Thor and his compatriots must stop Malekith from joining with the Aether or all of the nine realms could be destroyed. You know, it’s never just a cat stuck up a tree with these Norse Gods, is it?
If you’re like me, and you feel somehow that you wanted a Thor movie with more action, this one pretty much fits the bill. Thor: The Dark World feels leaner and less talky. Maybe that’s to be expected since the first one needed to explain lots of stuff. Strangely, the only downside to this is that we could have used a bit more development with our villain here. But other than that, this is one fun Thor movie.
So there’s a bit of exposition in The Dark World to tell us about the Dark Elves and how their leader Malekith was trying to control this material called the Aether, which is a kind of liquid material that consumes all with it’s evil. As Malekith was babout to become one with it and destroy everything – and I mean EVERYTHING – the battle was won by Odin’s father and the army of Asgard. They hid the Aether and Malekith was vanquished and went into hiding.
Now it seems that because of a strange random phenominon of all the nine realms aligning, the space between realms is thin and you can pass through to other realms rather easily. I know, but it’s crazy comic book time/space logic, don’t fight it. So because of this, Thor’s girl, Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), passes through to one of these realms and encounters the Aether, and becomes its’ host. Oops. But when that happens, Malekith is awakened and starts looking for it. Thor and his compatriots must stop Malekith from joining with the Aether or all of the nine realms could be destroyed. You know, it’s never just a cat stuck up a tree with these Norse Gods, is it? It’s always some kind of multi-dimensional Apocalypse.
As you see in the trailers Thor has to team up with his brother, the ever delightful Tom Hiddleston as Loki. And he is just that, delightful. Yeah, I said “delightful”. What of it? Hiddleston is a treat to watch and is certainly among the highlights of this film, and when Loki and Thor share screen time, the interaction is great. They really appear ot be having fun. But again, most everyone here is great. Chris Hemsworth seems to have really embraced and gotten comfortable in his role as Thor, and Natalie Portman gets more screen time and is great as Jane Foster. We also get more of the great Idris Elba as Heimdall. That guy is awesome. (You should go watch more of Elba’s work, like the BBC show Luther.) There are only two actor complaints here, and mostly it’s the writing. One is the return of Darcy Lewis, played by Kat Dennings, my future wife. As much as I do love her, I think her comic relief was a bit much. Her hip anti-hipster snark, which she seems to do with every character she plays, gets a little old after a while.
And second, the awesome Christopher Eccleston plays Malekith, the Dark Elf villain, and he’s totally sqaundered here. He hardly has any dialogue and has virtually no character development whatsoever. Granted, we still feel the threat he poses, but we could have used some depth. And Eccleston is a cool actor and really should have been given more to do.
However, other than those two drawbacks, Thor: The Dark World is a lot of fun. The action is plentiful, the humor is funny, and the effects are great. It fits well into the Marvel comnic book movie canon. There’s even a surprise guest appearance. And of course, stay for the credits. A very cool actor is appearing as a Marvel character. Even with it’s little flaws, Thor: The Dark World gets a good three and a half kittenhands, maybe four. I think it’s still a little better than the first.
~ Neil T. Weakley, your average movie-goer, getting pretty curious about the Guardians of the Universe movie.