Thor: The Dark World (2013) Review

"You must be truly desperate to come to me for help."

-Loki

While searching for a way to reunite with Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) enters a portal to another world and accidentally absorbs a powerful weapon called the Aether.  This awakens the leader of the Dark Elves, Malekith (Christopher Eccleston), who intents to use the Aether to plunge the universe into darkness.  Thor takes Jane to Asgard to try and extract the Aether from her, but the Dark Elves are coming and the universe's fate may rest in the hands of Thor's treacherous brother, Loki (Tom Hiddleston).

What Works:

Up to this point, Loki has been, by far, the best villain of the MCU.  It's interesting to have him in a role where he isn't the villain.  Instead, we have Thor and Loki working together towards a common goal.  We know we can't trust Loki and the film does a good job of messing with our expectations.  Hemsworth and Hiddleston have amazing chemistry and they definitely elevate the rest of the film. 

I always enjoy watching Stellan Skarsgård, no matter what his role is.  He doesn't get a ton to do in this film, but I liked every second of it.  It's great to see that there were some ramifications to what happened to him in The Avengers and I loved watching him act like a lunatic.  His naked jaunt around Stonehenge never fails to crack me up and his facial expressions just make the film even funnier.

While I have issues with the villains of The Dark World, I do like the design of the standard Dark Elves.  Their masks are extremely creepy.  Great work from the costume department.

Finally, the 3rd act of this movie is bonkers insane.  The gravity shifts and the teleportation between worlds is a blast and frequently hilarious.  Malekith is an extremely serious villain, but watching him constantly falling off structures is fantastic.  This film may have issues, but the 3rd act is certainly entertaining.

What Sucks:

Speaking of Malekith, I really like Christopher Eccelston as an actor, but he is given absolutely nothing to work with here.  He isn't developed in the slightest and isn't interesting at all.  He is hands down the worst villain in the MCU and it's a shame that such a high-caliber actor was wasted like this.

The main plot of the movie is nothing special.  It's mostly an excuse to get Thor and Loki working together, but there isn't much else of interest story-wise.

Finally, Jane Foster is probably my least favorite character in the MCU, which is a shame because I really like Natalie Portman.  She's simply miscast here.  Portman is fantastic in 100% serious roles.  Watching her play a sillier character just doesn't click and I'm very relieved she's pretty much absent from the MCU after this movie.


Verdict:

Thor: The Dark World is definitely one of the lesser films in the MCU, but it is a bit underrated.  Hemsworth, Hiddleston, and Skarsgård are all fantastic, the costume designs are really cool, and the 3rd act is a blast.  Natalie Portman doesn't work, the villain is a major disappointment, and the story isn't all that interesting, but I still say this movie has got it going on.

 7/10: Good