Thor- a bore...?

Rating: 7/10 (8 November 2013)

Given the possibilities, it's more than a little disappointing that the makers of THOR: THE DARK WORLD would opt to do a story about "dark elves." For one thing, there WERE no dark elves in the original comics- not ONE, that I can recall. (Granted, "this ain't your daddy's Thor," but it IS, just revamped for today's less discriminating moviegoers.) Why not do a story about Ulik, mightiest of the Rock Trolls...? ('Cause this ain't your daddy's Thor...?) To see the mighty troll marshal his army to invade Asgard itself would've been great. Consider: We see an Asgradian outpost on the edge of the Troll Lands. Battle-armored trolls attack the outpost (using the widest array of weapons imaginable, forged in their underground furnaces). Cut to another outpost, as trolls emerge from underground to attack and capture it. Thor (wearing his trademarked helmet, which he DOESN'T in THOR: THE DARK WORLD) gathers his men for a counter-attack. The armies battle to a standstill- at which point Ulik steps forth to challenge Thor to a one-on-one slugfest (no cgi, just breakaway boulders and such). Here, we discover that Loki has had a hand in the troll invasion, giving them strategic information every step of the way. Thor, to overcome superior numbers, calls forth a thunderstorm that wipes the troll army back from whence it came. Compare THAT scenario to what we see in THE DARK WORLD. I don't think I've seen a movie with so many clichÃ©d lines in quite a while. While the makeup effects and the cgi are better than in the first film, the story is every bit as ponderous: scenes drag on interminably at times, with pompous characters hammering the point(s) mercilessly- and the attempts at humor, while they might garner the occasional chuckle, are sophomoric at best and are used more often than not to undermine the "seriousness" of the situation(s). And am I the only one more than a little tired of the post-credit "tag" scenes? (We were subjected to a half hour of television commercials prior to half an hour of previews BEFORE the movie started- then we had to sit through ten minutes of production crew credits before the last scene. Come on, people- give us a break.)