Review of Thor: The Dark World (2013) by Yasin S — 31 Jul 2018

Like the best of the Marvel Studios films, the second Thor film is a supremely entertaining couple of hours, which at times captures the feel of some of the greats of the fantasy genre: Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Doctor Who and Pirates of the Caribbean.

It does more than competently echo the latter's mix of comedy and action, but it never quite reaches the heights of the best of those franchises, neither being as fun, nor as thrilling. Fortunately, we have a wonderful cast whose interaction makes the experience worthwhile, and while some great actors are underused (again), like the first movie it's the politicking, not the humour, that's the best.

It's a shame that the balance between these two isn't more even, and here we get to the crux of the issue; Thor: Dark World is simply too light. The stakes never feel high, despite an entire multiverse supposedly being in danger, and the aforementioned humour is too frequent, often forced and it saps much of what suspense there is.

Furthermore, there is little sense of change or progress for this ensemble or the bigger universe. The title character doesn't really have an arc and although tying-in to the larger Marvel Cinematic Universe shouldn't be done at the expensive of the individual movies, Thor's world does have the strongest ties with The Avengers, yet Iron Man Three dealt much better with the consequences of the crossover.

What we are left with is rather shoe-horned in for the sake of setting up what's next. It feels very episodic, like watching TV or, indeed, reading comics; treading water in lieu of things to come.