The Avengers blew up in popularity and set the world ablaze with a new fandom for Marvel heroes that had previously been considered B-tier. Iron Man 3 followed things up and…well…it didn’t quite carry the torch like many hoped it would. But what about Thor? Surely his next movie wouldn’t disappoint and be considered the worst movie in the MCU up to that point. Right?

Pros

Good emotional moments that are both overt and subtle
Action scenes are fun and still relatively look good
Makeup and special effects are solid
Good acting from some of the cast

Cons

Villains are one-dimensional and forgettable
Certain character inconsistencies
Pacing issues with a meandering plot

Plot & Thoughts

Thor (Chris Hemsworth), matured from his time on Earth, is carrying out Odin’s (Anthony Hopkins) will and fighting various dangerous forces across the realms. However, his newfound humility has made him far less eager to take the throne than before. His brother, Loki (Tom Hiddleston), is placed in Asgard’s prison for his villainous actions in Thor and The Avengers. Meanwhile, Dr. Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) is investigating anomalies in Europe when she inadvertently activates an ancient weapon developed by dark elves who have sworn vengeance against Asgard for their defeat by Odin many years ago. The elves learn of their weapon’s activation and make their move on Asgard. It’s up to Thor to help Foster with the spreading infection in her body caused by the elves’ weapon and defend his home against the invaders.

Thor: The Dark World gets a lot of heat and is often regarded as the worst Marvel film of Phase II, which was already off to a disappointing start with Iron Man 3. These two details significantly lowered my expectations for this movie, which is perhaps why I came away not hating it. Don’t get me wrong; there are plenty of issues with this movie. However, I think there are some good moments and characterization to make up for the weaknesses of The Dark World that still make it better than The Incredible Hulk and several movies still to come in the Infinity Saga.

First, the negatives. The key issue I have with this movie is its villain, Malekith (Christopher Eccleston). I think he looks interesting, due to the quality of the costume and makeup effects. However, when the movie was over, I struggled to even remember him. He has very little impact on the film because he’s never allowed to be a real character. His actions have consequences, as certain characters die because of him, but he’s just a one-note villain with no real substance. For all the shade you can throw at Obadiah Stane from Iron Man or Red Skull from Captain America: The First Avenger for being undercooked villains, they still feel like Macbeth and Hannibal Lecter by comparison. He’s surrounded by other Dark Elves who look like him, and there’s not enough personality to his character to make him stand out from the crowd. Not to mention, the real threat of the movie is the weapon, the Aether, that ultimately turns out to be an Infinity Stone, so the movie tends to focus on that as the thing Thor needs to worry about, rather than the individual wielding it. In addition to the forgettable villain, the plot tends to meander in different spots. It takes a while for Jane to encounter the big weapon of the Dark Elves, which is what finally kicks off the main plot of the film.

When things finally get going, there are some decent action scenes. However, where this movie makes up for its flaws is with the further characterization of Thor and Loki. Throughout The Dark World, there are a lot of interactions between these characters and their parents, which add to the complexity of their relationships and establish certain surprising details about each of them. For instance, we learn that Loki’s magical deception abilities were not his own invention, but he learned them from his adoptive mother. This suggests a deeper relationship between the two characters, even though Loki is very antagonistic towards his adoptive family. When tragedy strikes, The Dark World has several great Loki moments while he’s in his holding cell that are both subtle and overt about the emotions he’s feeling. The interactions Loki has with Odin, however, feel very inconsistent with the previous Thor movie. It’s no fault of Anthony Hopkins’ acting, just that the character’s behavior does not line up with how he was toward Loki last time around.

One last thing to mention is the unifying problem of these Phase II movies that focus on the specific heroes from the Avengers. It was something of an issue in Iron Man 3. It’s almost an issue in The Dark World. It is a big criticism of The Winter Soldier. Can you guess what it is? It’s that this is a post-Avengers film, which means that any stories surrounding these characters cannot exist in a bubble if there is an existential threat. Before Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, and Hulk all knew each other, they were able to take on existential threats in their own stories because the Avengers didn’t exist yet and hadn’t been responsible for saving the world from an alien invasion. Tony Stark probably shouldn’t be the only hero going after international terrorists if S.H.I.E.L.D. exists. Likewise, Captain America shouldn’t be the only hero going against an organization as big and powerful as S.H.I.E.L.D. without the help of Iron Man, which we’ll get to in the review of that movie. In Thor’s case, this issue of facing the existential threat is less of a problem because he is from a different realm than Earth, so summoning the Avengers to help is a bigger challenge. When it comes to The Dark World’s story, the threat of the Aether is a world-destroying one, but it’s mostly an issue in Asgard…until it comes to Earth in the final act. At that point, we should have seen some cameos from the other mighty heroes as they came in to help save the day, but there’s a good chance Robert Downey Jr. alone would have ballooned the budget. The fact that the existential crisis doesn’t occur on Earth until the end of the movie saves The Dark World from this criticism, but it’s still worth noting.

TL;DR

Thor: The Dark World is not a great movie. It’s got a plot that takes a while to get going and then speeds up substantially in the third act to quickly wrap things up. Some characters behave inconsistently with what we would expect, based on previous films. The villain and the big events of the movie are forgettable. Still, there are some good moments that build up the characters of Thor and Loki, as well as the complexity of their relationship. These scenes, while trapped in a relatively forgettable film, are still consequential to further improving Thor and Loki in movies to come.

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