My review of Thor: The Dark World (2013)

Rating: 4/10 (5 February 2014)

Being directed by Alan Taylor; I had high expectations for this film, even though I don't think I've ever seen one of his films I have watched episodes he has directed for TV (The Sopranos, Rome, and Game of Thrones). Chris Hemsworth reprises his role as Thor and Natalie Portman returns as Jane to re-spark the romance that was (thankfully) left out of The Avengers. One of the first problems I noticed with the film was that the dialogue was really bad; a lot of the time it added nothing to the story or characters. An example of this is that we get the same explanation of the 'Convergence' from about three or four different characters. Yes, I get it; it's a major plot point, MOVE ON! And the time that isn't dedicated to hammering in information that we already know, is filled with unnecessary quips and one-liners. One of the worst culprits of this is Loki; there's almost an entire scene where he just makes some really terrible jokes, I just wanted him to shut up for the rest of the film. Although I will say I do actually like the character of Loki (despite the fake deaths); he is a good character played by a good actor and they do give him some great moments (His part in the ending of the film is pretty cool; don't worry I won't ruin it for you). I did feel that the relationship between him and his "mother" Frigga (Rene Russo) was a bit forced as I didn't really get the feeling of a deep connection between those two in the first film. On the other end of the spectrum; a love triangle between Thor, Jane and Sif is introduced and doesn't get built up at all throughout the film, ultimately leading to nothing anyway, so what was the point? Most of the action scenes in this film just made me question how the Asgardians had defeated the Dark Elves before, considering they have those awesome grenades. The film excels in special effects and they did a great job in creating the beautiful Asgard set. With some great music to build the excitement of the scene, it proved to be a really enjoyable piece of action. I was very disappointed to realise that Malekith (Christopher Eccleston) is a terrible villain; firstly I downright didn't like the look of the Dark Elves, their motive was really bad; they don't like the light though at most it's of a slight annoyance to them, like a fly that keeps flying in front of your face (doesn't mean you have to destroy the universe). The Dark Elf on steroids was really the antagonist; if you're going to watch the film, watch it for this guy, he's pretty cool, Malekith just ends up looking like the damsel in distress. The ending was nothing inspired; the teleporting around was pretty cool but the novelty wore off after the second time. I hated how they end up defeating Malekith; it was boring and predictable and made no lasting impression. All in all this film was below average. Though I thought the directing and special effects were very good, the writing on the other hand was awful; it had bland characters and an uninteresting story filled with pointless dialogue. Even the actors didn't seem to care about this movie. Some of the action scenes were good but that was mostly down to the visual effects and music. And even though it was nice not to have Loki as the antagonist; Malekith was just plain awful.