A Pretty Satisfying Sequel

Rating: 6/10 (8 November 2013)

Taking place after the events of The Avengers, Thor (Chris Hemsworth) has returned to Asgard to assume his path of becoming king. But when he learns that his true love Jane (Natalie Portman) has been afflicted by a dark force, and a dark lord known as Malekith (Christopher Eccleston) seeks to collect Jane and use the force to destroy Asgard, and Earth, Thor must enlist in the one person who truly betrayed his trust to help him...Loki (Tom Hiddleston).
Under a new direction by Alan Taylor, Thor: The Dark World is actually a solid sequel that surpasses the original. While the original film is very good, it lacked a lot of action scenes. This due to the fact that we had to follow Thor and his interactions with the human characters. Here, we have a perfect balance of it. We are given plenty of action scenes among the Asgardian galaxy and Earth. These scenes are very well-done with excellent CGI. We are also given a lot of comic relief by Tom Hiddleston, and especially Kat Dennings who returns as Jane's intern Darcy (whom also is given much more to do this time around). Stellen Skarsgard also returns as Erik Selvig. This time around however, Selvig is very under-used and gets very much the short-end of the stick as far as what his character gets to do. Admittedly there are moments where the humor can get to be too much, but it's all done in light-hearted fun. Hemsworth and Portman unfortunately like the first film don't have the chemistry that a couple in love should have. But yet they aren't really given the chance to have solid scenes together. Both however give fine performances on their own. What's most notable are the scenes between Hemsworth and Hiddleston, who play off of each other very well. Like the first film, Hiddleston completely loses himself as Loki provides a lot of the great moments in the film. As for the story itself, it goes into a darker territory than the first film does, and it does it well. There are many different emotional situations that Thor goes through that really help Thor show his humanity and where his heart lies. The villain this time around really isn't anything special. He does give Thor many obstacles to go through, but that's it, and he's hardly the villain that Loki was in both the first film and The Avengers.
Thor: The Dark World, while having several flaws that include a not-so-great villain, an occasional over-abundance of humor and an under-usage of characters, it doesn't stop it from being a very satisfying sequel with more action, good comic moments, and a darker story with the characters we've come to know and love.
My rating: 8/10