Thor: The Dark World (2013)

I have to say that I’m generally this series of films in the Marvel universe that started with Iron Man five years ago. I, like many people, liked that film, but the nerds (like me) liked the shout outs and hints about a larger Marvel Cinematic Universe. Followed by The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, Thor, Captain America: The First Avenger, Marvel’s The Avengers, Iron Man 3, audiences have been introduced to something new — a series of interconnected superhero films with plots and connections to previous films. Nerdgasms galore. Don’t get me wrong — they haven’t been a tour de force. I still don’t like Iron Man 2, and the jury in my mind is still out on Iron Man 3.  The original 2011 Thor film wasn’t bad, but I found the Earthbound portion of that film to be a little boring, but I liked the scenes in Asgard. The other films have been pretty good.

Have you watched the commercials and trailers about Thor: The Dark World? Thor fighting generic bad elves. Scenes of destruction. Tom Hiddleston as Loki doing his smarmy thing. The stakes never higher. That is pretty much what the entire movie is all about. Let me tell you — this film isn’t some deep film. The villains are truly one note. The leader of the Dark Elves is Malekith, played by Christopher Eccleston. He’s a British actor who primarily has to growl the entire film — there is no characterization whatsoever, except these Dark Elves want to end the universe as we know it. The plot that I mentioned? Yup, that’s it. The Dark Elves want to simply end the universe, pitch it in blackness, somehow remove the light. I don’t know what that means, or one would actually do that, or why they would necessarily want to do that. It didn’t really matter, apparently.

So good movie, or bad movie? Actually, accepting the fact that this film is more of the dumb action variety, you can still enjoy it. There’s a lot of action, but there’s a lot of humor as well. On that level, I think you can sit and enjoy this film with that mindset. Chris Hemsworth is fine in the film, as was Natalie Portman. Kat Dennings has a larger role in the film, and her lines were funny.

BTW, two bonus scenes during the credits of the film, so hang around.

Thor: The Dark World (2013)