them in reverse, under the steady narration of Nick Offerman, Flanagan reveals the cosmic connections and quiet patterns that shape a person’s existence.
When King published the novella mid-pandemic in 2020, he described it as “presented in reverse order, like a film running backwards.” This is perhaps why Flanagan is able to translate it so seamlessly to the screen. Each chapter could function as a standalone short, just as King’s original sections almost feel like separate pieces. Yet only when we reach the final act, set in Chuck’s childhood, does the full picture snap into focus. The message is clear: you can only understand life’s meaning by viewing all the flaws and joys as a whole.
This structure gives each act space to breathe, showcasing the stacked ensemble cast in unexpected ways. One standout scene late in the film sees elderly mortician Sam (Carl Lumbly) talk with Marty about the quiet, comforting truths of mathematics. But the blissful core lies in a central dance sequence between Hiddleston and Annalise Basso, a stranger who joins Chuck in an unplanned moment of joy. It’s nestled between heavier chapters, but the joy lingers. Like life, the light moments stay with us as readily as the dark.
Flanagan’s adaptation joins Rob Reiner’s Stand By Me and Frank Darabont’s The Shawshank Redemption as one of the great humanist Stephen King films, an ode to the fleeting, beautiful nature of existence. It’s a quietly stunning film, and like Chuck himself, it contains multitudes.
2024 | USA | DIRECTOR: Mike Flanagan | WRITERS: Mike Flanagan (based on the novella by Stephen King) | CAST: Tom Hiddleston, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Karen Gillan, Mia Sara, Carl Lumbly, Benjamin Pajak, Jacob Tremblay, Mark Hamill | DISTRIBUTOR: Sydney Film Festival 2025, NEON (USA), STUDIOCANAL (Australia) | RUNNING TIME: 111 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 4-15 June 2025 (SFF 2025), 6 June 2025 (USA), 21 August 2025 (Australia)
WARNING: This review is burdened with glorious spoilers.
In LOKI, the third Disney+ series to spin out of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the franchise has finally stumbled into all of our wheelhouses. Literally all of them. Taking the irreverent fun of Ant-Man or Guardians of the Galaxy, the genre-bending madness of WandaVision, and the high stakes of any Avengers film, it casts the villain we love in the role of a bureaucratic, time travelling anti-hero.
Picking up after the events of Avengers: Endgame, in which an Avengers-era Loki (Tom Hiddleston) buggered off with the Tesseract, the variant God of Mischief is arrested by the mysterious Time Variance Authority (TVA). Seemingly backed by limitless power and resources, TVA agent Mobius M. Mobius (Owen Wilson) is charged with bringing this Loki up to speed and getting him to help with their investigations. It seems another variant Loki has been polluting the sacred timeline and getting a little stabby across time.
Things gets especially interesting when we discover that the anarchistic variant is Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino), a female ‘Loki’ from a parallel timeline. Every bit Loki’s equal — and arguably superior — she has been journeying through the timeline intent on destroying all of the TVA’s minutemen. Meeting Loki changes both of their destinies, uncovering hidden truths about the power behind the Authority and the nature of the Marvel multiverse.
One of the joys of comic books for me has always been the re-interpetation of classic characters across the parallel worlds, alternate timelines and multiversal mishaps. Hell, I’ve written about it at length for various places. So, building an entire series around the intersection of Lokis across the Marvel Cinematic Multiverse is so inside my personal headspace that it’s been living there rent-free for decades (with an option to buy). As such, LOKI is a purely joyful tour through some of the weirder and more indulgent aspects of the comics. Sure, this could be viewed as a little too inside baseball, but it also speaks to the Phase 4 willingness to break free of previous formulas and linger longer in the curious corners of the MCU.
