"Thor: The Dark World" Movie REVIEW

Synopsis

Marvel’s “Thor: The Dark World” continues the big-screen adventures of Thor, the Mighty Avenger, ashe 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 Review

We've seen great superhero movies and terrible ones, Director Kenneth Branagh's 2011 epic "Thor" falls somewhere in between in those lines. It wasn't spectacular yet it's not a terrible movie. Thor had so much potential but with a rushed production, it came short on many aspects. That movie was "okay" for me, so I wasn't expecting much for this year's sequel. Back to the real question, how was the movie "Thor: The Dark World"? It was "okay". Let me elaborate.

With the 2011 film leaves room for growth and improvements for the sequel, Director Alan Taylor and the team did took their time and bigger budget given to them by the studio to surpass the first film. The change of director is clearly visible through the style of how the film was shot. The set pieces got some major improvements, Asgard looks more lively, functional and realistic in this movie whereas it seems the realm was lifeless and unpopulated in the first film. In short, Asgard looks more beautiful in this film. Granted I didn't see the movie in 3D, but the effects looks really promising on this film, probably one of this film's biggest selling point.

The cast did a pretty fine job. You'd be surprised how little screen time some of the other characters have, but it's understandable since it's a requirement of the plot that the main focuses would be Thor, Jane Foster and Loki. The actors who played these respective roles did there job done well. We see some characters grow from the previous releases. But there were no major improvements on their performances, nothing that we hadn't seen in Thor or in the 2012 mega-blockbuster The Avengers. 

Given the fact that this film had troubles way back in productions, some fear that it has left scars for the movie. Gladly in spite of its short comings, Thor: The Dark World still delivered enough goodies for fans and movie goers to enjoy. For starters, the movie was given a dark premise and the film heads on to a more serious tone as it should be. The action scenes was visually pure eye-candy; good editing, promising angles and a well choreograph throwdown. Unfortunately, it was the heart that was lacking in this movie. You feel that you should be engaged by the level of the impending threat, the drama that comes and even the villain itself Malekith (we'll get to him later). But you don't feel that engaged to this film as you should be. Then comes the part where most fans complain about some recent Marvel movies (I'm looking at you, Iron Man 3!) the humor. Thankfully the film has less humor than it should, but still features some unnecessary jokes that weren't even funny at all and some just felt forced. Now there's Malekith, who isn't even as threatening as our favorite Marvel villain, Loki. Just be honest, you'd still prefer the God of Mischief over the dark elf. 

This movie doesn't really had much easter eggs in it. Be sure to stay to the mid-credits as we are introduced to an semi-thrilling yet dull looking introduction for Marvel's next film "Guradians of The Galaxy". The end credit scene, was just pure cheese fest, passable if you didn't really care about Thor-Jane relationship. Also, there is one cameo appearance that I didn't expect to see, but I sure did enjoy a lot. 

Final Verdict

With our future Marvel movies aiming to be more family friendly and humor-filled, Thor: The Dark World was a well balanced film in term of tone, but lacks the heart as a movie itself. You feel like the movie avoided to be so bad but it didn't wanted to be the best. Sometimes, being just good isn't good enough. But if their's one thing this movie succeeds is that it surpassed it predecessor on many levels. 

Starring Starring Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddleston, Stellan Skarsgård, Idris Elba, Christopher Eccleston, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Kat Dennings, Ray Stevenson, Zachary Levi, Tadanobu Asano and Jaimie Alexander with Rene Russo and Anthony Hopkins as Odin, “Thor: The Dark World” is directed by Alan Taylor. The film is produced by Kevin Feige, while executive producers are Louis D’Esposito, Alan Fine, Stan Lee, Victoria Alonso, Craig Kyle and Nigel Gostelow. Distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, Thor: The Dark World opens in theaters on November 8, 2013.