While I enjoyed 2011's Thor, there was something that felt somehow off about it to me. The fact that so much of an action fantasy was set in the relatively mundane New Mexico, the fact that the titular superhero spent most of the movie out of costume and without any superpowers, and finally, the fact that this was Marvel Studios' first action/fantasy hybrid after three straight sci-fi flavored movies (two Iron Man films and one Hulk film) gave the first movie a strangely half-baked feel for me.
Not so, however the sequel, titled Thor: The Dark World.
Like the first film, this film begins with a prologue set in ancient times, so ancient that they actually predate Odin Allfather (Anthony Hopkins) himself. In fact, it falls upon Odin's father Bor (Tony Curran) to stop the menace of the Dark Elves of Svartalfheim, led by Malekith (Christopher Eccleston) and his loyal lieutenant Algrim (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje). The Dark Elves lived in the darkness that thrived before the universe was born, and through their indestructible energy weapon, the Aether, they seek to destroy the universe and restore the darkness that once reigned, but Bor defeats them and hides the Aether. Malekith sacrifices the bulk of his armies and in the chaos flees, going into hiding, and apparently suspended animation, for thousands of years.
The film then shifts to the present, which happens to be two years after the first Thor film, and one year after Marvel's The Avengers. Loki (Tom Hiddleston) is imprisoned for his crimes on earth, and Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and his companions, the Warriors Three (Volstagg - Ray Stevenson, Fandrall - Zachary Levi, Hogun - Tadanobu Asane) and Sif (Jamie Alexander), are dispatched across the nine realms to bring peace to these troubled worlds. Meanwhile, on Earth, astrophysicist Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) the object of Thor's affection, is trying to move on from Thor. She has moved to London and is actually on a date with an amiable local (Chris O' Dowd), when her assistant, Darcy Lewis (Kat Dennings) interrupts her date and calls her attention to an anomaly in the space-time continuum. Jane follows Darcy to the site of the disturbance, which turns out to be several portals between worlds, one brought about by a celestial event called the convergence, which only occurs once in several thousand years, and in which all nine realms align perfectly. Quite by accident, Jane stumbles on the place where the Asgardians hid the Aether, and the energy actually enters her body, with sometimes explosive consequences for those who try to touch her after that.
Eventually, Thor finds his way to Jane, and whisks her off to Asgard on the now-repaired Bifrost, thinking it would be the best place to keep her safe from the deadly energy inside her. Unfortunately, the Aether awakens Malekith and the remainder of his Dark Elves, and they attack an unsuspecting Asgard with catastrophic consequences.
Thor realizes the magnitude of the threat faced not only by Asgard but by all the Nine Realms, one that will require more than just the power of Mjolnir to vanquish. In fact, he comes to realize that he may require help from one of the most unexpected of places.
Like the first film, this one takes place both on Earth and on other, fantastical realms, but this time around it's the other worlds that get the lion's share of screen time, with Asgard and Svartalfheim proving pivotal to the plot, and another world, Vanaheim, serving as the staging point for the film's first kick-ass action sequence. In this respect, the second film definitely steps things up several notches from its predecessor; not only are there more action set pieces here in comparison to the first film, but they are noticeably better choreographed and more elaborate. They are also abetted by much better computer-generated imagery than the first film had to offer.
Not only that, but there's also a bit more urgency in the battles here; the death of a pivotal supporting character midway through the film tells the audience that this time, the menace is real. In that sense, the film does live up to its title in a way, though the titular "dark world" refers to the home of the Dark Elves and not really to a significant shift in tone from the first film to this one.
That's actually a good thing; Marvel has, for the most part, kept what worked very well for the first film, and for most of Marvel's films in general: the humor. This time, they don't get by on fish-out-of-the-water jokes, but instead pepper the script with more witty exchanges in general between the characters. Hiddleston's Loki, of course, gets the best lines. It was, to me, impressive that Marvel was able to keep this crucial element in despite a nastier set of bad guys than the last film had. Also, director Alan Taylor (who takes over the director's chair from Kenneth Branagh) and his screenwriters make it a point to preserve the other things that worked about the first movie as well, such as the chemistry between lead actor Hemsworth and the various other actors in the film, like Portman, Hopkins, and Hiddleston. Of the performers here, Hopkins feels a little less enthusiastic than he was the first time around, but it doesn't hurt the storytelling that much. A bit of bonus is the fact that for the first time, Portman's Foster gets to interact with the Asgardians, including Odin, Frigga (Rene Russo) and of course Loki.
Of the new elements in the film, Ecclestone's Malekith feels like the least impressive, though really, buried under all that makeup and without particularly memorable dialogue, I'm hard-pressed to think of what more he could have done. Also, personally I felt a little strange seeing swords and battle axes mixing it up with laser cannons on the screen, though considering that George Lucas created a whole genre out of such strange marriages with his Star Wars films I suppose this isn't the first time two seemingly disparate narrative styles have melded on the big screen. In any case, it was only in the first few fight scenes that I thought it looked particularly strange. This little quibble notwithstanding, the major battles were still quite impressive on the whole.
Speaking of climactic battles, this film has one of the most imaginative ones I've seen in a while, one that effectively mixes humor and thrills. It's the sort of thing that has to be seen to be best appreciated.
As with all Marvel films, there were treats to be had after the film, with mid-credits AND post-credits Easter Eggs. I'm pretty sure it's not really spoiling anything to say that at least one of them is clearly setting up a future Marvel Studios blockbuster. Personally, I wasn't particularly enthused about it, even though I'm sure comic-book nerds everywhere were ecstatic about its implications.
But really, my unhappiness with future teasers and some niggles in the script notwithstanding, Thor: The Dark World was definitely worth the trip to the movie theater, though this time, I didn't bother with the 3-D premium considering I wasn't particularly impressed with the 3-D conversions of The Avengers or Iron Man 3.
3.5/5
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