Thor: The Dark World

Release Date: November 8, 2013
Director: Alan Taylor
Screenplay: Christopher Yost, Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely
Cast: Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddleston, Stellan Skarsgård, Idris Elba, Christopher Eccleston, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Kat Dennings, Ray Stevenson, Zachary Levi, Tadanobu Asano, Jaimie Alexander, Rene Russo and Anthony Hopkins

As much as I love Kenneth Branagh’s shakespearean Thor, Thor: The Dark World feels more like the comic book and that’s great.

Thor: The Dark World starts with Odin (Hopkins) telling us a story about his father, Bor, fighting the Dark Elves, beings from before the Big Bang who wanted to unmade the universe and bring darkness back. Their leader, Malekith (Eccleston), wants to use something called Aether to achieve this. Of course, he fails and escapes. Bor decides to hide the Aether since he cannot destroy it. Fastforward and we have Loki incarcerated, Thor (Hemsworth) and his buddies trying to restore peace all over The Nine Realms, and Jane Foster (Portman) on Earth getting infected by the Aether because plot. This will start a chain reaction that will make Malekith reappear, and everybody being useful in the quest to stop him, including Loki (Hiddleston).

From the very start this movie reminded me both of Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings. It was fairly appropriate for a movie about space vikings that also has Natalie Portman. Director Alan Taylor made good use of all the things he learned in Game of Thrones, and gave us cool battle scenes and a grittiness that wasn’t there in Branagh’s Asgard. But there were also enough stuff to make us realize these are not “gods”, but aliens with advanced technology.

Then, there’s the drama. Man, this movie gave us a couple of powerful blows down the line. And I appreciate that the actors were so on point during those moments.

Talking about actors, Hiddleston’s Loki totally stole the show. And he even wasn’t in the movie as much as one was let to believe. Loki simply had the best lines, whether is was for dramatic moments with his each member of his family, or the fun he was having using his magic and knowledge after he is recluted to help Thor. Hiddleston as Loki is so good that I don’t even think it’s possible to make a Thor movie without him.

As for Thor himself, Hemsworth sure has the character all figured out, and he’s very comfortable with him. He also gets to have his serious moments that show character growth, as well as his funny ones. And there’s also the romance with Portman’s Jane. One of the major problems people had with Jane was that Portman seemed to have zero chemistry with Hemsworth. Portman must have listened to that because Thor and Jane looked better this time around. Which is good, since Jane was an important part of the story. Thor’s other Earth friends, Selvig (Skarsgård) and Darcy (Dennings) also had things to do and were very entertaining to watch.

Again, Thor’s Asgardian friends didn’t have much to do, but had their uses and provided plot advance and some laughs with their interactions with Loki. I just wish Asano’s Hogun had as much screentime as the others and didn’t get the treatment that Jet Li got in The Expendables 2. Elba’s Heimdal had more action this time and we also saw him as more than Asgard’s Guardian, but also as Thor’s friend which we didn’t see much in the first movie.

But of all the Asgardians, Thor’s parents where the ones with more to chew on. Hopkins’ Odin shows not only more vulnerability but also his core of steel that makes him a good king but a not-so-good father. For someone also called the Allfather, he sure can be kind of a dick to his sons. Russo’s Frigga is totally the Allmother though, and manages a better balance between queen and mother, specially to Loki. We see backstory in her interactions with him even if it’s not explicitly told. Also she can seriously kick ass! Wish we had more of her.

That aside, let it be said that Thor: The Dark World is hilarious. Sure, the stakes are higher and there’s a whole lot of drama and action, but in between is giggles all around~ But I guess that’s what has always made Marvel different than DC, who lately takes itself too seriously and when it doesn’t the result is Green Lantern.

For all it’s good points, I have two major gripes with Thor: The Dark World. First, as much as I loved the humor, sometimes it appeared too soon after a dramatic moment. It still made me laugh, but it cheapened the emotional impact. Second, I wish we had more backstory on Malekith, or showed more on his relationship with his second-in-command, Algrim (Akinnuoye-Agbaje), or anything really. You could see there was more to them, and I wished Eccleston had more time to shine. It would have made the bad guys more compeling villains, which is a serious problem Marvel has. I just hope for more of them in the deleted scenes in the Blu-ray/DVD.

But, despite its faults, Thor: The Dark World is another win for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and makes us feel Phase 2 is in good hands.

Rating: ★★★½☆ 

BTW, you know Marvel movies have after credit scenes. This one has two. One mid-credits and the other after credits. So, stay put until the very end!

mirella

YAM Magazine geek resident. Cloud Cuckoolander. Seldom web developer. Graphic designer.

13 Responses

  1. Rodrigo says:

    I enjoyed most of the scenes with Hemsworth and Hiddleston (and I agree he was the best in this film), but I feel kind of disappointed with TDW as a whole. It’s just barely better than Iron Man 2 as far as the MCU films are concerned.

  1. November 1, 2013

    […] TV series. Also, there’s stuff you need to know about Loki, besides that his movie, I mean Thor: The Dark World had a premiere this […]

  2. November 1, 2013

    […] had lots of news, some from NYCC, some more from many geeky movies that will be released soon like Thor: The Dark World and there are even news about an old sci-fi TV show we all loved. Withouth further ado, here’s […]

  3. November 1, 2013

    […] that features the return on, surprise, Malekith the Accursed! And he will also be the bad guy at Thor: The Dark World! Such a coincidence! Heck, even a variant cover is the poster of said movie! Anyway, the preview […]

  4. November 2, 2013

    […] about Thor: The Dark World, as the trailers showed, there’s a brief scene where Chris Hemsworth’s Thor parades […]

  5. November 9, 2013

    […] Thor: The Dark World has a susprising ending and well as some surprising twists… and it’s all about Loki. But was that planned? Totally, says Kevin Feige. Some things were added for sure (like the first scene we see Loki), but that ending was totally planned. […]

  6. November 10, 2013

    […] a low-quality leak of the preview shown on E! News, the first trailer of Thor: The Dark World has hit the web… and it looks so damn […]

  7. November 10, 2013

    […] mercilessly teased with a new Loki picture in the countdown, we finally have the new trailer of Thor: The Dark World in honor of YouTube’s Geek […]

  8. January 5, 2014

    […] have been great! Specially because Sherlock series 3 premiered… and we have info about Thor: The Dark World Blu-ray! Here’s how the week […]

  9. January 24, 2014

    […] Thor: the Dark World […]

  10. February 5, 2014

    […] has continued his decimation of the fandom. Whether with more Corionalus, the Jaguar ad, or Thor: The Dark World DVD/Blu-ray features, these last few days have been a veritable deluge of Hiddles! But it’s […]

  11. March 28, 2014

    […] as with Thor: The Dark World, this movie has two after credits scenes: one related to a future movie (in this case The Avengers: […]

  12. July 23, 2014

    […] Because it started with Tom Hiddleston in whole Loki costume being all method before presenting Thor: The Dark World […]

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.