Thor: The Dark World (2013)

[DeeCee]

(I'm someone who didn't really enjoy IM3) 

 

I really, really liked the film and was pleasantly surprised. Thor is my favorite of the Avengers and really enjoyed this film. The humour was great, the acting was great, the plot was thrilling and fun. Although sometimes during the movie I felt like I was watching The Hobbit due to all the CGI. But nonetheless, great movie. 

 

A

 

Edit: Oh yeah, so disappointed with Fandral's recasting Really liked Josh Dallas and was looking out for his character, only to find out he was recast. 

I didn't even notice it.  Looking in to it Levi was originally cast to play him in the first Thor.

[lilmac]

B

 

 

Worth of the Marvel pantheon of films but by no means upper tier.  I would say it is better than the original as there's more going on and we don't waste time with establishing characters and origins.  Some of the weak points centered on Kat Dennings and rest of Jane's entourage.  Also, Portman doesn't have much to work with besides being beautiful scenery (she seems to be getting more attractive with age).  Highlights are the dark elves, Asgardian special fx, Hopkins, Thor being a fish out of water in the real world ("Mind the gap"), Melekith, the Loki subplot and his redemption, the 3rd act (thought the movie was over but it wasn't by a long shot).  

 

Overall, a good addition to the Marvel universe.  

[Omario]

7/10Enjoyed it. Only qualms I have is Maliketh is not a villain that would make you shake in your boots. Brilliantly acted but powerwise he is nothing. Even when possessed with the aether he barely held his own against Thor.Highlight was Frigga owning Maliketh, her funeral scene and Lokis relationship with her and his pain at her death.Was kinda dissapointed that loki lived as I would have liked to see Thor and crew journey to hell to get him back in the 3rd movie. Would have been a great way to introduce Hela.Much better movie than Iron Man 3 and just a couple of notches lower than Man of Steel for me. Star trek 2 still best movie of the year that I have seen.The collector scene at the end seemed out of place to be honest. No mention of infinity stones in the movie so the audience would be left scratching their heads on what the hells was that about.

 

Seems they have made the tesseract and the aether as infinity stones. am i corect? anyone?

Edited November 8, 2013 by Omario

[starkster]

a strong c is the best I can give this movie

[Vanilla]

The Captain America scene was funny as hell. Pretty fun film altogether.

[Goffe]

no repeat value, the omnipresent humor hurts the movie (a lot) and the lack of substance is incredible. the highlight of the movie is Asgard attack and the funeral B (70)

[Deep Wang]

I liked it so much better than the first Thor. Phase 2 is off to a fantastic start. Guardians of the Galaxy is going to be so fucking weird and I cannot wait!!!

[Jessie]

B-

 

Its enjoyable enough, but the story is a pile of shit, lets face it. The film-makers seem to realise this at least.

[IndustriousAngel]

It was more fun than the first Thor, but also a bit unfocussed. It was way more comic-y, a good thing in a comic book movie I think - very colourful, strong images, and so on - though it went a bit high on silliness during the endfight when the earth-worms jizzed them POWERS all across the nine worlds and back again.

One thing I didn't understand - why did the screenwriters raise the stakes like they did? Obviously they wanted a funnier adventure this time, and there's some really nice laughs and even slapstick - so why not a "smaller" plot? I never had the impression that the future of the universe was at stake, but if we have to belive Odin and the scientists - it was. Never felt that way.

And, come on - where was the romance? There was more emotion between Thor and Loki than between Thor and Jane. It worked in Thor1 (kind of) so why not here? Where were the sparks flying between Sif and Jane?

What I really did like was Loki, it was always one of the strengths of the Marvel comics that their villains could (and sometimes would) be heroes in a different situation.

[Gopher]

I liked it so much better than the first Thor.Phase 2 is off to a fantastic start.Guardians of the Galaxy is going to be so fucking weird and I cannot wait!!!

 

Yay, I'm going to like the movie! The mixed reviews this week worried me. You're the best judge of my taste here this side of Spaghetti. 

