Thor: The Dark World (2013) Review

Next on my list of MCU films to watch is Thor: The Dark World and tonight I did that and here is my review for it. The premise of the film sees an ancient force looking for a powerful weapon that forces Thor to return to Earth and reunite with Jane Foster.

Main Character

Chris Hemsworth is always good as Thor, for me this is probably the weakest he is playing the role but he is still good here. After the events of the first film it is pretty cool to see Thor in a solo film with all of his powers and he has plenty of time to throw down and does it well. The film also has clearly showed the development of the character from his first film through The Avengers to The Dark World and it is one of the better elements of the film. He starts to show some of the comedic timing we know he has and it leads to a pretty decent lead performance. 

Supporting Characters

Tom Hiddleston is back as Loki and for me he is easily the best part of this film, he is so charismatic and has the best lines here. He is more of an anti-hero in this film and it is a nice development of the dynamic between Thor and Loki that we had seen at this point in The MCU. Anthony Hopkins was always a good choice as Odin and his character has an interesting character arc here, in the first film he seems to be the all knowing wise king but he has some issues in this film that requires Thor to sort them out and it provides an interesting wrinkle. Idris Elba, Rene Russo & Jaime Alexander are all decent in their roles but they are much smaller so seems a bit unfair to talk about them too much. Natalie Portman is back as Jane Foster and she didn't work for me here. I thought their romance worked in the first film, but here it feels like she is just a damsel in distress and no a well developed character and just a really bland element here. Christopher Eccleston plays the villain Malekith and this is one of the most boring villains in The MCU. He has nothing interesting and unique about him at all, he is so forgettable and the film does a terrible in making him a threat to Thor and it really hurts the film. I also wasn't a fan of the use of Kat Dennings and Stellan Skarsgard here and felt like they annoyed me, especially when everything is going down in the final battle. 

Story 

The story feels like a pretty natural sequel to The Avengers in how it treats certain characters and that is nice to see. I liked how the development between Thor and Loki was handled and the fact we got to spend more time on Asgard, also the film has a great pretty clifhangery ending. But the film lacks real weight to it, the bad guys plot is generic, half the characters are useless and there is a romance I didn't care about. The film just doesn't have great storytelling and overall it shows despite it doing some things okay. 

Script

The script is similar to the story, there are some fun exchanges and a few dramatic moments but overall it lacks bite and a real sense of scale and intrigue. There is just too much of the film that I found boring and actually make no sense which on this occasion really hurt the overall product. 

Style

Along, with Hiddleston and Hemsworth, the other best thing about this film is the style. The action scenes are great and feel very grand and exciting with a fresh feel to it. Also the film is paced well, with the film not having too much downtime which is effective. 

Overall 

Overall, this is a good film that is an entertaining watch. I don't think it is as good as the first Thor film but if you like super hero films then this is a decent way to pass 2 hours. 

Rating - 7/10