On Ambivalence with Thor: The Dark World

And so it rolls on and on. Already achieving the number one box office spot in the UK and America, Thor: The Dark World demonstrates the continued power of Marvel. The story is ridiculously messy and the dialogue does it no favours, despite the actors, especially Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddlestone, remaining very watchable. The main problem is that on screen it’s all becoming boring. The almost complete reliance on CGI and the convoluted story means what we have here and for several years to come are computer games on cinema screens. Marvel is undoubtedly a ground breaking company in the comic book medium, but when it comes to film its impact has mixed results. In one corner they are certainly damaging the variety of cinema we are offered on our screens. The summer season that Marvel films (and their like) dominate is slowly growing and now begins late April and runs into October. These films make a massive amount of capital for the studios and can help prop up funding for smaller budget films of a greater quality, which leads to the other corner. The dominance of these films has encouraged (forced) filmmakers to find other outlets as competing is out of the question. Therefore we have new, lower risk methods of distribution, such as iTunes, Netflix and other analogous platforms. Lower risk distribution leads to more experimental film choices which can only be a positive. Whether these films make enough capital to allow the filmmakers to continue is another story, but the issue here is that Marvel's long term impact on the film industry, positive or negative has yet to be felt.