Enjoyable, but flawed

Rating: 5/10 (22 August 2014)

Thor Dark World starts two years after the events of 'The Avengers' as a great evil known as the darkness possesses Thors girlfriend Jane Foster (what a random coincidence!). Thus Thor must save her and the rest of the world from dark elves who seek to use the darkness to destroy the universe. The stakes are supposedly higher, but it never feels that way. Even in the final fight then it never feels like Thor is ever in any real peril. The dark elves just never appear as that much of a challenge in the film.
Not only do they not pose a threat but they never appear as interesting characters either, even the leader of the Dark Elves Malketh doesn't get much attention. Whilst Ecclestons performance is impressive and the makeup design is interesting, the villain doesn't get any background. Malekth's sole motivation in the film is to destroy the universe. Why? Because he is evil! At least that's all we really get from him. Largely because the dark elves don't get that much screen time. More time seems to get put towards bringing back the fan favourite Loki to the film.
This could be good if he were written in properly. But the problem is that he isn't. Loki was only written in after the success of the Avengers and doesn't really have any role to play. They try to justify his inclusion in the plot at times, but the truth is he is there for fan appeal alone. He's the kind of character who you could remove all of his scenes from the film and you'd still get a complete story regardless. Saying this, Loki does still have many enjoyable moments. He still has the same memorable wit people loved from the Avengers and Hiddelston does have quite a few scene stealing moments.
Thor is still an enjoyable hero in this one. Though his story isn't as interesting. In the first we got to see his transition from a reckless soldier to a noble warrior to gain the worthiness of his hammer Monjir. But here he doesn't really progress at all. But for what he has to work with Hemsworth gives a good performance once again as the Norse god of thunder. His presence alone is one of great power and his delivery does make for some hilarious moments.
On the downside many of the action scenes in the film are pretty forgettable. Largely because most of them don't feel particularly well choreographed. Most of the earlier fight scenes try to look like a big epic battle scene, but they never really feel that way. They'll always be in some interesting backdrops ranging from fantasy cities like Asgard to the populated city of London. But they will usually lack any real sense of excitement that we expect from the Marvel universe.
Luckily the final fight does make up for this with a fight between Malketh and Thor stretching across several worlds. It makes little sense with the teleporting between worlds lacking any real sense of cohesive logic. But it still makes for both some cool visuals and funny moments.
Out of the entirety of Marvel Phase 2, this is the weakest outing. It doesn't add anything original that we haven't already seen from the marvel franchise. In the end it's really nothing more than mindless action with a little bit of comedy thrown in. If that's all you want from a marvel film you might enjoy it. But if you're expecting the same charm and heroics of the rest of the marvel universe then you'll likely get let down.