Thor: The Dark World: Five Weirdest Things in the Trailer

The trailer for Thor: The Dark World hit this morning, and while many fans think the movie looks better and more action-packed than its predecessor, there were quite a few very...odd...visuals in the two-minute ad. Not necessarily in a bad way, or even in a "this doesn't make sense" way. It just appears as though there will be some strange things afoot at whatever the Asgardians equivalent of the Circle K is in this film, and that by way of trying to get at some of the movie's richer visuals, Marvel has cut a trailer that left some odd impressions for a big-budget superhero flick. What stuck out at us as odd, out of place, or even just mysteries in need of solving? Read on... Who is Norman Emerson?

It's actually probably not important that the lorry seen levitating in the opening shots of the trailer is for Norman Emerson & Sons. As far as we can tell, there isn't a Marvel Universe equivalent of that name. We had simply assumed there was some information to be had because the name was so clear and stayed on camera for so long. It appears to be a seller of concrete and other stone in Derryadd, Craigavon. We're a bit rusty on our UK geography, so forgive us if we're wrong, but it's possible this truck was just one that they could get handy on the day, given that they were shooting in London for most of the time. Of course, that would still be on another island, hours away, but who's to say they don't do business in London? Perhaps the better question, then, is what's going on with Emerson's truck? It's levitating. Okay. But who's doing it? Is it those kids? Someone unseen? And does it have to do with similar strange phenomenon seen later in the trailer?

What's with the Matrix-looking ship? That looks to be Malekith's very sci-fi-inspired control deck on his ship. All around, the Dark Elves have a very kind of techno-organic look to their craft, their clothing, their everything. This feels a bit Matrix- or Star Trek: Nemesis-inspired, doesn't it? All the technology black and insectoid seems to fit into a very particular kind of sci-fi storytelling, so it'll be interesting to see that juxtapose itself against the fantasy backdrop of Asgard. This is one of those places where fans can wonder how it happened that Alan Taylor, who seems like he would have been a perfect fit for a tonally-similar sequel to Thor, gets the sci-fi end of the stick.

Seriously, folks--once you see it, you can't un-see it. The shipping containers on the right in the photo at right...it just looks like a hammer. That might seem like an odd observation in any other film, but in this one? It's a Thor movie. The fact that he and Jane are standing in the shadow of a structure shaped like Mjolnir shouldn't go un-commented-upon. Is this the aftermath of an action sequence? If so, it's not clear why those containers are all on their ends but nothing is damaged. A more likely scenario might be that the team  with Jane are trying to summon Thor using a bizarre approximation of Stonehenge, which would jive nicely with the "crop circle" left on the ground by Thor and Jane beaming up, but even that doesn't make a lot of sense... ...Of course, you can also see what looks like a truck on the side in the background, so maybe this is a continuation of whatever we saw in that "Emerson & Sons" sequence. And we still say it looks like a hammer. The texture on the "handle" looks like you'd draw it in the comics.

That really is the snottiest look anyone has ever given anyone else... They weren't kidding when they said that they wanted to build on the romantic/sexual tension between Thor and Sif--it certainly looks like she's giving Jane Foster the stink-eye something fierce. The real question there is: why did it take until Thor met somebody else before she got interested? Haven't they been hanging out together for centuries now? What's going on with Jane Foster, anyway? There's some spoilers out there on the Internet that suggest that Jane Foster spends some time in the custody of, and/or in the thrall of the Dark Elves. That could set up any number of interesting stories--there's been some suggestion that Natalie Portman's hesitation to return to the franchise could suggest her character is in for an untimely death so as not to deal with that next time around.  If she ends up possessed, we could see her taking on Thor or Sif with whatever powers she might derive from the Dark Elves. Time will tell...