[Deep Wang]

Yay, I'm going to like the movie! The mixed reviews this week worried me. You're the best judge of my taste here this side of Spaghetti.

Dammit Gopher! Every time you say this, I get all freaked out!

[Ezen Baklattan]

Crap, between Gopher and Rallax, who can I choose as my soulmate? 

[BoxOfficeZ]

It was okay, a lot of the humor was pretty bland though. You got the impression that the film tried.

 

B-

[glassfairy]

A-

 

Never saw the first one but I really enjoyed this. The only complaint was that the final fight/defeat of the dark elf guy was really anti-climactic/silly but I feel like that about most Marvel movies tbh. And of course the elephant in the room always has to be that once The Avengers exist WHY ARE YOU DOING SHIT ON YOUR OWN. People putting the fate of of the universe in their hands and their hands alone when they know they roll with a crew of super friends is too much for me to handle. It makes me Kanye mad.  But in any case the Captain America bit and that ending (!!!) made up for everything else in a big way.

[Deep Wang]

Crap, between Gopher and Rallax, who can I choose as my soulmate?

Who's making you choose? I can share

[DeeCee]

A- Never saw the first one but I really enjoyed this. The only complaint was that the final fight/defeat of the dark elf guy was really anti-climactic/silly but I feel like that about most Marvel movies tbh. And of course the elephant in the room always has to be that once The Avengers exist WHY ARE YOU DOING SHIT ON YOUR OWN. People putting the fate of of the universe in their hands and their hands alone when they know they roll with a crew of super friends is too much for me to handle. It makes me Kanye mad.  But in any case the Captain America bit and that ending (!!!) made up for everything else in a big way.

It makes sense in this case. SHIELD don't know much about the other realms and have probably never heard of the Dark Elves. On the other side Odin doesn't want humans meddling in Asgards responsibilities.

[Chewy]

A lot of the plot stuff is really dumb, there's some super awkward editing in places, the villain is one-note. You can tell it was stitched together in places

 

Hemsworth, Portman and especially Hiddleston are all fantastic. Most of the supporting cast turns in fine work. The movie moves at a brisk pace and is tons of fun, and the third act battle sequence is quite inventive and unique.

 

I'll give it 7.5/10

[CloneWars]

My favorite part of the movie was the mid-end credit scene. Now, I am actually excited for Guardians of the Galaxy. I didn't even know Benico Del Toro was in that. Then, I went on imdb and saw the cast list, and was like woah! GotG I think will be really good.

 

As far as this film goes, its just average. I would say it is actually the first Marvel film that doesn't really advance anything at all. Even with the shitty Iron Man 3, Stark's character evolves. He grows. Thor stays the same. Loki never changes. Yah, there is more action and stuff, but this pretty much just felt like an average comic book. And, I guess that is okay, but nothing great.

[kitik]

I forgot to wear pants to the theater!

 

 

Very good movie, and it was filled with brilliant bits, but they just didn't add up to make the movie excellent. Still very good though, just not outstanding.

 

I loved seeing a lot more of Asgard, from the beerhalls to the Yggdrasil Tree that seemed to be sitting in their library. Cool books by the way. Their defenses and their weaponry were a great mix between a classical look and technological marvel. (Speaking of which, that was a new Marvel logo at the very beginning.)

 

The characters were great. I loved most of the humor, even Darcy amused me. But of course Loki was the star. He pretty much owned every scene he was in.

 

One big drawback though was the villains. They just didn't seem to have any emotional gravitas to them at all. Sure, they wanted to plunge the universe into darkness and all, but they may as well have just come on screen and said "hi, we're the bad guys, and we're going to be bad now", because their dramatic impact never went much farther than that. Helped that they were involved in a couple of pretty cool battles though.

 

 

And of course the elephant in the room always has to be that once The Avengers exist WHY ARE YOU DOING SHIT ON YOUR OWN. People putting the fate of of the universe in their hands and their hands alone when they know they roll with a crew of super friends is too much for me to handle.

 

First, it was pretty obvious that Jane had no intention of even entertaining the thought of calling Shield. And second, well, they obviously didn't need help, they got the job done on their own.

