Slower than its predecessor and the darker tone adopted won't be to all tastes

Rating: 5/10 (11 April 2020)

Thousands of years ago The Dark Elves attempted to take control of the nine realms and plunge everything into darkness by using a deadly weapon known as Aether. Their attempts were unsuccessful as they were thwarted by the Asgard soldiers who were headed up by Odin's grandfather. In the present day, the dark elves are able to track down the Aether which has been embodied in scientist Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) who is acting as its human host. With the dark elves closing in Thor finds himself called in to action once again not only to save Jane, but also to save the nine realms from the dark elves..
Replicating the quality of the first film was always going to be difficult as Kenneth Branagh (who was the surprise director of the first film) brought about pretty much every quality that one would come to expect in a superhero film. I did expect a slight drop in quality with this sequel truth be told, but Thor: The Dark World, sadly, for me, represented more than a slight drop in quality I'm afraid...
There are 2 major problems with this film; the first problem is that it is comparatively slower paced than the first film (which is odd because both films are roughly the same length). It does take its time to get going and even when it does it just isn't as involving as the narrative in the first film - Thor being banished from Asgard and forced to live on Midgard (or Earth as its otherwise known) made for a much more humourous and endearing scenario which sadly isn't replicated in this film. The 'supposed' comic relief character here comes is Ian - a nerdy intern guy, but through a combination of poor acting and woeful dialogue he fails to be funny or make any positive impact on the film. The second problem lies with the darker tone which takes away all of the cheekiness that we saw in the first film; Thor had loads of good lines in the first film, but here he is only treated to the odd humourous line and most of the time these funny lines involve scenes with Loki. The darker tone would have worked better if the villains of the piece were developed better, but they are not making the film feel a little hollow at its centre.
The performances from the main players very much reflect the material in comparison to the first film; toned down and not quite as good. Hemsworth was brilliant in the first film, but mostly because he was served better in that film. In this film, he mostly comes off as being stiff and uncomfortable. Skarsgard is crazy for most of the film which wasn't pleasant to watch and this wackiness didn't seem to serve much purpose in the film. Everyone else (performance wise) played out more or less the same as they did in the original film.
In summary then director Alan Taylor has made a bit of a mess of this sequel; the darker tone takes away a lot of the things that made the original film work so well and with a padded out story and underdeveloped villains the film never has much of a spark or feeling of urgency about it which the original film had in abundance. I must admit to having a real sense of elation when I got to the end of Thor which I did not have at the end of Thor: The Dark World. This sequel is by no means a bad film, but at the same time it isn't in the same league as the first film.