This is especially true of the penultimate episode of the series, appropriately titled ‘Journey Into Mystery’ (after the comic in which Thor and Loki were introduced). Richard E. Grant appears as one of several Lokis — alongside a child Loki (Jack Veal) who killed Thor, a boastful Loki (DeObia Oparei), President Loki and even an Alligator Loki — converging on ‘our’ Loki prior to a final confrontation with the mysterious powers that be. Scholars and bloggers alike will be unpicking all the Easter eggs for months to come.
One of the strengths of LOKI is its ability to switch genres at will is one of the series strengths. It’s a bureaucratic time comedy. It’s an episode of Doctor Who the following week (‘Lamentis’). It doesn’t ends with the big CG battle required by all MCU outings, but instead with a confrontation between complex minds. When the series continues (something confirmed by a post-credits stinger in the final episode), there are literally infinite combinations of characters and stories they can try out.
Yet the core power rests in this phenomenal cast. Hiddleston slips effortlessly into a role he’s played half a dozen times before, yet now with added depth and nuance we’ve not seen before. Di Martino, primarily known for her TV work, steps confidently into the MCU as a force to be reckoned with. Meanwhile, Wilson feels like he’s always been here, like some kind of Stan Lee-esque watcher who has just emerged to tell us of his love for jet skis. Gugu Mbatha-Raw and criminally underused indie queen Sasha Lane round out the impressive cast.
Compared with the Netflix Marvel series a few years ago, these Disney+ series are operating on a scale hitherto unseen. It’s partly because these series directly tie into the broader cinematic universe, but also because they are willing to dangle threads out there and yank them away. Take the season finale (‘For All Time. Always.’): following the massive special effects spectacular of the previous episode, the rebirth of the multiverse comes primarily from an intellectual sparring match. Rather than simply wrap it up here, the coming of ‘He Who Remains’ (Jonathan Majors) is teased. For those in the know, it’s Kang the Conqueror: a time-travelling entity who may just serve as the Thanos of Phase 4.
WandaVision led us up to the door of the next Doctor Strange film, and Falcon and the Winter Soldier opened the door for a new Captain America, and LOKI is no exception. Given that one of the next major films is Sam Raimi’s Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, it’s no stretch that this series was a way of introducing audiences to the parallel universes us comic book readers have known and loved for decades. Indeed, we know Major is reprising his role as Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. For now, the MCU has revealed it’s short-term purpose, and it is indeed glorious.
2021 | US | DIRECTOR: Kate Herron | WRITERS: Michael Waldron (creator), Elissa Karasik, Bisha K. Ali, Eric Martin, Tom Kauffman | CAST: Tom Hiddleston, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Wunmi Mosaku, Eugene Cordero, Tara Strong, Owen Wilson, Sophia Di Martino, Sasha Lane, Jack Veal, DeObia Oparei, Richard E. Grant| DISTRIBUTOR: Disney+ | EPISODES: 6
Comic book movies have often been labelled “too serious,” as if the fantastical nature of the medium doesn’t warrant sophistication. So it’s a pleasure to see that Taika Waititi’s approach to THOR: RAGNAROK is one of pure absurdist fun that’s also reverential to the source material.
It’s been two years since the events of Avengers: Age of Ultron, and twice that since Thor: The Dark World. After Thor (Chris Hemsworth) unmasks his brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston), posing as the Allfather Odin (Anthony Hopkins), he sets in motion a chain of events that leads to the resurrection of Hela (Cate Blanchett), the goddess of death. Stranded on a distant planet, the Grandmaster (Jeff Golblum) makes Thor fight for his life against old “friend from work” Bruce Banner/The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo).
From the opening scene, it’s clear that THOR: RAGNAROK will never miss an opportunity for a gag. It’s a rather self-deprecating humour too, as if Flight of the Conchords had organically grown into a show about space vikings. Waititi himself plays a character named Korg, and his distinctive Kiwi accent acts as a laidback tourist in this fantastical world. It’s actually going to be interesting to see how audiences from outside the Antipodes relate to this singular sense of humour.
