Review of Thor: The Dark World (2013) by Jeffrey N — 08 Oct 2014

With Phase 2 of Marvel's Avengers' saga, it is clearer than ever that Marvel needs to manage all of their own properties. First, "Iron Man 3" and now "Thor: The Dark World," have cinematized these stories from my childhood (and, admittedly, young adulthood) in near-perfect order.

It's embarrassing to see movies from Fox and Sony, like "Fantastic Four" and "The Amazing Spider-Man," respectively, screw up such treasured characters when the company that actually owns the characters has proven it can handle them correctly.

I recently watched "Thor" again and it really doesn't hold up very well except in the grand scheme of Phase 1, but admittedly, I was concerned about a viable sequel. How silly I was. "Thor: The Dark World" was masterfully directed by "Game of Thrones" director, Alan Taylor, after Kenneth Branagh and Marvel chose not to continue together.

I was always uncomfortable with the mythical Thor storyline being made into a meaningful movie as it is too "fantastic." After seeing "Thor" again, while I thought it was an admirable effort, it reeked a little to much of "Flash Gordon.

" Yet, it was redeemed with how great "The Avengers" was, and Thor/Loki's roles in it, so I've swallowed the sheer weirdness of it. Oh my, how Marvel has turned me around. "Thor: The Dark World" is a true-to-canon Thor story.

The relationship amongst Thor, Loki and Odin is so well done (without spoiling the story) that I give all the glory to the mighty Marvel Bullpen. With Alan's directing style, we get a grittier, more medieval theme.

Most of the great moments are never shown in the trailer. Marvel flawlessly merges the Asgardian world with Midgard without making it seem too outlandish. It's surgical in its precision and, even though the pacing is drawn out at times in the film, plus the final battle was a little over-the-top cheesy, I just don't see how they could do those stories better on film.

Finally, the fanboy in me was bowled over with the in-credits short, which I won't spoil. I'll just say that I simply can't believe the things from my childhood being put to film now. Bless Marvel for continuing to exceed expectations.