Review of Thor: The Dark World (2013) by Gordon S — 10 Oct 2014

Marvel movies have all followed a similar trend, boasting incredible actors and effects thus far but all but those featuring the character of Loki have not had an incredibly strong villain. Does "Thor: The Dark World" suffer from the same problems? Three guesses.

It indeed does but also brings possibly the worst villain to the Marvel universe to date. Malekith may look good and Christopher Eccleston portrays him to the best of his ability, but the character has no motivations throughout the film.

Why does he want the universe to "return to eternal darkness"? The character also makes ridiculous choices and could have defeated Thor before he was even born presumably if he had just absorbed the confusing power of the Aether.

Most things beside Malekith, however, are considerably better. Chris Hemsworth is great as Thor and brings charisma and humour to the role. Hemsworth also manages to make fight scenes with the villains of the film look realistic.

Natalie Portman returns to her role as Jane Foster from the original film as Thor's love interest. Natalie Portman is a good actress and I like the character personally, but it is still unfortunate that she and Hemsworth do not have as much chemistry on screen as other pairs of characters in the Marvel movies such as Chris Evans and Hayley Atwell in the first Captain America movie.

However, the star of the show and an actor whose performance has been consistent throughout the Marvel movies and who has even improved as they have went on, is Tom Hiddleston's Loki. Hiddleston makes the character so likeable and interesting that I may actually prefer him to Thor.

It is the mark of a great performance in a superhero film when one of the villains is much more fun to watch than the hero. The supporting cast does not fare so well. The Asgardian characters are well cast, especially Anthony Hopkins as Odin, but the human character are so ridiculous and unfunny that at times they feel tacked on to the movie for the sake of it.

The effects of the movie are very good and this movie gets to show them off more than any other Marvel movie had before as it takes place throughout several different alien(ish) worlds (where everyone excepts the Dark Elves themselves look human) rather than just Earth.

The final confrontation of these movies have generally been overly large and had a lot happening. This one is thankfully toned down from the other movies and focuses on the battle between Thor and Malekith rather than switching throughout to Asgardians or humans fighting henchman.

This makes the fight seem more focused rather than just a series of fights happening at once. Overall, the film shows off some beautiful effects and great acting, especially from Tom Hiddleston, but suffers from the weak villain and supporting cast who feel unnecessary.

The film's twist ending sets up a sequel and makes me excited for Marvel's next few movies and ready for another Thor movie.