A lighthearted Rehash.

Rating: 6/10 (1 November 2013)

The blithe and action-filled sequel to the solid and surprisingly interesting "Thor" from 2011, never quite unfolds the necessary emotional depth that would make you truly care for the characters as there is no character development like in the first part where the all shiny thunder god Thor made a remarkable transformation from an arrogant bully into a responsible hero whereas now he appears to be a rather one-dimensional beau who is good for some stunning stunts and few cool lines; with his roguish brother Loki as a welcome exception since his ambiguous motives have a sort of lurking sensation to them even though he is slowly turning into a Roly-Poly doll whose tricks are getting old.
The rag rug of a plot is too unoriginal and therefore too predictable to be really suspenseful in spite of some more or less contrived twists. It's the ever same "Capture the Flag"-formula, where the hero needs to wrest a "Holy Grail"-like magical stone from the enemy's greedy claws in order to save the world, that we have not just recently seen in too many movies before; whether it's called "Tesseract", "Allspark" or like in this case "Aether", it may be a somewhat necessary plot device that brings forward the action, however, if it remains like here the only impetus, the only sense without a deeper meaning, without a humane message, then it is too little and trite to have a lasting impact. Nowadays, every episode of "Game of Thrones" offers much more excitement and drama than many a Blockbuster I've seen in recent years.
What's missing plot-wise is compensated with great visuals and nearly breathtaking action sequences that come along as a Star Wars meets Lord of the Rings meets Viking mythology crossover fantasy/science-fiction mash-up which is definitely a plus. The invasion of Asgaard by the Dark Elves strongly resembles the great Battle on Naboo in "Star Wars: Episode I" especially since Bambi-eyed Nathalie Portman plays the dame in distress in both movies. The chemistry between her role Jane Foster and Thor is good although their kisses lack the fiery passion we saw in Spiderman for example; much more touching love stories have been told than this one for sure.
"Thor: The Dark Kingdom" is at least nice to look at.