There’s little in the way of an emotional core to the film, as Eric Pearson, Craig Kyle and Christopher Yost’s script flies by the seat of its pants through a narrative that is equal parts Norse mythology and pure comic bookery. Strangely this is never a detriment to the film, and it should come as no surprise that the god of thunder works best when placed in the heart of a swirling maelstrom.
Against phenomenal CG environments, making full use of the existing Asgardian world, Devo’s Mark Mothersbaugh backs the visuals with a retro synth-heavy set of ambient sounds inspired by Jean-Michel Jarre. Hemsworth pulls on the comedy chops of Ghostbusters‘ Kevin while kicking ass to the tune of Led Zeppelin. The elements combine to make Thor every bit the cinematic hero he has always deserved to be.
It’s also a delight to have Hiddleston back on screen as something other than the primary antagonist too, using all his charm and guile to serve as Hemsworth’s foil rather than his foe. Similarly, Ruffalo (as both Banner and the Hulk) gets to expand on his green goliath in the absence of another solo outing. Indeed, the events of this movie are partly inspired by the 2006 Planet Hulk comic book event.
On the side of villainy, the Grandmaster reaches peak Goldblum, quite literally stopping speeches in the middle of sentences to add to the wackiness of it all. Blanchett shows a massive appetite for munching on large chunks of the scenery, but both she and pseudo-villain Karl Urban have a ball doing it.
THOR: RAGNAROK sits quite happily alongside the original Guardians of the Galaxy as a tale that both expands the Marvel cosmic universe and provides plenty of laughs while doing it. As always, be sure to stick around through the credits for a taste of things to come, and one last gag on the way out the door. Avengers: Infinity War may promise to have the most Marvel characters in a single film, but they will be hard pressed to have as much fun as this one.
[stextbox id=”grey” bgcolor=”F2F2F2″ mleft=”5″ mright=”5″ image=”null”]2017 | US | DIRECTORS: Taika Waititi | WRITERS: Eric Pearson, Craig Kyle, Christopher Yost | CAST: Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Cate Blanchett, Idris Elba, Jeff Goldblum, Tessa Thompson, Karl Urban, Mark Ruffalo, Anthony Hopkins | DISTRIBUTOR: Disney (AUS) | RUNNING TIME: 130 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 25 October 2017 (AUS) [/stextbox]
In many ways, King Kong was the original giant movie monster. The giant ape and the other inhabitants of Skull Island were gloriously brought to life in 1933 by stop-motion pioneer Willis O’Brien, who crafted movie magic out of Harry Hoyt’s The Lost World almost a decade earlier. With only a handful of film credits to his name, countless parodies and tributes have ensured Kong’s legacy has persisted. It’s fair to say that KONG: SKULL ISLAND is literally one of the biggest takes on the character to date.
The basic construct of director Jordan Vogt-Roberts’ film is simplicity itself, with the 1970s version of the Monarch organisation (last seen in 2014’s Godzilla) exploring an uncharted island. Bill Randa (John Goodman) leads a misfit group consisting of tracker James Conrad (Tom Hiddleston), photojournalist Mason Weaver (Brie Larson) and a US Army troop headed up by Preston Packard (Samuel L. Jackson). They almost immediately encounter the giant ape the natives call Kong, but just as rapidly discover he isn’t the most dangerous creature on the island.
The narrative conceit is that the group only has a small window of opportunity to get on and off the island, a simple idea that constantly propels the momentum forward. Like Peter Jackson’s King Kong (2005), the island is an excuse to watch the humans and Kong fight and run from all manner of creatures, including giant cephalopods and kaiju-like “Skullcrawlers.” Yet it does it with wholesale sense of fun, aided greatly by the presence of John C. Reilly as World War II vet Hank Marlow. His non-sequitur moments (“I’m going to stab you by the end of the night”) make him the Dennis Hopper of KONG‘s Apocalypse Now.
