A Low Key (Loki) Entry

Rating: 6/10 (13 August 2016)

Thor: The Dark World picks on Asgard at some point after the events of The Avengers. The Tesseract is safe. Thor has the good graces of Odin. Heimdall watches over a repaired Bifrost. Most importantly, Loki faces charges for his crimes on Earth. Lurking, however, is Malekith and his Dark Elves who wish to unleash the power of the Aether on the Nine Realms and return the universe to darkness.
Overall, I don't really care about any of this stuff, save for one exception (more on that later). Thor: The Dark World struggles to improve on one of my biggest complaints of the first film; the nature of Odin's power and the Asgardians' immortality. The rules of the Eternal Realm seem too fast, loose, convenient, and underdeveloped for me to feel engaged, and once again, Odin comes across more as Mad King Ludwig than the Allfather.
The new additions of Malekith and the Aether seem unconvincing as well, in that the former lacks screen presence and the latter doesn't really differentiate itself from the Tesseract. In the end, deus ex machina and weirdly times jokes rule the day and seems to answer any questions the viewer may have, or even distract one from them.
Despite my complaints, Tom Hiddleston nearly puts on a one-man show as Loki, and delivers the best of his three performances in the MCU. Chris Hemsworth does a serviceable job as Thor as well, but Hiddleston certainly stands out and almost does enough to allow me to give this film a solid recommendation. 2.5 out of 4 stars.