Comic book movie without much comic

Rating: 6/10 (14 November 2013)

Chris Hemsworth as Thor is passable (definitely better than his Home and Away days). When he is being coy you can see the cheeky Australian come out of him and he is clearly more comfortable in this side of Thor than the tough stoic version. Thor appeared to be missing the old English type of speaking that was in the Avengers or Thor which at times was quite witty. This also means I couldn't walk around the house imitating his old English speech which was disappointing for me. Chris Hemsworth does provide a little bit of eye candy for the ladies (impressive back and shoulder muscles I say), in one scene an actress purposely falls on him just to see if the muscles are real.
Tom Hiddleston makes Loki his own. He is broody, depressive, defiant and a smart alec. He pulls all sides off his character, one could say almost perfectly. Hiddleston and Kat Dennings were definitely the two actors who brought the most to this movie in both acting and giving the movie character. Without these two actors I might as well have been watching the Expendables but this time set in space.
Natalie Portman was not acting to the quality she has done previously, for example the Black Swan. To me she appeared to be going through the motions or it could be just the depth of the character she was asked to play was quite shallow.
Kat Dennings who is the main actor in 2 Broke Girls was a stand out for myself. Every time she walked on stage I think I found myself smiling or having a laugh.
Christopher Eccleston whilst being the main "baddie" in this movie is not giving enough depth for you to feel "yes this guy deserves to be beaten and is a real threat to the nine realms". Instead you are left feeling yeah he provides good action scene fodder and special effects. This character needed to be more menacing.
Anthony Hopkins and Rene Russo play small but important roles in the movie.
The special effects of this movie are very good. There seemed to be scenes where the special effects was the main actor without the need for any human or dark elf actor to step in front of a camera.
The movie was directed by Alan Taylor, he has mainly done big TV shows in the past like Game of Thrones and the script was led by one of Marvel Comics main writers Christopher Yost. I feel that sometimes the characters though lacked the depth for some of the big name actors that were obtained for these roles. But if you're in a $300 million movie within 9 days why wouldn't you act in this Marvel studios cash cow.
A criticism I have of this movie is that it is following the trend of a 'serious' comic book movie where there seems to be more brooding than fun. Yes the movie has great special effects, good action and drama. Though comic book movies have seemed to forgotten the term comic relief. That is why I enjoyed Tom Hiddleston, Kat Dennings and at times Christopher Hemsworth when they had their moments on not taking themselves too seriously.
Other moments I really enjoyed were the cameos of Chris Evans as Captain America and Stan Lee the creator of Marvel Comics.
Overall as an adult, Thor: The Dark World was solid with great special effects, some solid performances and other actors going through the motions. I have a feeling that young teenage boys will really enjoy this movie. This movie is a popcorn movie built for the masses and definitely a movie that will not strain your brain. It is slow moving and at times it is appeared the storyline chucked together inefficiently to ensure it fully explains things that are not needed for an action movie. Time wise it goes for almost a full 2 hours.
http://mondaysheroes.wordpress.com/thor-the-dark-world/