Make no mistake: KONG: SKULL ISLAND is an unapologetically trashy popcorn flick, but it’s the best of its kind. As gunplay and explosions are perfectly timed to the period soundtrack, including the obligatory Creedence Clearwater Revival track, a flawless set of special effects envelop the cast. Kong’s towering frame has not looked as groundbreaking since 1933. Paperbark forests and giant skulls serve as terrifyingly atmospheric backdrops. In Samuel L. Jackson’s Ahab-inspired character, complete with grand quotable dialogue, we may have just reached Peak Jackson (#PeakJackson).
It’s more than enough to allow forgiveness of the indulgences in the name of convention. The need to constantly frame Kong in sunset, regardless of the time of day, sacrifices sense for style. Larson’s photojournalist isn’t quite diminished to Fay Wray levels of ‘bait-thing beauty,’ but she might also be the worst photographer in the world, typically forgetting to take any shots at all. Also, if we’re all being honest, Hiddleston makes a much better villain than he does action lead.
Yet in the midst of all this monkey madness, KONG: SKULL ISLAND effortlessly builds its MonsterVerse, effectively setting up the pieces necessary for the well-publicised crossovers with the Godzilla. After a decade of absences from our screen, Kong rightfully takes his place alongside the King of Monsters, pounding its chest with the bravado of an ape twice his size. Bring on the franchise.
[stextbox id=”grey” bgcolor=”F2F2F2″ mleft=”5″ mright=”5″ image=”null”]2017 | US | DIR: Bill Condon | WRITER: Dan Gilroy, Max Borenstein | CAST: Tom Hiddleston, Samuel L. Jackson, John Goodman, Brie Larson, Jing Tian, Toby Kebbel, John C. Reilly | DISTRIBUTOR: Roadshow Films (AUS) | RUNNING TIME: 118 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 9 March 2017 (AUS), 10 March 2017 (US) [/stextbox]
Aardman and StudioCanal have announced that Tom Hiddleston has joined the cast of Nick Park’s new prehistoric comedy adventure, EARLY MAN. Hiddleston will voice the “ridiculously pompous” Lord Nooth, governor of the Bronze Age town – a money-loving tyrant and rival to the film’s Stone Age hero, Dug (Eddie Redmayne). The film releases on 28 January 2018 in the UK, and 29 March 2018 in Australia.
“Tom is a wonderful actor and it’s so thrilling to see him bring our comic villain to life with his amazing talent, energy and enthusiasm,” commented Park. It is a great privilege to work with Tom and I’m so excited to see his character Lord Nooth emerge on screen!”
“I’ve been a fan of Nick Park and Aardman for as long as I can remember,” adds Hiddleston, “and am incredibly honoured to be working with Nick and the team on this adventure. I’m thrilled to be able to breathe some semblance of life into this hysterical villain and to work with Eddie for the first time. EARLY MAN made me laugh out loud when I read it. Lord Nooth is larger than life in every respect. I can’t wait for audiences to meet him.”
Set at the dawn of time, when prehistoric creatures and woolly mammoths roamed the earth, EARLY MAN tells the story of how plucky caveman Dug (Eddie Redmayne), along with sidekick Hognob unites his tribe against the mighty Bronze Age in a battle to beat them at their own game. It also marks Nick Park’s first feature film since Academy Award® winning Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit.
EARLY MAN continues the production partnership with Aardman and StudioCanal, with the BFI (British Film Institute) supporting the development and production of EARLY MAN with National Lottery funding.
Transplanting J.G. Ballard’s 1970s treatise on modernism, Ben Wheatley’s adaptation is as beautiful as it is terrifying.
