Film: Thor: the Dark World

Today, rather than being cold, was wet. Perfect day for the cinema. Wow, was I lucky I picked yesterday to go the markets! Now, the best rated films showing today, according to IMDB, were Le Mépris and Thor: the Dark World. I figured Thor would be more fun, so booked that, since the nearest place it was showing was Cineworld Hammersmith, and Cineworld gives a discount for advance bookings.

I booked an early showing, and got the Tube straight from the office. Fortunately, I seemed to get before the evening rush. Unfortunately, it was lashing rain when I got off - but I only had a short walk. Was so busy watching my feet that I overshot the cinema - but soon realised my mistake, turned back, and didn't get too much wetter. The ATM in the lobby worked as it should, and we had a short wait while they finished cleaning the cinema. Helpful of them to post tape across the screen door saying they're still cleaning it - I haven't seen that before.

Very small screen - I sat in the second row from the front. Mind you, I suppose it has been showing for a while. As we were waiting for the ads to start, I just had time to eat the Lindt chocolate Santa that I bought on a whim at Tesco today. Well, it is Christmas..! and the fact that the self-service till only charged me £1, instead of the posted price of £1.50, doesn't hurt a bit.

Included in the ads was the trailer for The Hobbit: the Desolation of Smaug. Looking forward to that - although I can't remember most of what happened in the original Hobbit film. Well, for some films, that doesn't matter. Such as the film I saw tonight.

It would help to have a bit of Norse mythology going into this. Right then, here we go. First off, there are nine worlds. Some of which we visit in the film. Primary among these is Asgard, home of the gods, whose king is Odin. Played in this film by Anthony Hopkins - my, he does get around! Confusingly, in the course of the film, he explains that they're not gods, because they're not immortal, they just live for 5,000 years or so. Anyway. He's married to Frigga, played here by Rene Russo. It's a long time since I've seen her in anything - she is looking well.

They have two sons - Thor and Loki. (Well, they're her stepsons, but howsoever.) Thor, famous for wielding a magical hammer that, among other things, he can fly with, is here played by Chris Hemsworth, whom I really should start to recognise - he's been in a few things I've seen. I didn't see the original Thor film, but he also starred in Rush, and appeared as George Kirk, James T. Kirk's father, in Star Trek: Into Darkness and the 2009 Star Trek. And he was in The Cabin in the Woods! Well, but who noticed anyone out of that except the bad guys..? (In the mythology, Loki, a trickster and not to be trusted, isn't actually related to the others, but never mind.)

Also appearing is Sif, who in the mythology is blonde and is Thor's wife. Here, she's brunette and wants to be his wife, but he's more interested in Natalie Portman. She's a quantum physicist (or something) from Midgard (earth) and doesn't appear in the mythology, funnily enough. But then, Thor always did have a fondness for humans, it seems. She works with Stellan Skarsgård, who plays a particularly batty cosmologist, and she has to fend off the attentions of poor Chris O' Dowd, who's put on a bit of weight since I last saw him. And Christopher Eccleston plays the bad guy trying to destroy the universe, no less.

Right then, that's us all set up. Except you don't really need to know any of this - a surprising amount of it is drip-fed to you during the film. Still, it doesn't hurt to know it in advance. Most of the action takes place on other worlds, with the legions of bad guys battling legions of good guys, with very space-age weaponry, I must say. Personally, I preferred it when they got down to earth and started ripping up London. Nothing personal! Greenwich gets it pretty bad - apparently it's the centre of the convergence (don't ask). Other fun bits (and the film does have a neat sense of humour) include when Thor and the bad guy are battling it out in mid-air and crash into the Gherkin, sliding down the side to the bemusement of people inside (and cracking the glass in the process, tsk) - and when Thor materialises in Charing Cross Tube station and dusts himself off just as a train is pulling in. He asks the stunned young lady just inside the door how to get to Greenwich. Now, pardon me, but from my knowledge of the network, no, you cannot get a direct Tube from Charing Cross to Greenwich, never mind be there in three stops.. maybe it's one of those gravitational anomalies.

Or maybe she just wanted the chance to, you know, sidle up to him. ;-) And yes, Laura, there is quite a gratuitous shot of him, near the start of the film, with his top off, having a wash. Ah yes, lots of fun to be had at this film! Recommended.

Tomorrow is looking, at the moment, like another film. Which currently seems likely to be a Venezuelan offering by the name of Calloused Hands. Which is showing in the Venezuelan Embassy, of all places! In the Bolivar Hall. Apparently, they do all sorts of cultural things. Just, for goodness' sake, don't got to the official website to find out about any of them, because they don't have a single entry there. No, you have to go to their Facebook page. And there you will find a link to their newsletter, where you will discover that this is part of the Latin American Film Festival. Never let it be said that I failed to track down a good film..