And in a year that’s brought us Man Of Steel, Thor: The Dark World occasionally tries to go toe-to-toe in its desire to put across wholesale destruction on a cinema screen (albeit not in anywhere near as many prolonged doses, and this time with London in its crosshairs). Furthermore, lots more ingredients are thrown into the mix in the first half. With inevitable mention of The Avengers, and Thor’s failure to return to Jane after the end of the first film to deal with, Thor: The Dark World gamely tries to cover as much ground as it can. There’s a locked up Loki, Jane and her team back on Earth, Stellan Skarsgard on ITV with very few clothes on, and a simmering family saga that brings together Thor, Loki, Odin and Frigga. It’s a busy, fast, chatty film, not least as it tries to establish and manage its many, many moving parts. Compared to the concentration of the early stages in Kenneth Branagh’s original Thor film, The Dark World can’t help but come off a little poorer. It’s lacking much in the way of glue to hold its at-first disparate parts together, and it finds itself juggling characters, narrative and scenes in a Game Of Thrones style – you can see why impressive director Alan Taylor got the job – just at double the speed. But then, Thor 2 finds its feet and strikes gold. Marvel movies have always had humour to them, and the first Thor itself wasn’t short of chuckles. Thor: The Dark World, though, has a long stretch where it has the right to call itself one of the funniest films of the year. Not ironic, unintentional humour either: proper scripted moments, great performances, and at least two wonderful touches that should bring the house down, doubly so if you’re of a geek persuasion (in fact, there’s a treasure trove for hardcore Marvel fans to uncover throughout much of the movie). In particular, credit has to go to Kat Dennings, reprising her role as Darcy, whose pitch-perfect delivery of lines consistently enlivens the scenes she’s let near. Marvel’s not shy about exploring potential spin-offs for characters, but count us in if it ever decides to give Darcy more of the limelight. She’s the inquisitive, dry outsider, and given the weight of talent she shares the screen with, it’s to Dennings’ immense credit that, when the credits roll – with some superb illustrative work over the end titles, it should be said – you’ll be wishing the movie had spent more time with her. She’s just brilliant, as anyone who spent time with Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist already knows. That said, the main attraction in The Dark World is still Thor and Loki. It perhaps goes without saying, but we’re going for it anyway, that the double act of Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston – comfortably the best thing about the original Thor – gives this sequel lots of strong material too. And whilst moments of gravitas in the first half of the movie don’t feel like they necessarily have the impact they should, as Thor 2 crosses the hour mark, that is addressed, and both Hiddleston and Hemsworth are on excellent form. Admirers of Hemsworth’s bulging biceps, incidentally, will not feel short-changed here. Meanwhile, Hiddleston firmly cements his standing as the crown prince of Marvel movies. What doesn’t work quite as well is the short shrift given to Christopher Eccleston’s Malekith. Eccleston’s performance here is genuinely a strong one, even though he’s buried under make-up, and surrounded by an abundance of effects work. He is, for large parts, a calm but immense force, not worried about niceties, and instead making nasty decisions for reasons he believes in. The problem is that we get scattered bits of Malekith’s story, but not quite enough meat. We get the pay-off, but we don’t get that much of the build-up and aftermath. It feels – and Marvel’s Kevin Feige has all but confirmed this – that too much of Malekith has been pared back to get to a sub-two hour final cut. So instead of getting a genuinely forceful villain, you get bits of one, and large hints that the character could and should have been more. It also doesn’t help that Thor: The Dark World keeps going back to Loki, who may not be the most powerful foe in the film, but he’s the most rounded. It’s hard not to feel as though Eccleston got the short end of the stick in the edit suite, and ultimately far too little screen time. In all, it’s a bit of a muddle of a film this, one that could have done with a better before and after to some of its big moments, and would arguably have also felt the benefit of slightly lower stakes. And yet, after a few spluttering starts, it does burst into life, majestically so, with plenty of delightful moments (not least for Marvel geeks), and a generous collection of very, very good laughs. Even if it’s not challenging to be Marvel’s best film, it’s certainly its funniest. Do make sure you stay for the mid-end-credits sequence too, which is nerd gold, and the post end credits moment that’s simply very funny. Do that, and then you’ll get teased with a card declaring ‘Thor will return’. And off the back of Thor: The Dark World – with its warts and all – that’s no bad thing… Follow our Twitter feed for faster news and bad jokes right here. And be our Facebook chum here.
