Thor: The Dark World (2013)

Having just watched a premier screening, I am delighted to come away from the cinema to write a positive review. Thor Dark World is a spectacular special effect driven film, much of which is set in Asguard.

I was worried that including Loki yet again might become a little repetitive, but in this film he excels as a great character, I only hope however that they don't overdue his presence in the Marvel Universe. How many times can this guy come back from the dead?

There isn't as much character development as the first film, and Thor's friends are nowhere near as interesting as the Avengers. I guess they simply needed these characters to all remain as they were so as to keep continuity within the Marvel universe, but its noticeable how little impact the storyline will have on anybody.

The armies of Asguard were noticeably lacking in fire-power and weapons (even though they have an armoury), which is made even more evident when an entire guard division bring knives to a laser-gun fight. Their turrents were the only defense they had against an Ariel assault and proved to be practically useless. You would expect them to be better prepared.

The healing powers of Thor, Jane, and even a smashed alien space-craft become a bit of a running joke as well. But at least they get hurt, even if it only takes them a scene to heal. And if smashing every column holding up a building is still not enough to take it down I'm not sure what will be.

Christopher Eccleston played a competent bad guy, although his intentions for what he was doing was still unclear as to why. Its simple to say he was insane and just wanted to kill everybody, but when a threat of that magnitude appears and planetary alignments are in effect, you expect half the Universe to show up and stop him or take advantage of the situation, or come looking to take the power for themselves. I also expected to see the entire army of Asguard come to help out at the end like they apparently did in the past. Not just Thor who appears there by mistake.

The scientist with the miraculous plot saving devise is also a little hard fetch to take in, especially when he creates a remote control for cosmic anomalies. Along with Loki's illusion power which also serves as a convenient plot-saving devise at times. I'm willing to overlook these but there's no denying what they are.

Overall its a good enjoyable superhero movie, which you will want to watch several times and is a decent entry into the Marvel Universe.

P.S. Watch it in 2D, The 3D added little of worth.

Fmovies: Occasionally in life there are those moments of unutterable fulfillment which cannot be completely explained by those symbols called words. This sequel is one such moment. I do need to see it again. In terms of pure enjoy-ability, I put it top 3 of all sequels that I have enjoyed.

What I really liked...

-Every single character gets a moment to shine and every single actor cast in these parts are perfect.

-The comedy is perfect. It's such a fine balance overall and everything works because it's very subtle and fits in with certain circumstances.

-Some very tender emotional scenes. I won't spoil anything with specifics.

-Some superb action and what could very well be award winning special effects.

-All characters interactions are great and handled very well. This is a fantasy story that really cares about character first and it shows all the way through. Even Natalie Portman's Jane feel more fleshed out than she did in the original film.

-The set pieces and other realms talked about in the first are seen here and are beautiful and well done. Asgard was even better believe it or not.

-The mid-credit and end credit scenes, both cool. Make sure you stay for both.

Marvel hit a pure home run with this endeavor. This film works because of the great cast and the fact that they took this subject matter seriously but remember to have fun. Chris Hemsworth was again perfect. I thoroughly enjoyed this movie.

The acting was solid. The production value was superb. Everything else was really poor.

The back story and character motivations are laughably sparse. Most of the characters are completely one-dimensional, with the possible exception of Loki. The plot is the most boring and typical of all action plots - some "bad dudes who happen to be really ugly" decide to "destroy the world for no reason other than being evil" and "only our hero can save us all", etc. Moreover, it was lazy writing - whenever an absolute miracle needed to happen, it conveniently did, every time.

Of course this is a mindless blockbuster Marvel movie so we shouldn't expect much. But the thing is that these kinds of films CAN be made with a reasonable plot, pacing, and character development. The writers were obviously just going through the motions to cash in on the surefire moneymaker sequel, and from a business perspective it is hard to fault them. But it says a lot about the sad state of Hollywood in 2013 that this film currently has a 7.7 on IMDb.