LogFAQs > #968140926

Thor: The Dark World
Release Date: November 8, 2013
Stand-Out Character: Loki (played by Tom Hiddleston)
Best Scene: Great Asgardian Escape

So I went into this expecting it to be total shit but honestly... it's not as bad?

Thor: The Dark World is about Malekith, leader of the Dark Elves, being awakened and trying to take the Aether which is stuck inside Jane Foster so he can destroy all nine realms while the Convergence, a once-in-an-Asgardian-lifetime event happens, and Thor and friends all stop him.

So I dunno what to start with. I feel like I should start with the bad so I can justify the good here.

Let's start with the Dark Elves and Malekith being utterly boring and pretty awful. It's a shame, but from what I've read him and Kurse were supposed to get a lot more development that was cut, and I think that would have helped the movie tremendously.

Thor's Asgardian friends are underutilized, I felt. You couldn't have some kind of excuse to involve them in the last fight, at least? The movie is at its most fun when they're involved, honestly.

The humor does not land at least half the time. Some of Darcy's stuff lands, anything with Thor and Loki lands, and Natalie Portman is able to get some humor out there too. Stellan Skarsgaard as Erik Selvig manages to be the most consistently funny though. That guy just nails every bit of comedy he's given.

There's a lot that feels... meandering, a bit. Like I just don't care about Frigga at all, even though they really tried. I know it's Thor's mama but she's such a nothing. The attention given to her kind of brings the movie down. Especially because they found a way to keep Odin away from most of the plot like what? How? Come on now. You have Anthony Hopkins: write this man as much as you can into this movie god damn.

It feels almost like they get too lost in the weeds with all of these new powers and LORE for Dark Elves. I am a nerd about this stuff but I even found myself lagging behind on making the connections with everything. Aether, Kurse Stones, Conversions, Yggrasil, Bifrost, blech. It's a lot.

So alright, here's the good.

Loki is the god damn best and Tom Hiddleston just makes this entire movie worth it. Every scene with him is perfect. He's an actor that conveys so much with so little. Telling Kurse the way to the throne, revealing he's actually devastated by his mom dying, the rest of the scenes with Thor, the "death", and the surprise reveal at the end? Nah, it's perfect. Best part of the movie, hands down. Nothing comes close.

Other than that, everyone does a fine job with their script. I don't outright dislike any performance in particular. We can complain about how much Malekith sucks, but that's not Chris Eccleston's fault. If anyone knows his work in The Leftovers, you know he's a guy who is absolutely a blow away actor. But nobody stands out as a lacking performance. Even Kat Dennings is fine in this as Darcy. It's just a lack of characters we care about, I think.

Natalie Portman has a charm to her performance, and they don't bog us down with a lot of romance. We get surprisingly minimal amounts of it, thankfully. Her presence is kind of nice to have, even if there are parts where I kinda wish she wasn't involved?

They also had a very distinct vision with this film. It's a dark, dreary movie, and it could stand to be a bit brighter in parts. But damn, it has a cool style to it. The Aether stuff looks rad, Kurse looks really cool, the Dark Elves ships are actually really awesome. I think it's to contrast the look of Asgard being bright and gorgeous.

Further to that, I think most of the action scenes are pretty enjoyable. In particular, my favorite is the Escape From Asgard. Everyone gets their part. Thor and Loki get plenty of time to snipe at each other, Heimdall, Sif, Volstagg, and Fandral all get a chance to shine there and show off. God, I miss those guys. All of them. They were so fun here and barely got a chance to really show off. But there's a lot of fun stuff that takes us around Asgard in an entertaining spot.

The initial invasion of Asgard is also cool. Specifically when Heimdall takes down the one invisible ship when they realized they need to give Idris Elba more stuff to do now that he's more famous. Kurse wrecking fools is good too. Loki just chilling in his cell was a nice touch.

The whole scene with the deception and attempted destruction of the Aether and Loki's death was great too. The one drawback was that they should have spent more time with Thor grieving. It seems like they jumped fast from that. Loki has some good stuff when he takes out Kurse though.

And then the final battle is great too, but I feel like it could have definitely have been more crazy though. Malekith with the Aether power is just a great villain and I think if this movie was done in modern MCU with a better actor, we may have gotten a better fight with this concept in mind. Reality breaking, teleporting everywhere, Mjolnir just flying erratically. All good stuff. And never forget that Selvig was the hero who saved Thor and Jane at the end what a boss give us back Selvig for the love of god.

So I know I may seem like I'm gushing over this film, but I think I'm gushing over the elements of Thor I just remember fondly. The Warriors Three, Sif, Heimdall, Thor and Loki, Jane's presence, Odin. It's all great stuff that I feel sad we didn't get to explore more. Asgard is far more interesting than the New Asgard stuff, at the very least. There's a lot I forgot entirely that I really liked in this movie though, and coming back to watch it and get to see those things I really liked was enjoyable. I hazard to say it's anything more than decent though. As far as MCU outings go, it doesn't feel terrible like, say, Iron Man 2 & 3. It feels shakily on par with Incredible Hulk too.

It's a movie that has issues that hold it back, and ideas that feel like if we had a re-do in modern MCU they may be more fun. And I think studio meddling, from what I've read, actually played a big part in the problems this film had. So yeah, Thor 2 is nobody's favorite movie, it has some issues, but I appreciate a lot in it after a re-watch.

Girlfriend Thoughts: About halfway through this movie, she said, "So why do people hate this movie again?" I had trouble kind of explaining it at that point, honestly. It's kind of why I ended up having this thought after all. She had to second guess whether or not Loki actually died as well. She loved the Thor and Jane romance stuff. She still loves Loki and was complimenting him a few times. She also took Frigga's death harder than I ever did. I also made her try to figure out who Fandral's new actor was until she finally realized it's Zachary Levi, Shazam! She really seemed to enjoy this far more than I expected, but she seemed to be checking out towards the final battle.