THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
Thor quickly became a sensation of his own after debuting in the MCU with his own solo film in 2011, along with his appearance in The Avengers. So due to his popularity, a sequel for him was a matter of time. His sequel The Dark World had such anticipation, yet doesn't exactly live up to the hype so bare with me as I summarize.
PLOT
The film shows that eons ago, a dark elf known as Malekith attempted to use an ancient fluid known as the 'Aether' to destroy all nine realms during a convergence that only occurs every few thousand years. He was stopped by Asgard's King Bor (Tony Curran), causing him to flee. After the conflict, Bor seals it away as it can't be destroyed. Forwarding to its present, the year 2013, Thor is restoring order to all realms that suffered from chaos Loki caused. On Earth, Erik Selvig (Stellan Skarsgard) has a mental breakdown at Stonehenge who foresaw the Convergence. Jane Foster and Darcy Lewis discover portals that link to the other realms. Foster falls into one and is exposed to the Aether. This wakes up Malekith, who had been absent since his defeat. When Thor returns and discovers her situation, he takes her to Asgard with him, hoping to solve her problem. There, she meets his parents. While Odin disapproves due to her mortality, Frigga accepts who her son loves. Once Malekith was able to track the Aether in Asgard, he sends his Kursed elf Algrim (Akinnuoye Adewale-Agbaje) to infiltrate the realm. When he is arrested by the Volstagg (Ray Stevenson) and Fandral, he starts a prison riot by freeing many prisoners except Loki. This would be the diversion for Malekith to attack the kingdom. Heimdall (Idris Elba) takes down one ship but is unable to stop Malekith's own ship. He goes straight to Jane but he duels with Frigga instead. He would than kill her when she is unable to giver her away. On Earth, Darcy picks up Selvig from a mental institution and they quickly get an up close understanding of the convergence. After Frigga's funeral, Thor plans to free Jane from confinement after his father summoned it. Volstagg, Sif, Fandral and Heimdall while he breaks Loki out and take Jane with them to Svartalfheim, believing Malekith can remove the Aether without killing her. He does do so when they arrive, but it leads to a fight between both sides. Loki fights a few elves but Thor fights Algrim. When Loki intervenes, he gets himself stabbed by the Kursed but the God of Mischief gets the last laugh as he sets off an explosive that kills him. Before presumably dying, he tells Thor that his actions weren't for Odin but for his brother. Jane and the God of Thunder return to Earth in the UK when Jane finds a converged portal. Once she finds her car, they reunite with Darcy and Selvig. Based on Selvig's research, Malekith will begin his attack at Greenwich, where the Convergence will be at its peak. When both sides arrive at the said area, Thor fights Malekith. It ends when he uses devices made by Selvig that would not only send him back to his planet, but also separate him from the Aether. When his ship named 'Ark' returns to Svartalfheim as well, it lands on Malekith which kills him in the process. The portals are than closed and the ordeal of the Convergence is over. As Thor turns down the throne to stay with Jane and the Avengers. The film ends with Loki, revealing to have faked his death, secretly ruling Asgard under the disguise of Odin.
