Thor 2: The Dark World - Cinema Review

Thor 2: The Dark World faced overwhelming odds; post-avengers hype and one of my phenomenally bad moods. I sat seething for a long while at my mistakes in the timing leading me to reluctantly attend a 3D showing. Kevin Bacon's increasingly humourless twattery only irritated me further and i was not in the mood for the mythical exposition with which the film opens. That said, anyone entering a showing of Thor expecting anything other than grand Lord Of The Rings style fantasy worlds and lore will not enjoy this film.

There is a lot more suspension of disbelief required in the Thor films than arguably any of the other avengers and the contrast between grimy, grey London and the transcendental Asgard is more than a little jarring though perhaps intentionally so. The first Thor film left me feeling a sense of forgettable mediocrity where Loki was a far more magnetic personality than the titular hero.  It seems i was not alone as Loki features significantly in the sequel. He provides some much needed humour and underlying tension as well as rightfully dictating the film's major plot twists. His subtle menacing psychosis, damaged backstory and hypnotic unpredictability were the highlight of the film and the makers did well to recognise his appeal and bring it forward. Unfortunately this still leaves me preferring the villain to the hero of this series which is surely not the intention.

A good effort is made to remedy Thor's potential blandness through his romance with Natalie Portman's Jane Foster. The film tries admirably to give her purpose beyond love interest and her parallel scientific storyline is at least relevant to the cosmological shenanigans at play during the film. Though in trying to make her fit into every scene she spends a good amount of time unconscious which isn't really exploring the character.

The new villain Malekith sadly comes off as archaic and one-dimensional and whilst he is built well enough as this imposing, dangerous figure, it bears very little meaning overall when he becomes just another thing to hit with the hammer. The actions scenes are suitably groundbreaking (literally not conceptually) and they bring a fair amount of spectacle to what should be a spectacular film but ultimately there is little tension for a character that can be smacked through mountains and survive.

The film peaks about half-way and whilst promising a potentially very experimental climax with the equinox of different realities it doesn't use this set-up for anymore than random teleportations which is a little disappointing but still spices up the fight scenes. There's nothing flagrantly broken or confusing with Thor 2 but there's very little remarkable as well. There are plenty of nice moments usually involving Loki or the comical juxtaposition of Thor in our mundane little world and for a film with so much grandiose fantastical majesty it does well to not take itself too seriously. I prefer Dark World to the first film but Loki remains the dominant presence and the main pull that brought me to see it. Everything else felt somewhat like a novelty or maybe that's just my bad mood.