Now, Im a big fan of Christopher Eccleston - one can only be socritical of the Ninth Doctor, after all - but his decision to take the part of Malekith in Thor 2 was something of a misstep. Sure, it might sound like a really sweet gig what with the potential for more work later on in a series, the prospect of all those free lunches at future fan conventions, and the traditional dumper truck full of cash which the producers drive up to prospective actors houses, but when the parts as underpowered as Malekith is youre pretty comprehensively hamstrung. I mean, when youve got Loki and Thor sparring so well, and when you forget to give Malekith any real identity beyond really, really wanting to get hold of that ruddy Aether, its easy to just sort of forget about Malekith every time he wanders out of frame. Given how brilliantly malevolent Malekith was throughout his original run in the Thor comics in the mid-80s, that's a massive shame. Its the blankness of the character which strips him of any real threat. The most interesting line hes given is his response to Frigga (that name is pretty LOL for British audiences, by the way) when she says shell never tell him where the Aether is: I believe you. Cue a blade to the spine for the unfortunate Frigga. Sadly thats about it. Hes a totally functional, flat character, which is a shame because Eccleston can do intense, malevolent and splenetic as well as anyone. Malekiths robotronic, Kanye-on-Runaway-sounding voice doesnt really help either. If hed used his own Salford accent, and gone around threatening to introduce people to his mate Stanley the box-cutter if they didnt step back and let him use the Aether to rid his beloved city of Scousers, he couldve been proper scary. Alas, as it was, he sounded like he was a whistleblower whose identity needed to be protected while he spilled the beans to Newsnight about disgraceful levels of cronyism and backhanders in a recently opened council-run swimming baths.