“For all its inconveniences, Laing was satisfied with life in the high-rise.” So begins Ben Wheatley’s visually penetrating adaptation of J.G. Ballard’s 1975 novel, with a head inside a television set and Dr. Robert Laing (Tom Hiddleston) spit-roasting a German Shepherd. Using the oppressive Mid-Century brutualist architecture of the titular towers, and a thoroughly 1970s setting and aesthetic, Laing moves into a massive 40-story building designed by Anthony Royal (Jeremy Irons). Supposedly an ideal space, with everything from a supermarket to a primary school in the megastructure, residents begin to lose interest in the outside world, until the system begins to fail and the delicate class divisions come tumbling down into anarchic violence.
Like Snowpiercer, or the 1987 Doctor Who episode Paradise Towers (also loosely based on Ballard’s novel), it’s an allegorical tale of how the physical environment of modernity can impact on the psyche of the populace. “It takes a certain determination to row against the tide,” a waiter reminds Laing as he traverses the class divides, literally separated by floors in the case of HIGH-RISE. Hiddleston comes into the film as a detached creature already, his stiff upper-lip Britishness contrasting with his bemused observations of the rich. His descent into madness is so subtle that it seems perfectly natural, as though there is no other rational response than to go mad. Yet all the cast are top-notch in this, especially the chief “lower level” agitant Richard Wilder (Luke Evans), who gives a primal turn as he embraces the most basic instincts of survival. Sienna Miller feels like something more calculated in the way she plays off the two camps with her own secrets. It’s still the omnipresent hum of the tower, eerily brought to life by Clint Mansell’s score and a disturbing Portishead cover of ABBA’s “SOS,” that figuratively and literally dominates the landscape against the unnaturally orange sky. Unsurprisingly, it’s Margaret Thatcher’s voice that echoes over the final moments, affirming that capitalism is the only economic system in the world, while Laing waits for the tower’s twin to suffer the fate of his. As global politics increasingly divide rich and poor, and these structures are now commonplace, Ballard’s tale has even more weight than it did forty years ago.
2015 | UK | DIR: Ben Wheatley | WRITER: Amy Jump | CAST: Tom Hiddleston, Jeremy Irons, Sienna Miller, Luke Evans, Elisabeth Moss | DISTRIBUTOR: Transmission Films (AUS) | RUNNING TIME: 118 minutes | RATING:★★★★ (8/10)
Marvel Studios has confirmed online that the casting for THOR: RAGNAROK will be a particularly huge one. Cate Blanchett, Jeff Goldblum, Tessa Thompson, Karl Urban, and Mark Ruffalo have all been confirmed to be in the third Thor film, following Thor: The Dark World, and the seventeenth film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Blanchett is set to play a new villain called Hela, who has traditionally been the Asgardian god of death in the comics. Introduced in 1968, the likely source material for the film saw her reawakened in her mortal guise following Ragnarok, due to Loki’s schemes. Goldblum’s role of the Grandmaster suggests that THOR: RAGNAROK will also be setting up much of the Infinity War storyline for the next Avengers film as well. Tessa Thompson will play Valkyrie, an ally and one-time love interest for Thor, while Urban will add his existing comic book cred as Skurge, an Asgardian warrior who has fought on both sides of the hero/villain divide.
“The continuation of the epic Thor franchise will be powerful and unique, and with the additions of Cate, Jeff, Tessa, Karl, and Mark to the cast we have the makings of his most dangerous and heroic adventure yet,” said Producer Kevin Feige.
Returning casting members include, of course, Chris Hemsworth as the titular lightning wielder, Tom Hiddleston as Loki, Idris Elba as Heimdall, and Sir Anthony Hopkins as Odin.
THOR: RAGNAROK will be shot in Australia by New Zealand director Taika Waititi (What We Do in the Shadows, Hunt for the Wilderpeople). It will be released in Australia on 26 October 2017, and on 3 November 2017 in the US, by Disney.
The latest Marvel film pushes the boundaries of their growing universe, determined to turn mainstream cinema audiences into comic buffs.
