Thor the Dark World Review

Director: Alan Taylor

Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, and Tom Hiddleston

Original Release Date: November 8th 2013

I know that chronologically after Iron man 3 I should be reviewing Agents of SHIELD. Because of the way the show is formatted, and since I also want to watch the MCU in its chronological release order I'm still currently marathoning the first season; and watching every episode leading up to the next big film in Phase 02, so obviously I shall be reviewing the second Thor film first.

I remember having a whirlwind of emotions leading up to the release of this movie, I hated Iron man 3 and had given up on Agents so I really didn't know how the Dark World was going to turn out. It certainly did have all the makings of a good film, one of the directors from Game of Thrones was attached to helm the project and the Ninth Doctor himself was to play the films villain. Seemed liked a union made in geek heaven, fortunately Thor the Dark World is an improvement over Iron man 3, unfortunately it’s still not as good as it should have been.

Taking place two years after the events of Thor, the Dark World has Asgards ancient enemies the Dark Elves returning to wreak havoc on the universe. The might of Malekith and his Dark Elf army is too much for even Asgard to contain and Thor finds himself in a position that could cause even further damage, freeing and allying himself with his brother Loki.

Thor the Dark World is a mix bag for me, on one hand it’s a very good movie giving fans everything that they wanted from the last Thor movie, more Asgard. On the other hand it is plagued still with some of the problems that were in the first film. Sure, these issues ( more on these later)  are not as prominent as they were last time, but they still hinder the movie from being great. I must admit I miss Kenneth Branagh as director, he gave the first movie a much needed Shakespearean flair that made Asgard and its inhabitants believable. Asgard in the Dark world and Asgard in Thor look like two very different places. There doesn't seem to be much on the continuity side when it came to the interiors of the Realm Eternal.

Places like this

Become this

Now obviously the exteriors of Asgard look the same as they did in the first film, but it makes the movie feel more like Game of Thrones than Thor.  Partick Doyle is also out as the films composer, and the movie is infamously known for having Marvel studios change the score of the movie months before release. This unfortunately harms the movie because the score is very unmemorable and bland, it doesn't have the flare that the first film had.

All the cast is great in their roles, seeing as how Asgard now takes it’s rightful place as the primary setting for the movie we get the more interesting characters taking centre stage. Anthony Hopkins is given more screen time as Odin, and even Heimdall is given a little action scene during one of the best action pieces in the movie. The smart decision however was to give Rene Russo’s character Frigga a far more important role in the story of the film. Instead of standing next to her husbands side and giving motherly advice to her children, we see her taking a more active role in the plot, which is also one of the major influences in getting the two brothers to unite against Malekith.

Chris Hemsworth is great as Thor, by this point it's becoming clear that he is the only actor that is capable of playing this role. Natalie Portman also surprisingly returns after having some disputes with Marvel, however I think this is just an obligation to her contract. Sif and the Warriors Three are still as entertaining as ever, and Zachary Levi has swept in to replace Josh Dallas as Frandal. I normally would be very annoyed with this but I think Levi gives the character a more playful personality that was really missing in Dallas's performance. I will obviously touch on Loki, but first I need to talk about some of the new players in the movie because Hiddleston’s performance, although great really hurt these next two characters.

Christopher Eccleston is a fantastic actor, he is highly acclaimed in the UK and has been in quite a few big films that have made their way overseas. He is obviously known as the Ninth Doctor in BBC’s Doctor Who reboot, and he unfortunately was Destro in G.I Joe Rise of Cobra. Don’t let G.I Joe worry you, I highly suggest watching 28 Days Later and the Others, he is great in both films.

In Thor the Dark World Eccleston is unrecognisable as Malekith, the leader of the Dark Elves, the character and the entire race of Dark Elves all have a very interesting look to them. These Elves do not look like they belong in Middle-earth. They seem more like Star Trek villains than anything else, brandishing high-tech weapons and space ships.  Christopher Eccleston gives Malekith a very menacing presence, unfortunately his character is given absolutely nothing to work with at all. In fact the character himself isn't even a threat to Thor. Malekiths lackey Algrim (Adewale akinnuoye-agbaje) is a far more imposing threat to Thor and causes the most damage to the character. Malekith himself is missing the essential character development to make a good villain, even the worst of Marvel’s villains have had at least a little back story to them. In Thor the Dark World all we know about Malekith is that he is pissed off for some reason or another and wants to cover the universe in shadow *insert clichéd plot her*. In the end we are given what in my opinion, is the worst villain in the MCU.

This wasn't always the case however, the character of Malekith was completely different from the final product that we got in the movie. The character that we got was a husk leftover from all of the scenes that were cut from the movie, yes you heard me right there were scenes that were cut from the movie, here is a quote from Eccleston himself.

