Thor: The Dark World

The big battle in Thor: The Dark World is one of Marvel’s more genuinely rousing sequences. Once this movie gets warmed up, it’s warm through and through.

It looks like no other movie, Marvel or otherwise, and it’s populated by characters compelling enough to support a more complex, richer story than this one.

Thor: The Dark World's characters are often very charming, but they're only so much fun when they're stuck going through the motions.

There’s nothing in Thor: The Dark World that wasn’t done better in “Thor,” or a lot better in “The Avengers.” Except Tom Hiddleston’s performance as Loki.

Poor Thor. Dude can't even hold center stage in his own movie. He's the Asgardian god of stolen thunder, upstaged at each ab turn by Loki, malarkey and Odin's eyepatch.

None of that is to say that Thor: The Dark World is a bad movie, necessarily. I would never speak ill of a man with a giant, magical hammer. At the same time, hammer or no hammer, it doesn't quite nail it, either.

The larger problem, transcending all realms, is that this action-adventure sequel from Marvel soon turns so dumb and 3-D-murky that it hurts.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

Ummmmm ok - so they really really tried but they also brought Portman and Loki back and I am so sick of both of these two it isn't even funny. Pass.

Thor: Dark World could be a very enjoyable movie if it was less overstuffed, especially at the end. The story is interesting, the characters are the same. The conflicts are simple, the dialogues too. It is no explained how the evil power works, it was confusing how someone could wield or destroy it (it is said they can't). The characters make some stupid decisions that don't make sense, but Loki was handled very well. By the end (including post credit), the movie becomes overstuffed, more like a marketing product, than a movie. It's not focused on the characters or the story. The cinematography is okay, the pacing is good, it's never too boring. I had a few issues with visual effects, because there were some scenes that were just badly handled. The cast is still great, it was funny seeing Stellan Skarsgård become crazy, his acting is spectacular. Thor: The Dark World is a movie that loses it's focus by the end and there are stupid character decisions throughout, but I managed to enjoy it pretty much.

This film is a crime against charisma. They took Christopher Eccleston—an immense actor—caked him in pale elf makeup, and gave him fewer lines than a non-playable character in a 90s video game. Malekith isn't a villain; he’s a bureaucratic obstacle. The romantic subplot between Thor and Jane Foster has the chemistry of two frozen cods sharing the same freezer. The only thing saving this footage from total disaster is the dynamic between Thor and Loki; whenever the two brothers interact, the movie almost starts to make sense. But then we’re dragged back to portals opening in Greenwich and scientists running naked through Stonehenge because it’s "funny." Spoiler alert: it wasn't. It’s a film that exists only to remind us that even giants can trip into a puddle of mediocrity.

Extremely boring follow up to Thor, I would give it a 3.5/10. I find it boring but it has some good scenes.