[stextbox id=”grey” caption=”Thor: The Dark World (2013)” float=”true” align=”right” width=”200″]
Director: Alan Taylor
Writers: Christopher Yost, Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely
Runtime: 112 minutes
Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddleston, Anthony Hopkins, Stellan Skarsgård, Idris Elba, Christopher Eccleston, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Kat Dennings, Ray Stevenson, Zachary Levi, Tadanobu Asano, Jaimie Alexander, Rene Russo
NB: This review appeared originally at Behind the Panels. Visit there for full coverage of all things comic books and superhero films.
If Iron Man 3 was about escalating the Marvel Cinematic Universe beyond even the dizzying heights of The Avengers, then Thor: The Dark World is about expanding that landscape. The original Thor was perhaps the most difficult sell of the first phase of the Marvel films, introducing us to something bigger than Earth-bound origin stories. In the wake of two of the biggest franchise films in the history of the medium, this sequel is burdened with a similar glorious purpose for the next wave.
Picking up several years after his first encounter with Earth, Asgardian hero Thor (Chris Hemsworth) is cleaning up the Nine Realms in the chaos that followed the destruction of the Bifröst. Meanwhile, Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) pines for her godly love, and unwittingly stumbles upon an inter-dimensional link in London. As ancient foe Malekith (Christopher Eccleston) and his Dark Elves rise to destroy Asgard and beyond, Thor must turn to his nefarious brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston) to help him defeat the accursed ones.
What is immediately evident in Thor: The Dark World is the sheer scale of the production. Taking the incredible comic book visions of everyone from writer Walt Simonson through to the current cosmic ballet of the Marvel Universe, the film series has finally reached a point where it can confidently mix in the rich and often convoluted details of the source material for a fully prepped and initiated movie audience. Director Alan Taylor uses his experience on television’s Game of Thrones to ground Asgard as a real place, albeit one filled with beings that have been around for several millennia, so that romance and familial bonds are just as integral as the universe shattering events around them.
Even with the seriously good special effects, in a film that bounces us around the majority of the Nine Realms, it’s the same ingredients as the first film that make this sequel a success. Humour is what made Norse gods palatable alongside machine men and gamma-radiated monsters, and if anything, Thor: The Dark World takes it up a notch. Much of this swirls around assistant Darcy (Kat Dennings), but it’s wonderful to see Erik Selvig (Stellan Skarsgård) in a pantsless bit of insanity as well. For the non-action crowd, the romance between Thor and Jane is core to this outing, and even Hiddleston gets to be something more than the mischievous villain, auditioning for a potential buddy-cop film alongside Hemsworth. Eccleston is perhaps underused and mostly under make-up, but his understated performance gives us a convincingly villainous target for the heroes.
Given Thor’s penchant for swinging his hammer (“Mew-Mew!”), it’s the action that ties it all together. Even Rene Russo gets to kick some ass before the film is through. From fantasy-inspired battlefields to the streets of London, no stone is left uncrumbled, although some of the supporting warriors (including Jamie Alexander’s Sif and the Warriors Three of Ray Stevenson, Tadanobu Asano and new addition Zachary Levi) are occasionally brushed aside in the melee.
Thor: The Dark World is a perfect example of the progression of a series. As the cinematic universe steers towards Guardians of the Galaxy, this film builds upon familiar elements while taking chances that quite literally shoots the franchise into the stars. As always, you would be very wise to stick around to the very end of the credits to see what’s coming up next. Following the philosophy of “go big or go home”, Marvel Studios have chosen the former and managed to pour the comic book source straight onto the screen.
Thor: The Dark World is released in Australia on 31 October 2013, and in the US on 8 November 2013, from Disney.
Disney has released the official synopsis for Thor: The Dark World, the sequel to 2011’s Thor directed by Alan Taylor. It is due for release in November 2013.
