Movie Review: Thor – The Dark World

Thor in battleThor: The Dark World is the sequel to both Marvel Studios’ Thor, and also Marvel Studios’ The Avengers. It stars Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Tom Hiddleston as Loki, Anthony Hopkins as Odin, Natalie Portman as Jane Foster, and pretty much everyone else that was in the first one.  It is based of the Marvel Comics character of the same name. Okay, you don’t really care about that stuff, but I felt I needed to put it to sound official or something. Did it work? I hope it worked.

Is it any good? In one word? YES.

Want more words? Read on, friend!

I will mostly compare this movie to Iron Man 3, because it helps to have a point of reference.

In Iron Man 3, The events of the Avengers are mentioned and the impact of what happened affects Tony Stark occasionally, but that’s really as far as it goes. It felt like a “smaller” movie, and that was by design. Thor: the Dark World on the other hand feels like a sequel to the Avengers, only missing the rest of the Avengers. I think that is due to the inclusion of Loki in this one.

Loki Imprisoned

We get to see the aftermath through the eyes of Asgard, and the clean-up that Thor needs to accomplish to bring peace to the 9 realms, and how the characters from the first Thor movie are dealing with it all. We also get to see what happened to Loki and follow his story.

This feels like the REAL next film in the Marvel Studios series.

They should have released this before Iron Man 3. My slight disappointment with IM3 would be satiated if I saw Thor 2 first.

Thor 2 feels just like it should, it fits in perfectly with the other Marvel Studios’ films, includes all the things that has made them a hit at the box office, and continues the tradition of setting up the next storyline. If you like the way Marvel has been treating their in-house properties, you will enjoy this one as well. If not, this probably won’t make you a new fan.

Dark ElvesI won’t really get into the story (because you want to see the movie, right?) other to say it is fine, with a new villain to set our heroes (and popular badboy Loki) against. This time the denizens of Asgard and their human friends must confront the Dark Elves, led by Maelkith the Accursed (Christopher Eccleston). I’m not exactly sure why Christopher Eccleston was in this. He is nearly unrecognizable under 8 feet of makeup, and only has about 2 lines of dialogue. One of which is in elvish (dark elvish?). He feels like Darth Maul in this film. He is kind of cool, but doesn’t really do or say anything. Chris Eccleston must like collecting geek culture paychecks. Doctor Who, Destro and now Maelkith. The Dark Elves are cool as well, with neato sci-fi weapons and spaceships (?!) this time around. The implosion grenades are a fun visual effect. The Kurse is also in this, if you know who the Kurse is.

The action is fun and exciting, the acting is exactly the same as the last movies, as well as the dialogue and effects. It’s all top-notch. Like I said, if you are a fan of Marvel Studios, you will enjoy this one too.

Why do I keep making the designation “Marvel Studios” instead of just “Marvel movies”? I’m glad you asked!

It helps the webpage with SEO. Just kidding …but not really. Marvel Studios moves are the films actually produced by the now Disney-owned Marvel Comics. It is the company that is owned/affiliated/run by the guys that have been making the comics for over 60 years. The “other Marvel movies” are done by other film studios and in my opinion, are not as good. Spiderman is in Sony’s hands, Fantastic Four and X-Men are in Fox’s. Other studios also had rights to the Punisher, Ghost Rider, Man Thing, and Daredevil, but those rights have lapsed and thankfully returned to Marvel Studios. In fact, Marvel is now pursuing a live-action Daredevil television show with Netflix as the distribution channel! These are exciting times to be a Marvel Nurd.

What about the kids?

Thor-MalekithCan you bring your children to this? Well, chances are they have seen the other Marvel Studios movies already. If they have, they are not going to be subjected to anything new here. There are a couple mild curse words (“shit” being the most harsh) one character is both naked with blurred out private bits (it’s a TV news report) and shown without pants. No, it is not Thor or Loki. It is done for comedy and makes sense with the story. There is of course LOADS of action violence, with characters in peril, regular people in peril, dark elves killed, monsters smashed, buildings demolished and things of that nature. Characters passionately kiss as well. No, AGAIN, it’s not Thor and Loki despite this goofed up Chinese poster mistakenly using fan art would lead you to believe.

 

Make sure to stay around for 2 end credits sequences this time around, with one halfway through and the other at the very end.

Is the 3D worth it?

I didn’t think it was. The only reason I would shell out the extra cash for 3D would be to see the extended Captain America 2 trailer. That wasn’t attached to the preview version, so I can’t even tell you if that was worth the extra moolah. If you like 3D, you probably won’t be annoyed, but I look forward to seeing this again in 2D very soon.

 

 

 

About Dug (Wugmanmax) 241 Articles
(AKA – Wug, Dug, Foug) Hailing from the Twin Cities, Wugmanmax is an avid toy collector, graphic designer, video producer, firefighter, and podcast co-host.

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