title: “Thor The Dark World Review” ShowToc: true date: “2025-08-04” author: “Clifford Polcovich”
Chris Hemsworth displays more of the atypical comedic timing that made the original Thor film such a pleasant surprise, and he remains a likable enough presence as the God of Thunder (alright, they aren’t gods…something which Anthony Hopkins’ Odin makes quite clear at one point in case you had any doubts). As for Natalie Portman’s Jane Foster and Kat Dennings’ Darcy, well…if you loved ‘em in the first movie, you’re in luck. If you found there to be a lack of chemistry between Portman and Hemsworth or found Darcy’s hipster snark irritating, well…nothing in Thor: The Dark World is going to change your mind. Anthony Hopkins is given considerably more screen time as Odin this time around, as is Renee Russo as Thor’s mother, Frigga. In fact, Russo’s Frigga (who was so barely present in the original that it’s easy to forget that she was there at all) gets a terrific fight scene in at one point, which, while brief, is a highlight of the movie. Tom Hiddleston’s Loki is…well…what more is there to say about him? From the moment he shows up in chains (as a consequence of the events of The Avengers), he displays more screen presence and charm than any number of his peers. It’s easy to root for Loki, even though we all know what a terrible idea that is.
Where the visuals are a little more memorable is anything dealing with outer space or cosmic settings and technology, which bodes quite well for at least the look of Guardians Of The Galaxy, not to mention Disney’s Star Wars films. However, the bright colors of Asgard, the mix of sword, sorcery, and science-fiction, and the sumptuous clothing and architecture of Asgard do help Thor: The Dark World stand out a little from the usual earthbound blockbuster fare. Look at Man of Steel’s washed-out look and how Avengers was limited to the greys and blues of New York City, and then compare it to the rainbow bridges and golden spires on display in the Nine Realms. The larger CGI action sequences suffer a bit in the bright light of Asgard from time to time, and the 3D is completely disposable. There isn’t a single visual on display that’s enhanced by the 3D presentation. Save the extra few bucks and munch on some popcorn, instead.
If Thor: The Dark World commits one absolutely unforgivable sin, it’s the waste of a good villain and an even better actor. Christopher Eccleston plays Malekith the Accursed (along with this heavy, Kurse, played by Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje), and he’s barely present. His motives are unclear, he gets far too little screentime, and too many of Eccleston’s lines are electronically altered or delivered in some kind of Elven dialect. While Thor doesn’t exactly have the greatest rogues’ gallery to begin with (and woe to any actor who tries to outshine Tom Hiddleston in this franchise), Malekith is not only a great visual (both on the page and the screen), but a proper comic book villain with loads of potential, and a viewer can’t help but feel a little cheated by his absence here.
Just as Marvel had a house style in the 60s at the absolute peak of the “House of Ideas” Marvel Studios seems to have developed a house style of their own: keep it light, keep the action coming, and know when to lighten the mood (without resorting to self-parody). Director Alan Taylor seemed savvy enough to stay out of the way and stick to the formula here, and should be happily counting his paychecks for years to come. If Thor: The Dark World is an example of Marvel on one of their off-days now (compared to the uneven Incredible Hulk and the rushed, inconsequential Iron Man 2), then we can safely expect to have a fine time inside the cinematic Marvel Universe every few months for years to come. Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter for all news updates related to the world of geek. And Google+, if that’s your thing!
