Thor: The Dark World - Trailer Review

Thor was certainly close to one of my favourite Marvel films to date, fighting for the top spot with Iron Man and The Avengers. You could certainly say that I was at least intrigued to get a glimpse of what Thor: The Dark World may bring to the screen.

This is the first trailer that we have been given for the film which is set for release in November of this year. Just last week we got a poster for the film and to me I didn't hate it, but I definitely didn't love it. There didn't seem to be much to it, came across as an average movie poster that certainly felt like something you would expect from a comic book film. I have to say that this trailer we have been presented with has definitely sparked my excitement for the film.

As soon as the trailer began, it clearly depicted that a vast majority of the film was going to take place in London or we were going to get a number of sequences based here. This instantly pleased me being from England myself, it is something that for me we don't get to see in many films so for a huge movie like Thor: The Dark World to be including this in it; made me fully appreciate the direction that this was going in. Now as I stated earlier, I was a big fan of the first film like many others. I was always skeptical about how they could make a Thor film work and certainly with how Marvel likes to add a realistic spin onto concepts of their super-hero films. So this is yet another gamble that the studio seems to be making and I definitely admire that they are constantly willing to take risks for big pay offs. Just like The Avengers last year, hiring Joss Whedon to guide the film at the helm was a monumental risk that they were willing to take and certainly blew me away with the final product. Will it pay off? Only time will tell but I am fully behind any decision that Marvel makes as they have evidently shown that they can make big pay offs for going against the norm.

In a general sense, I also like trailers that don't give much away and can stand alone, being appreciated for visuals and other elements rather than completely giving away key points of the plot. Although, they gave a little hint to what the narrative might be within the trailer, we have a synopsis for the film anyway we gives us an idea of what to expect. There are certainly elements that make me more and more excited for the film including what we first see in the trailer which has already been mentioned. As well as this, I was completely sold when Tom Hiddleston was introduced. Only a brief glimpse was shown, but for me he was absolutely phenomenal in both 'The Avengers' last year and 'Thor' the year before. I was wondering how they could include him into this sequel in a fashion that wouldn't have a sense of being forced or including him for the sake of just having him there due to his popularity. I however did not get that feeling from the trailer and was overly pleased to see that he will more than likely play another pivotal role in this film.

What I have to mention relating back to the first 10-15 seconds of the trailer that we don't actually see Thor in and shows many scenes that are within London; I didn't even realise that I was watching the new Thor trailer or even a comic book film for that matter. It ties in with the ground, realistic approach that Marvel is trying to implement in each of the films it produces and as more and more come out, I get a stronger sense of this being at centre stage. Now for some people, this can be a problem, but I would not include myself in that category. It is definitely interesting and seems to differentiate this film from the first that we got back in 2011. That was probably one of the minor gripes that I had been thinking about when considering how they would present a sequel to us. I felt that there was a limited amount of directions and developments that they could make as it seemed like a bit of a restricted universe. This could be due to the amount of coverage that was made within Thor and even The Avengers.

I would like this film to focus more on the ever growing relationship between Thor and Jane (Natalie Portman) which was obviously a strong frame of the plot from the first film. I enjoyed this particular aspect of the first film and I like the way that they seem to be going about it in the second. It does seem to still be a side arc that is ongoing while the main narrative covers the movie which was similar to how it was done for Thor.

What I didn't enjoy so much from the first was scenes that were set on earth as we were getting to grips with Thor as were the humans inhabiting earth within the film. Kat Dennings character comes to mind when talking about this and I think she is only seen once in the trailer which probably contributes to why I am looking forward to this so much. I have a strong feeling that she won't feature anywhere near as much in this one which excites me. I felt scenes including her in the first were somewhat cheesy and was quite the opposite to the approach that Marvel is taking for these films. I think from the success of Iron Man and how that film went about itself in the fact that Tony Stark was a complete comic relief within everything that was going on. They were most likely trying to replicate this formula but I wasn't a fan of what they were trying to do.

However, the scenes on Asgard look amazing yet again, and was one of the main reasons why I appreciated Thor's style so much. The visual effects for that film were unbelievable, the way that they presented this universe to us was breathtaking. Whenever a scene on Asgard would come up, I would get the sense that I was there with the characters as cheesy as that sounds. The immersive factor was a strong one including any action scene taking place in that realm had me in complete awe from start to finish. I am expecting them to improve on everything that the first film did so well and not fall at the same hurdles that Iron Man 2 did for me. Of course, it has to be a step up from the first film, but it has to make sure that it keeps the elements that worked so well, while adding new aspects that can deliver on so many more levels to blow us away even more.

On the whole, Thor: The Dark World's first trailer was satisfying for myself. I like the approach that Marvel is going for with this sequel and it seems like they have a devised plan on how to up the antics with the continuing story. No doubt that when another trailer is given to us in the next couple of months, it will give us more of a sense of what to expect from the storyline and the tone that the film will implicate; as well as some mind-blowing Marvel magic.

Here's the trailer for Thor: The Dark World:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=jHFhZLJajlc