Soulless

Rating: 4/10 (10 September 2017)

Whilst this film is not entirely dreadful, it commits a sin perhaps even worse - it is dull. An uninspired story, formulaic dialogue, and a raft of meaningless characters conspire to make this the worst entry in the Avengers franchise. The last criticism is the most serious - for a film that sets itself up from the first as a battle of the ages between light and dark, the dark is disappointingly, well, opaque. Christopher Ecclestone's considerable talents are utterly wasted as the wooden, one-dimensional and frankly utterly uninteresting Malekith, and the lack of a genuinely characterful or menacing villain cripples the film entirely. He is an empty shell of a character, especially viewed against the beguiling mischievousness of Loki, and it makes the rest of the story, try as it might, a disappointingly run-of-the-mill blockbuster smash fest.
The film generally hangs together as an overall effort - the visuals are OK, the acting reasonable, the story, bar some curious leaps even of in-world logic, and some predictably silly plot points, is solid enough for it to be not unwatchable. But there is no spark, nothing to generate enthusiasm, not enough meaningful drama to develop engagement and attachment. Unfortunately, therefore, it is utterly forgettable.