Sorry this was late. Here are some links for the previous reviews of this blog series.
Thor the Dark World Review
Guardians of the Galaxy Review
Captain America Winter Soldier Review
WARNING spoilers WARNING
So the plot starts out with Thor fixing all the damage Loki has done, which while not explained apparently caused war through out the entire Nine Realms. Keep in mind the previous movies we only say him on Earth. While Thor is busy with battling, Jane Foster is having a date. The date is interrupted by Darcy who is still studying science with her own intern. Jane and Darcy investigate some "readings" and find a portal to a different world and end up finding a powerful Dark Elf weapon. Jane absorbs it, and is taken to Asgard by Thor though Odin dislikes this. Suddenly the Dark Elves, thought to be extinct rage war on Asgard in an effort to gain the power Jane Foster has. They beat the elves back, and Thor comes up with a plan against his father's wishes. Loki is freed from prison, Thor and his friends use Loki's knowledge to escape Asgard into the Dark World with Jane. Loki "betrays" Thor though it is a trick, and while Thor tries to destroy the power Jane has, it can't be destroyed and the leader of the dark elves absorbs it. Thor and Jane find a way back while Loki fakes his death, and they discover that the focal point of the convergence, a merging of worlds of sorts is happening in England. Thor and friends go there setting up machines and Thor fights the leader of the Dark Elves. The fight happens with Thor eventually winning and stopping the Dark Elves from blotting out all light. Thor talks to his father and decides to stay on Earth in an effort to protect the Nine Realms. Turns out however Loki replaced his father and is now king of Asgard.
So is the story good? Well kind of. It is a bit convoluted but not as bad as Iron Man 3. It is however a plot full of... conveniences. By sheer coincidence JANE FREAKING FOSTER finds the ancient weapon. Why? The portal she is investigating HAPPENS to take her there. If it was ANY OTHER HUMAN the dark elves would have won. If one of those kids who were there first walked a little further upstairs they'd have the power, could have run with it and Thor and Jane would be none the wiser. Yes, eventually Thor would have caught on, but it may have been too late by that point. Then there is a number of smaller details that make little sense as well, like figuring out the convergence point is Greenwich. The plot isn't bad exactly, but there are more then a few issues that end up losing Thor the Dark World a point for this category.
Thor is Thor in this movie. There isn't much to it honestly. Giving up the crown to Asgard was probably the only growth he had in the movie. He is still brash and slightly arrogant though unlike the last movie his heart is in the right place. That is about it, he endangers the entire world for one girl, what can I say.
Jane is more like a curious child while in Asgard. She isn't a bad character, but there is no growth to hear either. She helps save the world, and that is about it, other then that she is a plot device. Her and Thor aren't bad, but neither of them are really great in this film. Just there so the bad guys don't win the fight.
Loki however is the show stealer. He shows a lot of development, showing that while he cares about his mother, he still is after the crown. He allows Thor to keep his hammer and even saves Jane Foster. Why? Because Loki wants Thor to take out the Dark Elf threat and remain on Earth. Thor is a valuable weapon as long as Loki plays the part of Odin. Did Loki really care about his mother? Well probably but it isn't beneath him to use that as a play as well. He played the hero well enough to get Thor to believe so Loki didn't have to kill his brother to take over. Seriously Loki has the best parts of this movie and over all has the best characterization in the film.
Eric and Baldar are pretty decent characters though rarely seen enough, Odin made little sense compared to the last film we saw him in, and the other characters were just there much like Thor and Jane. While none of the characters are bad, except maybe Odin only because this Odin is now contradicting his personality from the last film, few of the characters are really good either. More like all a bunch of plot points fighting other plot points.
The action is good, there is a decent amount of humor in the movie, and Thor's mother getting killed hurt a little ESPECIALLY since her fight scene was kind of bad ass. The feeling of desperation was felt well, hence the picture above, and Loki's betrayal while expected was also well respected. Thor's frustration with his father was also well placed and well done. The dark elves had a few moments but hard to feel there since their characters weren't well brought out and kind of boring, and any romance in the movie was used more for humor then actual romance which was good and bad, but this category worked well.
The Dark World is a crappy setting. There is NOTHING THERE. I find it hard to believe an advanced civilization once thrived here, even during the flashback to the war the Dark Elves had. Outside of that, the special effects were awesome, the settings were pretty cool, and none of the costumes looked out of place. There was one scene that came out of nowhere for Eric to explain the science behind the convergence, then it went right back to Asgard after, but outside of that none of the scenes were overly confusing. Seems like the technical aspects of the movie were done pretty well with only a few flaws.
Well again the setting of the Dark World wasn't creative at all, but the ship designs did a number which was awesome. The designs of the elves were cool but looked all the same excluding Kurse. The design of the weapon was cool as well, looked like a symbiote. Still there could have been better design choices for Malekith the leader. Yes he had half of his face burnt in an interesting way, but still. There are some good ideas in the movie, but a lot of wasted potential as well, as they never built ANYTHING up at all, there could have been more creative choices used to work on characterization and plot, but instead it was focused on the convergence itself. Nice try but not great either.
With too much time devoted to the convergence, the creativity, characterization, and plot all lack in this film. The emotional pull with action and humor does well, and the scene quality is great, but neither are good enough here.
If you love Loki and don't care about Thor this movie may be for you. If you love action and humor over any type of plot this movie is easily for you. If you love special effects this movie is great. Outside of that though, I don't recommend this movie to many people. It is important to the Marvel Cinematic Universe in many ways, but outside of that it isn't the greatest film out there. I'd say if you are curious, rent it, but don't drop what you are doing by any means just to rent this slightly better then average movie.
- Sends Thor to Earth more permanently.
- Introduces the third Infinity Gem
- Shows that the Tessaract and this new weapon are both Infinity Stones.
- Talks about the origin of Infinity Stones.
- Introduces Dark Elves.
- Introduces Malekith
- Introduces Kurse
- Introduces the Collector
- Shows off Adam Warlocks cocoon
- Thor thinks Loki is dead.
- Loki is actually the king of Asgard pretending to be Odin
- A hint of Inhumans is shown
- Thor's mother dies
- Loki now has control of the Tessaract which is big given how many fought over it in the Avengers movie
- Possibly shows Asgard will be apart of the Infinity Wars assuming the next Thor movie doesn't move the Tessaract.