Thor: The Dark World (2013) Review

★★

By: Kameron McBride

And we are back! It has been a long time and due to technical issues (not having a computer) and tons of over commitments we haven't been able to update. In the coming weeks we hope to rectify this and begin posting more regularly. And with that, lets look at Thor: The Dark World.

The beginning of Thor: The Dark World is unbelievably slow. It takes a full hour before the plot actually kicks in after we get through a prologue, some scenes with Thor (Chris Hemsworth) smashing things and some scenes with Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) mourning the fact that Thor isn't on Earth. During the prologue we learn about something called the Aether, a malevolent substance capable of destroying all nine realms if unleashed. It turns out that the father of Odin (Anthony Hopkins) once fought a war with a race of Dark Elves led by Malekith (Christopher Eccelston) a leader whose only goal is to return the universe to a time of darkness. After this we see Thor trying to return order to the nine realms, which have apparently been restless since the events of the first Thor film. We also learn that Jane has discovered the nine realms will align soon and that there are pockets of Earth where the barriers between dimensions are weakening, causing some objects to strangely disappear.

The problem with all of this is that nothing significant is happening. Sure we know that the realms aligning is bad but we got that information in the prologue. The point of the prologue would be to give us enough information that we can then jump into the action pretty quickly, the problem is that the prologue only gives information that the characters can repeat throughout the film. Odin even rehashes the events of the prologue later on to Thor and Jane, so why not just put the prologue scenes there? It would give a little tension early on in the story and would orient the movie so we aren't having the same information drilled into us time and time again. It's also strange that after spending two full movies (counting The Avengers) with Thor that we now need an hour before we can get into the action of the plot.

The second half of the film is more entertaining but still just never really reaches a sense of awe. Eventually Jane becomes a host for the Aether, making her a target of Malekith and forcing Odin to protect her with the forces of Asgard. We see the Dark Elves then try to invade Asgard and take Jane, finally setting up the main conflict of the film.

Malekith has to be the least interesting super-villain Marvel has served up to date. His motivation appears to be that he wants the universe to be dark once more and nothing else. We learn nothing else about him, where he comes from, how he feels about his people, nothing. He's a complete pill from beginning to end.

The one saving grace is the relationship between Loki (Tom Hiddleston) and Thor, which is finally handled well. I haven't been the biggest fan of how the films have used Loki up until now but I think The Dark World at least makes the two feel like brothers, even if their dialogue can feel a little contrived. This is kind of undercut by the fact that Thor continues to feel entirely undeveloped despite the fact that we've spent three films with him at this point. Maybe the character just isn't all that interesting but the only real conflict he encounters is whether his relationship with Jane can endure despite the fact that she is mortal.

Overall Thor: The Dark World is probably better than the first Thor film but doesn't do a whole lot to add to the superhero genre. Like Iron Man III and The Wolverine (this year's other blockbuster superhero films) The Dark World is really a teaser for something bigger and better coming on the horizon, which makes it hard to engage with the film at hand.


NOTE: A new segment I will start adding at the bottom of these reviews is whether or not to stay after the credits. Thor: The Dark World has a small teaser right after the illustrated credits, along with essentially a deleted scene following the real credits. Neither are essential but the first one would be worth sticking around for.