THOUGHTS
I really wanted to love this movie when seeing it in 2014. In some ways I do enjoy but I don't love it, making it okay of a movie. And that is my problem, a film that is part of a great franchise shouldn't be okay. Iron Man 2 felt self aware but this one is trying way too hard and that's not good. The visuals that are in display during the action is good, as well as the cinematography by Kramer Morgentau, but the story feels so predictable. I thought Christopher Eccleston was without a doubt an intimidating, hateful presence with Malekith the Accursed. My problem with him is that sounds similar to Loki's plot in the first film. Loki wanted to take out one realm while this guy wanted to take out all nine. Yes that increases the suspense but to me, it sounds too close to a prior scheme. Every time there was a convergence discussion, I got lost, and there were way too many scenes of just that. I shouldn't be confused in a superhero movie, Doctor Strange was about sorcery and that was not confusing at all compared to this. When Stan Lee asked Selvig for his shoe back, I was laughing based on my relief of his rambling ending. Chris O'Dowd is regularly a funny guy in his given roles like The IT Crowd but in here and The Cloverfield Paradox, he is sadly not. Near the first act's conclusion, how did the kids who found the portals not step into one on accident? I know they threw a lot of stuff in them but kids are clumsy and it would've been realistic to see that happen. It is clever for Algrim to inflitrate Asgard but when and how did the Dark Elves know Asgard was at war? They've been asleep for eons so if they're implying, they could've just said that. It is badass to see Heimdall to take down a dark elf's ship but the first thing he should've done was use the new Bifrost to summon the force field, rather than attacking. Sure Algrim would destroy it but I think they'd have more time to prepare if done so. I complain once again on how the Avengers do not get involved in this invasion. If it was Loki, they would've been there in a heartbeat. And lastly, I know we want Jane and Thor to reunite with the others to get the third act battle going but why didn't her car get taken? There was a flipped truck that got towed but not the car, which is really confusing. A lot of this was hard to get through but if you are able to, than you're likely loving this movie. It was hard to find good things to say but I think the reason people still check this one out because there is solid character progression and fair grittiness. Marvel's Thor is based off of Norse mythology so I didn't mind it when it felt grim, as that kept things fresh. The movie honestly gave me my favorite cliffhanger as Volstagg and Sif offering the Aether to the Collector (Benicio Del Toro) not only builds up Guardians of the Galaxy, but also confirms the existence of INFINITY STONES. This is a big deal because this is what sets up Thanos' arrival, as the Titan's obsession with all six of them will doom the universe. The big spotlights are going to be headed as while some I wasn't jiggy with, some I still invested in. Chris Hemsworth is good once again as the titular demigod. This is the most mature we'll ever see him as he is determined to restore order. We are also impressed how he turned down the throne even though he once desired it, that shows how far he's gone. For some reason, this has been my favorite outing of Tom Hiddleston as Loki. We saw him act out of complete anger but due to the love of his mother Frigga, there is also grief. Because of her death, he becomes more conflicted and isn't sure what he really is. This also implies how he, at some degree, has some kind of love for the rest of his family. He does trick Thor again, which was the best moment of the movie for me, because he wanted to take the opportunity and that is how mischievous he is. I regularly love Natalie Portman but I didn't like her here in her second outing as Jane Foster. I sadly feel this way because there were moments where she came off annoying as she talked to Thor. It's nice for her to embrace her intelligence and curiosity but again, I felt annoyed a quarter of the time. I honestly laughed a lot more to Kat Dennings as Darcy this time around. The fact that she is an intern that hires her own intern that she falls for is so random, yet it hilariously works with the chaos that ensues in this movies. I think what I liked with Sir Anthony Hopkins as Odin is that he loses his patience as he is regularly a patient person in comparison to the first film. And I think that proves how high the stakes were. Yet he still kept him to be a wise figure, even though his beliefs weren't always agreeable. I was relieved that Rene Russo got more to do here as Frigga. Here, she truly gets to embrace the mother's compassion to her children, while expressing her own wisdom as well. Her death was heartbreaking and she was the only thing that kept her family together. Because of that, they couldn't be anymore divided by the end of this chapter. I normally enjoyed Jamie Alexander in other roles like Jane Doe in NBC's Blindspot. She does a good job expressing Lady Sif to be an eager and proud warrior, but I could not stand that they tried to make a love triangle between her, Thor and Jane. It was the most unnecessary plot point of the whole movie. And lastly, Joshua Dallas was good as Fandral in the first film but it felt weird with Zachary Levi as the replacement, due to not looking like the other. Nevertheless, he was fine for continuing to make the character charming in a minimal amount of time. In short, director Alan Taylor struggles to make a movie that could have been great but is just okay. Thor: The Dark World is far from better than the first film but it does not mean it's terrible. If you really enjoyed the prior MCU films, than I hope you find some kind of joy in this one too.
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