 

Just from a personal standpoint, what made the Avengers special was them all coming together. It wouldn't be special if it happened every single movie. That said, surprise appearances (thanks Loki) will always feel special. I like the idea that the Avengers only get together when its a super huge threat, something the heroes couldn't handle individually.

 

Post-credits scenes:

 

The collector scene at the end seemed out of place to be honest. No mention of infinity stones in the movie so the audience would be left scratching their heads on what the hells was that about.

 

I half agree with you. But man, that scene was a huge signal that GOTG is going to be so very different than all the previous Marvel movies. So yeah, I agree that it seemed so out of place, but I also took it as a very good sign.

 

 

 

Seems they have made the tesseract and the aether as infinity stones. am i corect? anyone?

 

 

Yeah, that's what I got out of it too. Seemed odd at first, but I guess if they want to build up to Thanos being the ultimate threat in Avengers 3 (assuming that's the plan they go with), I guess it helps to show that some of these ultimate threats that we've seen in various movies are just a fraction of his power. From a movie and storytelling point of view, it makes more sense than introducing a bunch of infinity gems and saying "and by the way, these things give the wielder ultimate power over the universe".

 

Though it did strike me as odd that The Collector referred to them as countable stones. Hmm, thinking about it a bit more, perhaps the infinity gems were in fact gems/stones many, many years ago, and were transformed into objects of great power, be it a cosmic cube or aether or whatever. So perhaps all these things we've seen really are just the infinity gems in disguise. That actually does make sense. And of course the Collector would know this, since he's an Elder and all.

 

 

As for the second post credits scene, I was really afraid that I waited all that time just for a kiss. I was about to be disappointed. Thank goodness they flashed to the ice dog chasing birds.

[dashrendar44]

It's the missing link between SW, LOTR and Ninja Turtles 3 (or Beastmaster 2 if I really wanted to be nasty). At least in the beginning which elements, tone humor, action are mixed quite well in the LOTR-like introduction expanding the universe/mythology and Thor's entrance battling with his crew of warriors. The movie would have been really good if it was that consistent all the way through.

 

But as the movie goes, unfortunately, it feels less and less epic but more like a typical eighties adventure comedy rather than an Epic scifi heroic fantasy like Alan Taylor intended and that's where you can see how production's tone was really muddled, torn between the epic feel of Asgardian battles (I really got a Beowulf's vibe at the beginning thanks to Hopkins presence and the more lively Asgardian futuristic medieval world felt grittier) and the campiness of the human characters interaction that keeps the movie from elevating itself beyond another episode of "Thor meets Jane" sitcom (Selvig's exposed privates schtick) like two movies are colliding just like the Dark World and Earth collide. Frigga's beautiful Viking funeral/Loki's anger cutting to Selvig's gag in the London asylum. Ankward.

 

Not that "Thor meets Jane" is not funny in itself (Kat Dennings is cute as a comic relief as well) but the movie feels bumpy, works in part but as a whole, well, that does not mesh all that well in the end like a botched and rushed patchwork to keep Thor relevant while we all wait for AoU.

 

Eccleston and Adebisi do their best with Power Rangers baddies material managing to retain a sense of creepy threat in ridiculous outfits. Loki is Loki-er than ever, stings and banter flying all over the place, I won't say that he steals the show, he is the show, the movie only exists for him more than Thor, too bad he's not much present. London's photography and setting is ugly, some action scenes staging/scenery feel cheap at times due to shaky and plain editing but I liked the Dark Elves spaceship art direction and everything scifi related.(I couldn't shake the fact out of my head that the Elves ships looked like B-wings while in action especially during Asgard's attack which offered a great occasion for badass Heimdall to justify his paycheck). I just wished the whole movie took place between Asgard and the other realms without Earth shenanigans intercut. That idea of battling through 9 worlds is great with Thor's hammer traveling through them (but most of it is played for funny gags that deflate both Thor and Malekith impacts in the brawl).

 

PG-13 Beowulf meets Kate & Leopold

 

A very generous B+ for entertaining value only.

Edited November 8, 2013 by dashrendar44