Following the destruction of the bridge between the nine realms in the first THOR, Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and his fellow Asgardians have been fighting to maintain the peace.  It looks like peace is finally in Asgard’s sights after two years and with Loki in prison with others.   Odin suggests that Thor take an interest in Sif as a romantic companion instead of yearning for Jane Foster (Natalie Portman)- who can’t get Thor out of her head and only the pursuit of anomalies that brought Thor to Earth hold her interest.  Jane’s assistant gets Jane interested in checking out some unusual activity at a building in a rough part of London and Jane releases the Aether (one of the six infinity Stones) which uses Jane as a host for it.   The release of the Aether awakens Malekith (Christopher Eccelstone) and his fellow surviving Dark Elves from their sleep as Malekith wants revenge against Asgard and finish his quest to end the universe (stopped centuries ago by Odin’s father Bor) that is only possible when the nine Realms converge once very five thousand years.  Thor comes to Jane’s rescue and takes her back to Asgard before Malekith and his Dark Elves stage an attack on Asgard to get the Aether.   Thor turns to help from Loki in an attempt to stop Malekith and free Jane from the Aether.  

 

THOR: THE DARK WORLD is a good sequel and a great world building movie in the bigger picture of the Marvel Universe.  The character development isn’t as great as the first THOR, but the sequel does have some great moments with Thor and Loki in addition to some great action sequences and a Viking style funeral scene.   It is a film that is a mix of Norse mythology, fantasy, and science fiction.   Stellan Skarsgaard manages to provide some comic relief in this film.  The flaws with the movie are Malekith isn’t as deeply developed as he should have been (director Alan Taylor said there were some additional scenes exploring Malekith that were cut) and Jane Foster is still one of the movie annoying female love interests in a Marvel Universe movie.   THOR: THE DARK WORLD barely covers some of the plot beats to move the story along while I feel they should have fleshed out the character development more instead of always trying to push the plot forward.   The two end credits scenes are scene you should stick around for because the first one sets things up for the GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY movie and maybe even AVENGERS 3.

 

THOR: THE DARK WORLD is an enjoyable sequel that has great world building and action sequences only to neglect character development on many of the characters except for Thor and Loki.   I hope there is a longer version of this sequel or they somehow redeem the character development part for the other characters that interact with Thor when they decide to make THOR 3 (which is a forgone conclusion given the movie has already pulled in over $300 million worldwide in a short time with 86 million coming from the US).   I like the plot more in the sequel, but I do miss all of the great character development for all in the first THOR.   The sequel isn’t perfect, but you should see it if you are a Thor or Avengers fan.   I just hope all of this long game of the Infinity Stones pays off in the end.   I just want to see where it all goes and I hope Marvel Studios decides to make a fuller THOR 3 instead of the mixed and yet enjoyable THOR: THE DARK WORLD.

 

This review is (c)11-11-2013 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission.  Send all comments to feedback@enterline-media.com

 

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