“There is a kind of tragic quality to his quest. Because he’s lost his wife, he’s lost his children. He’s lost everything. And he returns for revenge. And the agent for his revenge is the Aether. If he gets hold of that, he is omnipotent.”

None of that is even present in the movie, if we were given more scenes like this Malekith could of had the potential to be one of the best villains in the MCU. Using his own pain to have Thor unearth the truth behind the corrupt and genocidal reasons behind the war with the Dark Elves. It would even of made Thor relate to Malekith's pain since Thor also loses someone very important in the film, but hey it was cut for one primary reason alone, Loki.

Yes you heard me right, Loki is the reason that all of this was cut, call me crazy but it doesn't take that much effort to put the pieces together. News was flying that re-shoots were under way to include more scenes with Thor’s infamous brother, and lets face it, he's the real reason behind Thor’s success as a film franchise. After Thor and the Avengers Loki exploded, the character alone is more popular than Iron man, he has legions of fans jumping in their shoes to see his sly smirk and hear his witty dialogue. I'm all for Loki, Hiddleston has given us one of the best comic book performances since Heath Ledgers Joker, the character has some great dimensions to him which makes him seem less of a villain and more of a tragic-hero, but this isn't Loki’s movie, we've had two of them already and one of them was the Avengers! Thor has more villains that Marvel can pull from, we don’t need more Loki. If Marvel keeps throwing the character at us like this than he is unfortunately going to become stale, I don’t care if he has a group of fans at his beck and call, Loki might have some interesting schemes up his sleeve but he is a pretty predictable character. Marvel obviously isn't going to listen because Loki is apparently going to appear in Age of Ultron and will be the villain in Thor Ragnarok.

Now Loki’s scenes weren't the only other additions to the shoot, nope. For some reason Marvel thought it would be a wonderful idea to include a Darcy subplot. You heard me right, Darcy the most negatively received MCU character other than Trevor Slattery. While Jane is adventuring with Thor in Asgard; Darcy and her stupid new intern named Ian go on a journey to find Professor Selvig, who after being controlled by Loki has gone insane.  Now these characters do play a part in the final showdown (a bit too much for my liking) but these scenes really could have been cut from the movie and the plot would have remained intact. When Jane returns to Earth there easily could have been a scene of Thor breaking Slevig out of the loony bin, it would have been a full circle for the two characters, since Selvig broke Thor out of SHIELD custody;and we could have skipped all the useless Darcy scenes.

Marvel, adding other scenes can help a movie, Loki is a popular character but you must remember who the main character is and who the villain is. You cannot add scenes at the expense of story and character development. This alone is why this movie is not nearly as good as it could be and it is frustrating. there is a great movie under the surface of Thor the Dark World, I always find myself highly enjoying the movie until I'm quickly reminded on how the movie failed story wise. Sure, Thor was a great success, but at this point anything Marvel makes will be a financial success. I cant see it in conscious why anyone would even think this movie would be amazing because it is entirely mediocre (my opinion though). Marvel you set a standard for yourself with the Avengers and for the first half of Phase 02 you really did not stand up to the plate.

Thor the Dark world is a funny movie, painfully so. Most of the dire situations have to be broken in with some funny one liner and that also is not necessary. Like I said in my Iron man 3 review, I am fine with comedy but if it doesn't add to the story than cut it altogether. Thor the Dark world actually gives us a pretty dire situation, and I understand that characters like Fandral, Loki and Darcy can find humour in almost anything (that's comic relief folks) but the entire movie doesn't have to be a comedy.

And I understand that the final events in this all happened within the span of 20 minutes but I must say, where was SHIELD. I'm watching Agents right now, and in a episode before this movie they investigate gravitational disturbances. Apparently London is a hotspot for dimensional rifts, so where the hell is SHIELD? This is their playing field, right? And the things that happen in the movies climax make me wonder what qualifies as an Avenger mission. Loki summons a portal in New York and the Avengers are there within minutes. Malekith appears in London and starts harnessing a galaxy destroying Infinity Stone and begins to destroy all Nine Realms yet only Thor and two jets come to save the day?

Thor the Dark World isn't terrible, it has some good moments but it isn't what it could have been. I'm going to be pretty gracious with my rating, and I'm going to give Thor the Dark World a

7/10

The movie easily is a 6 but I did find some redeeming things about the movie. Loki’s scenes with Thor are great and the action and Dark Elves make the movie worth the price for the film, but the added scenes at the extent of cutting the plot really bugs me. Now I won’t be reviewing anything from the MCU in a while now because I've already written a review for Captain America the Winter Soldier and you can read that here. Until then I'm going to be watching Agents and taking a little break, see you until then.