THOR: THE DARK WORLD - Review

Thor: The Dark World

Comic Book/Action-Adventure, 2013
1 hour, 52 minutes
Written by Christopher Yost, Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely
Directed by Alan Taylor
Rated PG-13 for "sequences of intense sci-fi action and violence, and some suggestive content"

Starring
Chris Hemsworth
Tom Hiddleston
Natalie Portman
Anthony Hopkins
Idris Elba
Stellan Skarsgård
Christopher Eccleston
Adawale Akinnuoye-Agbaje
Kat Dennings
Rene Russo
Jaimie Alexander

"You must be truly desperate to come to me for help."

Thor: The Dark World is an impressive entry into Marvel's cinematic universe. It's certainly better than the first Thor film. It adds some excellent depth to the beloved characters, as well as sets up for what is sure to be an incredible third Thor movie.
The Dark World is set some time after the events of The Avengers. One of the first things we see is Loki being imprisoned by Odin, the king of Asgard. Then there are some other bad guys, who are really only bad for the sake of being bad. They're called "dark elves" and they're bad because they need a bad guy. No joke. It's one of those shitty "we want to bring darkness everywhere because we can" kind of movies. Which is quite unfortunate.
Anyway, so some predictable shit happens. Thor gets to meet Natalie Portman again at last, and then all hell breaks loose when Portman discovers something kind of evil. Then shit really hits the fan when there's an attack on Asgard and it turns into a kind of fun action fest.
But things get really interesting when Thor turns to Loki for help. It's evident in the trailer that this is happens, but it's actually well done in the movie. If I keep talking, I'll spoil stuff.
The cast is in top form this time around, considering they've all played these characters in two films previous. Tom Hiddleston one again steals the show as Loki. Hemsworth is great again as Thor, Natalie Portman is good, blah blah blah. There definitely was NOT ENOUGH IDRIS ELBA who plays the gatekeeper dude with the cool golden armor. He's a fucking badass but he doesn't nearly get as much attention as he should.
Marvel films have always been funny, but it's really pushed in The Dark World. The biggest issue is Kat Dennings' character, Darcy. It seems like she's literally just there for the sake of being funny, trying to steal the show constantly, and it's not funny. She's just annoying and it's unnecessary. It was fine in the first one, but this time around it's just too much. She's trying too hard. But otherwise, the humor flows quite nicely. It's not a constant stream of quips like The Avengers, but it's spread around quite nicely... it just would've been better overall if it weren't for Dennings just trying too hard.
Probably the biggest issue, aside from the cruddy villain and Kat Dennings is the entire fantasy world in which Thor is set. I know that it all makes sense, but I'm just not catching on. All of this stuff with portals and worlds and dimensions and eclipses and holy shit I have no idea what's going on. It can't be that complex, but the film has to clarify what's going on because, really, it's just a lot to process. It's there, but it's not as clear as it should be.
Otherwise, The Dark World is still plenty of fun. There are some great twists and turns. The visuals are great and the action scenes are intense. The post-credits scenes are fantastic and do a great job of setting up the rest of the Marvel universe, including what I can only assume is a lead-in to Guardians of the Galaxy. It looks pretty wild.

7.8/10