A Solid Improvement Over the Original THOR

Rating: 8/10 (14 July 2014)

I may be alone in this opinion but I believed Kenneth Branagh's THOR was the weakest film in the first phase of Marvel films. Yes, even weaker than IRON MAN 2. It wasn't that I hated the film but it failed to leave any sort of impression on me. Thor was always going to be one of the more difficult characters for Marvel to bring to the big screen. As opposed to characters with more "grounded" (in the loosest sense of the term) origins, Thor is a more mystical being. He's a demigod from another dimension who's near invulnerable to most forms of damage. So, right off the bat, he's not the easiest to relate to. So the first film went the route of a "fish- out-of-water" scenario as Thor loses his Asgardian powers and is banished to Earth to learn his lesson. So he spends a nice portion of the movie without actually being a superhero and we spend it on Earth. You know, that place we've spent every other Marvel movie to that point despite Marvel having a rich mythology with countless other possibilities. So, yeah, THOR was enjoyable but forgettable. But THE DARK WORLD corrects for these past weaknesses and actually brought us a Thor movie that I really enjoyed. The movie begins following the events of THE AVENGERS, with Loki condemned to the Asgardian dungeon for his crimes and Thor struggling to clean up the mess his brother's defiance had created across the Nine Realms.
So, for starters, that's a major bonus in this film. We get a nice glimpse of realms other than Asgard, Earth, and Jotunheim. We even get to visit Vanaheim and Svartalfheim. So finally, the Thor films spread their wings a bit and we spend very little time on Earth this time around. It gave the filmmakers opportunities to have some fun with the production design. We get a much grander view of Asgard. It doesn't necessarily look as polished this time around. The first film made Asgard out to be very polished and shiny while THE DARK WORLD gives it a more tactile appearance with stone constructs and shady taverns. Svartalfheim is nothing more than a desolate wasteland with dark sands and a bizarre greenish atmosphere. It is the home of the film's villains, the Dark Elves. With their ruler, Malekith (Christopher Eccleston, the Dark Elves have been around since the creation of our universe and once thrived in the darkness before it's creation. Since the arrival of our universe and the light it brought, the Elves have been fighting for a means of eliminating it to return the universe to ever-lasting darkness. They'd been defeated once before by the Asgardians, under the command of Thor's grandfather Bor. They are awaken from their slumber once again when Jane Foster (Natalie Portman, returning) stumbles across the MCU's latest mystical artifact, the Aether. We never really get a good idea of what the Aether does. We're just told that it's incredibly powerful and Malekith can somehow use it to bring darkness across the Nine Realms during a cosmic event known as the Convergence when all of the realms align.
There's our first misstep. The Aether is poorly explained. We see that it has some pretty nifty powers but their never really defined. It's just a shapeless mass of red liquid that provides its owner with seemingly unlimited power. We know these films are bound to have MacGuffins but do we need to treat them so shoddily? Give us some history, some detail. Malekith is obsessed with it and, again, that's about as much detail we get on another important aspect of the story. There have been a lot of complaints about Malekith being underdeveloped and I can't say I entirely disagree. We have a basic motivation and that's about it. He wants to return the universe to darkness and he'll stop at nothing to accomplish it, but give us some more. There has to be more to him. He seems like such a cool character. He could've easily been one of the better MCU villains with some extra time spent getting to know him, but he's relegated to a single mindless goal. The Dark Elves seem to be a very proud people and their talented warriors. There's some history there, so give us a bit. I love their visual style. The black and white color scheme and emotionless face masks give them a wicked creepy appearance. And Kurse is probably the best creature design in any of the films. Director Alan Taylor and his team nailed it with the film's visuals.
The cast is mostly fantastic as well. Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston inhabit their roles at this point better than I can imagine anyone else would. There's a great brotherly chemistry between them and each of them have grown over the MCU series. Thor has become the noble warrior he was destined to be, surpassing even his father in his tact and strength. Loki continues to reign as one of Marvel's best movie villains and he's given a chance to show a more compassionate side when tragic events give him a reason to fight alongside his brother. Natalie Portman continues to prove that she's just not quite meant for comic movies. I know she's got talent but she always comes across as wooden as Jane in these movies. Kat Dennings returns as unnecessary comic relief and, while I was fine with her excessive goofiness in the first movie, it wasn't really needed here. THE DARK WORLD is a more serious film than it's predecessor and I would've been fine with the little bit of humor that comes through the Thor/Loki interactions. Christopher Eccleston and Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje are wasted potential as the baddies but they do the best with the limited material they're given.
In the end, THE DARK WORLD is a great sequel to a decent film and helped solidify Marvel's second phase of films as an improvement.