It confirms that former Doctor Who star Christopher Eccleston will play the character Malekith the Accursed. It also announces the inclusion of LOST actor Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje as part of the cast. Read on for the full press below:
Marvel’s “Thor: The Dark World” continues the big-screen adventures of Thor, the Mighty Avenger, as he battles to save Earth and all the Nine Realms from a shadowy enemy that predates the universe itself. In the aftermath of Marvel’s “Thor” and “Marvel’s The Avengers,” Thor fights to restore order across the cosmos…but an ancient race led by the vengeful Malekith returns to plunge the universe back into darkness. Faced with an enemy that even Odin and Asgard cannot withstand, Thor must embark on his most perilous and personal journey yet, one that will reunite him with Jane Foster and force him to sacrifice everything to save us all.
Starring Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddleston, Stellan Skarsgård, Idris Elba, Christopher Eccleston, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Kat Dennings, Ray Stevenson, Zachary Levi, Tadanobu Asano and Jaimie Alexander with Rene Russo and Anthony Hopkins as Odin, “Thor: The Dark World” is directed by Alan Taylor, produced by Kevin Feige, from a story by Don Payne (credit not final) and screenplay by Christopher Yost and Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely (credit not final) and is based on Marvel’s classic Super Hero Thor, who first appeared in the comic book “Journey into Mystery” #83 in August, 1962.
“Thor: The Dark World” is presented by Marvel Studios. The executive producers are Louis D’Esposito, Alan Fine, Stan Lee, Victoria Alonso, Craig Kyle and Nigel Gostelow.
Marvel’s Avengers assemble for the first time on the small screen, in a satisfying union that requires some assembly but ultimately achieves its ambitious collision of worlds. However, the Australian ‘Limited Edition’ Blu-ray lives up to its name in every way.
It may have seemed like a crazy idea half a decade ago, when the release of Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk within a few months of each other signalled the start of something entirely unique in the film world. Marvel Studios had begun gathering together its mightiest heroes not simply for a series of adaptations, but to reconstruct its comic book universe for cinema audiences. The so-called Marvel Cinematic Universe gained momentum with the addition of Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger to the roster, not to mention an Iron Man sequel, and suddenly the impossible seemed possible. While DC Comics struggled through Superman reboots and Green Lanternmisfires, Marvel had a legitimate cinematic institution on their hands.
With The Avengers, the disparate elements from four thematically different worlds come together. When an alien force threatens the Earth, under the charge of Asgardian wild child Loki (Tom Hiddleston), über spy organisation S.H.I.E.L.D is compromised. Director Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) desperately summons together Earth’s mightiest warriors to analyse the threat. Yet Captain America (Chris Evans) is a man out of time, and Tony Stark/Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr) an unstoppable egotist with other pursuits on his mind. Black Widow (Scarlet Johansson) is emotionally compromised, uncontrollable demigod Thor (Chris Hemsworth) is conflicted when it comes to his brother Loki and the newly calm Dr. Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) keeps the Hulk in check. Will this ragtag team be enough to keep the extraterrestrial hordes at bay?
Given that The Avengers is the culmination of a six film world-building saga, much of the first act of the film is confusingly spent in a dragging set-up not just for this film, but for the chapters that will inevitably follow. Indeed, one would be forgiven for thinking this was the prematurely released Iron Man 3for at least half of the exposition. Yet as director Joss Whedon‘s script rapidly ticks off the whereabouts of all the players, getting us up to speed with their various misadventures in the cracks between films, some of the immediacy of the spectacular opening is lost. Here even master team-builder Whedon, seasoned through Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Firefly, struggles with the essential problem this film was always going to face: keeping four fan bases happy but simultaneously moving the story forward.
Once all of the pieces are in one place, however, The Avengers becomes the cracking piece of event cinema that it was always destined to be. Here Whedon plays in his element, as humour and character building mark this just as much his film as the work of Marvel Studios’ producer Kevin Feige. Downey Jr naturally gets all the best one-liners, but exchanges between him, Evans, Ruffalo and Hemsworth in particular are evenly paced and frequently side-splitting. Whedon is not afraid to use visual humour either, playing on the Hulk’s size or his ability to fling about mortals like rag dolls. More than anything, he recognises that these are already well-defined characters from previous films and comics, and allows their natural charms to emerge within the story where possible.
