Thor: The Dark World (review)

DIRECTOR: Alan Taylor
STARRING: Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddleston, Christopher Eccleston
RATING: M
RUNNING TIME: 112 minutes
GENRE: Action/Adventure/Fantasy/Marvel

Well what can you say. Another typical Marvel production. Plenty of action, special effects, larger than life protagonists, drama and romance. Compared to the original Thor film, I felt this one was a better production. Whereas Thor leaned toward the cheesy side of the scale, Thor 2 hit a better mix of humour, action and plot to give it more gravity. Also it doesn't hurt that the Marvel-verse has been firmly established thanks mostly to the success of The Avengers film.

In Thor: The Dark World, a race called Dark Elves who existed before light are re-awoken for the convergence of the nine realms where their leader, Malekith (Christopher Eccleston), plans to harness to power of The Aether and bring darkness across the universe. Unfortunately for Jane (Natalie Portman), she stumbles upon The Aether before Malekith and it takes up residence inside her, creating conflicting opinions of how to deal with the problem, necessitating a trip to Asgard and a truce between Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and his imprisoned brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston).

There isn't much continuity here from The Avengers film bar a few references to "New York", and the new plot was slightly forced at the beginning but you soon get over that fact.

Typical of any Joss Whedon influenced production there was an abundance of sarcastic humour from all the characters. One stand out comedic moment came from Loki's ability to transform himself into others and he managed to poke fun at the superhero genre in a lighthearted way (look out for Chris Evan's hilarious cameo).

The highlight of the film was arguably the end fight sequence which utilised the concept of the convergence of the realms to add both drama and also wonderful elements of physical comedy into the scene. The convergence meant easy access between the different realms and physics went topsy-turvey so Thor and Malekith were shown switching between worlds with Thor's hammer Mjolnir always a few haphazard steps behind.

Strengths of this film included the exploration of Thor and Loki's relationship, a clever spliced montage concerning the sneaking of Jane out of Asgard, the gorgeous costume and set design and the make-up and hair for the Dark Elves (Christopher Eccleston is barely recognizable). The one fault I found in the film was an unnecessary romantic subplot which only featured in the film's beginning anyway.

All in all, a super enjoyable film. Visually stunning, entertaining the whole way through and laugh-out-loud funny. And as always, stay until the end of the credits for a sweet moment between Jane and Thor and a questionable addition to Earth's fauna.

My Rating

Until next time

Other Marvel films I've reviewed
X-Men: Days of Future Past
The Amazing Spider-Man 2
Iron Man 3
Fantastic Four