Thor: The Dark World

Marvel has done an excellent job of concisely summing up the vast mythology of a comic-book character who hails from Norse mythology and is armed with magical weaponry as difficult to pronounce as it is to spell. I left feeling that Marvel really should have done more of that with The Dark World.

The Dark World begins with a prologue of how Thor’s grandfather lead the Asgardian armies to defeat Armageddon-happy dark- (or possibly just emo-) elf Malekith and save the universe from certain darkness. Gramps wasn't thinking very hard that day and decided to hide the villains evil weapon where no one could find it. That is until love sick Jane Foster and, with the help of her merry science friends, happens upon a portal that leads Jane to said ancient evil called ‘The Aether’. This then awakens the villainous Malekith from his deep sleep to once again bring darkness to the universe. But you have to give full credit to the Asgardians as they at least left it in a cave as opposed to plain sight. Just imagine a world where a major character in this movie didn’t happen to stumble across this magical plot device.


The problem is that you never truly understand Malekith’s motives as they are just so plain. All he wants is to turn out the light in the universe. The movie suffers from this lack of conflict. Thor and his Scooby- gang never felt like they were in any immediate danger. Sure they lose a few battles and Asgard get its first beat down in god knows how long, but none of this felt like it had many lasting consequences. The movie did, however, succeed in making you forget to worry about this as the interpersonal relationship between Thor and his family was enjoyable to watch. Honestly the movie’s best moments are the brotherly interactions between Thor and Loki. Watching them squabble with each other brought some much needed life to the movie. I could watch a whole movie dedicated to this kind of Lethal Weapon-type buddy-cop drama set in space with magic and Vikings and Bazooka’s!.

Once again the romance between Thor and Jane never takes off. It’s rather awkward and dull, and the movie actually could have done with a love triangle between Thor,Jane and Lady Sif to spice things up. They hint at this possibility only to completely drop it in favor of keeping the chemistry-less pairing of Thor and Jane to grate on my nerves.

The action scene are competent and more visionary this time round. With new director Alan Taylor bringing a more naturalistic approach, the fight scenes have a grittiness that serve the story well. This was often achieved by positioning the camera right in the heart of battle. Thor’s charming yet slightly goofy sense of humor was used well and Jane Foster’s scientific intern Darcy, played by Kat Dennings, landed some great one liners.

 Thor is an entertaining movie. Director Alan Taylor puts together some good action sequences, which are slightly hampered by a weak story and chemistry-less coupling of Thor and Jane. The personal clashing of Thor and Loki pulls the movie forward all while delivering an amusing space adventure (with Vikings). Also the cameo from a certain "Avenger" was absolute gold.

Something 3.5 out of 5 Meow-meow Waffles