Hiddleston builds on his powerfully sympathetic portrayal of the conflicted villain, although the nature of The Avengers beast requires that he be a little more cut and dry in his villainy. On the flip side, Captain America’s transition back into the world after decades on ice is one that requires more exploration, but we will have to wait several years for this to eventuate in its own sequel. The only new cast member is Mark Ruffalo, who replaces Edward Norton as Bruce Banner/The Hulk. Effortlessly slipping into the role, he provides genuine warmth and a glimmer of what has transpired to the character off-screen. Although a third standalone Hulk film is not currently on the horizon, Ruffalo is the first actor to take on the role who actually makes us want to see more of his charmingly gentle take.
Yet this is, above all things, an action film and this is where the film ultimately delivers and overwhelms. Once the invasion force descends from the heavens, the Michael Bay gene of the film takes over, favouring spectacle over all else. There is undoubtedly far more intelligence behind this action, from the Hulk’s encounters with individual enemies to Stark’s quips in the heat of battle. It would be a cold-hearted fanboy who didn’t get all aquiver as the team comes together on the battlefield for the first time, and a giant creature snakes its way around an embattled New York. In the climactic moments, some of the cracks admittedly show. The Hulk’s domesticity is a convenient occurrence rather than a naturally occurring one, but does make for some spectacular imagery. After literally using archer Clint Barton/Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) as a pawn in the opening chapter, Whedon is left with not having an effective place for him (or Johansson for that matter) in the final battle of super-beings.
As a cinematic achievement, The Avengers requires a firm salute of respect for giving the fans exactly what they wanted and pulling together one of the first epics of the year. Yet as fans will know, sticking around until the post-credits sequence is mandatory in a Marvels Studios film, although this time non comics readers will be left scratching their heads. Either way, what The Avengers mostly achieves is an end to one chapter and opening a door to another, filled with sequels, spin-offs and a growing legion of fans who have had their expectations raised by the unnecessarily high quality of this series.
The Disc (★★★):
In a word, disappointing. This 3-Disc (Blu-ray/DVD/Digital Copy) is also spruiked as a limited edition with a slipcover, but in every other way lives up to the term ‘limited’. The audio/visual aspects to this disc are actually outstanding, and if you are region locked, then this is the only way to see The Avengers. The crystal clear video is easily a 5/5 and the bombastic audio is an impressive equaliser, rattling the windows suitably. We’re also pleased to report that it contains both of the end-credits sequences from the US edition of the film.
The bonus features on all Australian editions are another story. In fact, there are just over 30 minutes worth of bonus features on this disc, making this a virtually bare-bones outing. The Marvel One-Shot: Item 47 (12 minutes) is the most substantial single feature, and is an ambitious and mostly satisfying expansion to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The Deleted and Extended Scenes (15 minutes) are most worthwhile for the alternate opening and closing sequences featuring Cobie Smulders (detailed here), and pieces with Harry Dean Stanton/Mark Ruffalo along with more Captain America. There’s also a pretty standard Gag Reel (4 minutes) of line flubs, dropped hammers and general silliness on set. The Blu-ray also shares a featurette with the single disc DVD (also in this set), A Visual Journey (6 minutes), in which Joss Whedon and his creative team take us through the design of the S.H.I.E.L.D areas of the film.
What’s missing? We hate to say it, but this one is definite an import recommendation. The film alone is the best ‘feature’, but it seems the price to pay for getting this a month early is missing out on an audio commentary from Joss Whedon, the Soundgarden music video, the alleged ‘second screen’, and worst of all, a 90-minute documentary called “Assembling the Ultimate Team”. The UK Blu-ray is out 17 September, while the US Blu-ray is out on 26 September.
