Thor 2 - what worked and what didn't

Rating: 4/10 (18 February 2020)

+ Casting Christopher Eccleston.
+ Nice Blu-Ray menu and end credits artwork.
+ Nice main title font.
+ Chris O'Dowd doing his natural accent.
+ Giving Darcy an intern of her own is cute.
+ The gangs back! Good to see all the plebs from Thor back together.
+ London!
+ Space Elves!
+ Thor hanging up his hammer to be polite.
+ Although the fight is bad in every way, squaring off in Greenwich is quite cool visually.

Wasting Christopher Eccleston.
Not a fan of backstories that start with no reason or connection to the rest of the movie.
Reshooting until the enemy is faceless and without any ideology.
Ripping off the Animatrix.
The fantasy elements are a bit quick and montagey. Could have paced them a bit better and made them a main part of the story. Gladiator meets X-Files or something.
I hate Zachary Levi.
In Thor he's told not to party and not to smash things. Now Pops is telling him to party more and he goes about smashing up all the bad guys until they submit.
Criminally boring in places and mostly charmless and plain.
Titles like: The Dark Word, that mean very little and just serve as focus-tested, generic differentiators or eye-catchers. Like calling it Thor II would be so bad. Like The Dark World even matters.
Asgard doesn't have a single musket regiment.
Renee Russo isn't given much to do.
Loki's line "See you in Hell Monster." Is either a smart reference done badly or very lazy writing.
Lame end fight, the awful concept of the ether is almost classically uncinematic.

Mid-Credits sequence review: 4/5: A proper end credits sequence using characters and sets from Guardians of the Galaxy, good length, explores the idea that The Collector now has two infinity stones. Definitely a combination of sneak peek to the 'next' film and tease for the comic book fans.
Post-Credits sequence review: 2/5: Thor comes back for kisses on a rooftop and there's that monster running around chasing birds. Sneer.
Stan Lee cameo review as: Old Man who wants his shoe back in an asylum: 3/5: Yeah ok, I'll admit this simple one, although giving Stan Lee far too much screentime, incorporates his appearance in to the scene well. Plus I buy Stan Lee as an old