Marvel Month - Mini Review - Thor: The Dark World

Ah, we return with another Thor movie and it’s the worst rated movie of all of them. By the time of this review coming out Thor: Ragnarok would be in cinemas, given the trailers it looks to be quite a substantial change in direction for it with more of a Guardians of the Galaxy-eque feel, and yes, we’ll get to those movies. And also, a notable absence of Jane Foster and her cronies and we’ll definitely be getting to that. Still, the movie was financially successful enough that a sequel was green-lit and ultimately the reviews aren’t that bad. It’s still better rated than Batman v Superman… I’m just rambling, let’s take a look.

So, with the absence of Bifrost, the 9 realms have plunged into chaos, Thor has been successfully fending off the chaos as Bifrost rebuilds itself, but now a new threat looms with Malekith, a Dark elf hell bent on returning the world to darkness or something. He seeks a weapon called the Aether, and there’s something about a planetary alignment there too. So, to save Jane Foster from the aether, Thor must team up with Loki again but will the dysfunctional siblings get out of this unscathed? Well, yes, they will actually.

Right, you remember my complaints about Jane Foster in the last movie. You can check… I’ll wait…

Yeah, it’s the same goddamn thing all over again. Except now she’s somehow even less useful. There is a major disconnect for the vast majority of the movie from things happening on Earth and things happening on Asgard, also WHO THOUGHT GIVING DARCY A SIDEKICK WAS A GOOD IDEA!? It’s not their inclusion that bothers me, although their lack of inclusion wouldn’t have bothered me either, but the fact that for the majority of the movie, next to nothing is done with them and there’s no character development for the lot of them. What’s Ian’s personality, f*ck knows! He could be a sociopath for all I know.

There’s a big positive to this movie, and it’s the same one from the first one. The dynamic between Thor and Loki is interesting, Odin’s a little less predictable and we even get some time with Thor’s mom, for a bit before she dies. Wish I’d seen more of her relationship with Thor, but her dynamic with Loki was interesting.

And then we see Eric Selvig rambling around naked in Stone Henge. Top of the list of things I didn’t want to see in a Thor movie is Eric Selvig running around Stone Henge naked. Yeah, the humour in this movie is really lacking compared to some of the other movies, it often comes down to forced comic relief rather than natural dialogue from characters we actually care about.

OK, let’s talk about Malekith, phase 2 in particular has a problem with villains and Malekith is no exception. He’s incredibly boring, his motivations are bland his plans mostly come down to attacking left and right and, dare I say it, he’s nothing like Malekith in the comics. In the comics Malekith hides in the shadows, he manipulates, he brings in allies and betrays them, in some ways he’s kinda similar to Loki but they differ in powers and motivation. Christopher Eccleston throws in a forgettable performance as the dark elf.

Thor: The Dark World suffers in its intent to tie things back to Earth, the expanded roster of humans add nothing to the mythos and some of the time spent there could’ve been better served the developing some of the Asgard aspects or giving Malekith the screen time and character he deserves. It looks as good as a Marvel Movie should be this point, and the dynamic between Loki and Thor carries this movie much further than it should. As it is, I don’t think it’s as bad as the Incredible Hulk but it’s at that kinda level

Rating 55/100