“Thor: The Dark World” Review
Thor (Chris Hemsworth) swings his hammer Mjolnir in “Thor: The Dark World",” the second film centered on the Norse god of thunder.
While I adore the Marvel Cinematic Universe, not every film in this series has my love. “Thor: The Dark World” is easily the worst film in the franchise and was so bland that I found myself thinking that I could take or leave Thor’s solo films. I can watch most Marvel films on their own but this is the only film that I really only watch when I marathon the whole MCU.
Set after “The Avengers,” Thor (Chris Hemsworth) has taken his brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston) back to Asgard and has been bringing order to the Nine Realms as The Convergence, where all the realms are aligned, nears. When the evil dark elves, led by Malekith (Christopher Eccleston), return to destroy the realms with the mystical Aether during the Convergence, Thor, Loki and their allies on Earth must team up to defeat Malekeith.
The only scenes in the film where I actually feel entertained all take place on Asgard. This is a really cool environment and it always feels grand and epic. When the Dark Elves launch a major assault on Asgard and all of its finest warriors clash, it’s a visceral fight. If the rest of the film had that energy and scale, this could have been one of the best Marvel films.
But a lot of the film is set either on Earth, where Thor’s love interest Dr. Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) and his friends Darcy (Kat Dennings) and Dr. Erik Selvig (Stellan Skarsgard) help him defeat Malekith, or the homeworld of the Dark Elves and both are boring. The Dark World is one of the most uninteresting looking locations in a universe that is full of spectacle and color.
The film’s villain Malekith (Christopher Eccleston) is one of the worst villains in the entire MCU.
As for Malekith, he is one of the dullest villains ever. His goal is childishly simple and he has no personality. While I’ve criticized the villains of “The Incredible Hulk” or “Iron Man 2,” I at least remembered their goals and their characteristics. Malekith is just a blank void.
With that said, Chris Hemsworth is still fantastic as Thor and is much more level-headed compared to the first film. There’s a tremendous feeling of growth with this character as well as with Loki who becomes more of an anti-hero after teaming up with his brother. They both become more vulnerable when, during the assault on Asgard, their mother Frigga (Rene Russo) is killed and they both agree to avenge her.
If not for the outstanding action and fun characters, like Idris Elba’s Heimdall and Anthony Hopkins’ Odin, I’d say this film is a waste of time but the elements that work really make this film just okay.
But it feels like a step backwards to continue showing Thor on Earth when we’ve already had two films about just that. The climax of “Thor: The Dark World” is set in London and, while it’s fine, it sucks that it took until Thor’s third film to have a mostly cosmic film that had its climax on Asgard.
Along with “Iron Man 3,” “Thor: The Dark World” began the second phase of the MCU which had a simple goal: start to expand the MCU and introduce the Infinity Stones. The Aether being the Reality Stone certainly made a good introduction but everything surrounding it fell flat. As far as Marvel films go, this is easily the worst. But it’s not, by any stretch, one of the worst comic book films. I’ve seen “Superman IV: The Quest for Peace,” “Batman and Robin” and “Fant4stic” and this film comes nowhere close. Which is really saying something about the quality of the MCU. When it’s worst film is actually okay, that is a tremendous achievement for a franchise as long running as this one.
