Thor : The Dark World Review by Hollywood Trial
Marvel's "Thor: The Dark World" continues the big-screen adventures of
Thor, the Mighty Avenger, as he battles to save Earth and all the Nine
Realms from a shadowy enemy that predates the universe itself. In the
aftermath of Marvel's "Thor" and "Marvel's The Avengers," Thor fights to
restore order across the cosmos...but an ancient race led by the
vengeful Malekith returns to plunge the universe back into darkness.
Faced with an enemy that even Odin and Asgard cannot withstand
Thor
must embark on his most perilous and personal journey yet, one that will
reunite him with Jane Foster and force him to sacrifice everything to
save us all.
The sequel reveals a classic second-film syndrome. It makes no effort to
push the envelope in any way. Rather, the focus is on recreating all
that worked the first time (as well as in The Avengers, the Marvel
multistarrer delight that featured Thor among a battery of superheroes).
Director Alan Taylor does a fine job retaining the balance of action,
CGI effects and humour that Kenneth Branagh fashioned for 2011's Thor. A
whiff of the unpredictable, though, is missing this time.
Most importantly, all those moments happen at times that make sense in the story. Very little here feels forced. The Dark World
doesn’t have those “OK, let’s pause and do S.H.I.E.L.D. setup” periods
that the first one did. Save one of the two post-credits scenes, it’s
pretty much all self-contained. In that regard, it’s a better movie.
Thor, perhaps more than any of his fellow Avengers, is a property
informed by his surrounding material, namely, the other movies put out
by Marvel in the last several years, since the climax and aftermath of The Avengers
concerned a primary character and a MacGuffin derived directly from his
franchise. But the weight of a larger universe serves this story ill by
stunting its growth. The Thor franchise, like the other Avengers
series’, must maintain the status quo, preventing the story from playing
out any changes that would affect the other movies. At the end of the
day, The Dark World was a fun diversion with inspired visual
design, well-treated female characters, and a healthy does of action
banter, but I do wish it had invested more in escapism.
