TwitView:  Thor: The Dark World — to use a comic book analogy, a filler issue that bridges two stories but still manages to have a life of it’s own. Grade 3 out of 5.

 

Full Review: Thor: The Dark World wants to be more in terms of a single plotted movie that involves one character and not the rest of the gang from 2012’s The Avengers. And on the surface it appears to do just that as we have Thor (Chris Hemsworth) cleaning up the messes that Loki (Tom Hiddleston) had created after 2011’s Thor as well as his role in the Chatari invasion on the non-New York side of the universe. Add to that a Dark Elf named Malekith (Christopher Eccleston) who comes out of hiding to use the power of the Aether to try and destroy all of creation and you have a movie that again wants to be stand alone. But peal back this surface and you’ll find a whole lot more. You’ll find a movie that in fact is a filler issue, a bridge, bringing together a previous issue (The Avengers) with a future issue (2014’s Gaurdian’s of the Galaxy). You’ll find a movie that expands the Marvel Cinematic Universe and shows that Earth isn’t the only planet out there any more (more so then what we saw in the original Thor movie and through the wormhole in The Avengers).

So as I do for most comic book movie movie reviews, here are The Good, The Bad, and The Geeky. Read on past the break to see what I had to say regarding Thor: The Dark World.

The Good

• Thor isn’t as brooding as he was the first time we meet him. He has grown to be a hero after the events of New Mexico and then New York. This is evident by his being more a leader and thinker then Odin who is ready to smash Malekith back to the dawn of time to stop the dark elves from succeeding.
• Darcy (Kat Dennings) is used for comic relief and used well. It’s her character that brings Jane Foster back to the forefront of the action. The same is true of  Eric Selvig (Stellan Skarsgard) and his “fall” after having Loki in his mind. The way he is introduced back to the audience is one of humor and shows that having a “God” in your head may not be the best thing for anyone.
• Loki, Loki, Loki! Tom Hiddleston manages again to steal the movie and every scene he is in. The scene between him and Thor near the midway point is one of the most creative ways Loki has been used in regards to his humor, mischievousness, and abilities.
• Lady Sif (Jamie Alexander) and the Warriors Two (??) of Three- Fandral (Zachery Levi) and Volstagg (Ray Stevenson) – get more action time and it’s not a bad thing. Now for those that are asking where the third in the Wariros Three is – Hogun (Tadanobu Asano) – is there at the start of the movie and then we get a glimps of him near the end. However during the movie he is just left on his home world to cleanup the pieces after Thor arrives to save the day.

The Bad

• Malekith is a flat villian in terms of plot and fleshing out of the character. There should have been more of him and his building up to the destruction then having human plot elements fill the void and give the audience the understanding (alibit muddied) of why he is doing what he’s doing.
• Seems that some of the writers for T:TDW must have been talking to the writers of The Man of Steel as there are a few action pieces that seem straight out of TMOS. To me it really took me out of the movie as I compared it to what happened months ago to Superman.
• The last scene prior to the credits. I am doing this to not give any spoilers. Something happens and it still has me thinking about the “what if” element as well as “what will happen” and “when will we see what happens” that the scene left me thinking about. Ok…maybe this isn’t as bad as I originally thought that I wonder if this could be their The Empire Strikes Back moment. Hmmmm…..may have to revisit this when the Blu-ray comes out in 2014.

The Geeky

• Great cameo that was not expected. Not going to spoil it here and no, it’s not Stan Lee’s appearance.
• Chris O’Dowd still playing characters that are having dating issues. He adds to the humor that makes up parts of T:TDW.
• The growth of the cinematic universe is felt here, now, today. We see how larger the landscape is that makes up the non-Earth bound universe of the Marvel universe. Thor is the gateway to the Alien worlds and outer space action as it moves away from Earth.
• The Joss Whedon induced script fixes are obvious (Thor taking the subway back to Greenwich) but add a touch of humor to help keep the fun in the movies.
• The mid-credit tease really has me looking forward to what happens next in this cinematic universe. And I’ve read some things online how this scene came about and how quickly it was filmed. With that, I’m really hoping the acting that was displayed isn’t indicative of what’s to come.

With a PG-13 rating and a run time of 112 minutes, Thor: The Dark World manages to keep the Phase 2 movies moving forward while keeping a solo adventure film grounded in space, time, and reality.