You must be truly desperate...
When do we start?
Immediately as the film opens we are given a prologue from the great Anthony Hopkins, Odin the King of Asgard. We learn of the realm of darkness and the dark elves who set out to bring a world of complete darkness with the help of the "Either" during the "convergence" which is a time when all the nine realms line up and become one...pay attention because there will be a test later. Before Malekieth (The leader of the dark Elves) could use the Either the army from Asguard comes to stop him just before he can achieve his goal. With the dark Elves defeated they retreat saying the battle had been lost but the war was not over, but we soon find out that the power of the Either is too great to be destroyed and as such need to be buried deep... someone no one would ever find it... which obviously... for obvious reasons... they hid it on earth because we a bunch of cotton headed ninny muggens. And with that, we get the opening title... "THOR: THE DARK WORLD"
This was the second film released in the Marvel Cinematic Universe since the Avengers. Second released but seemingly takes place immediately after the Avengers Ended. Logic would say that each film following the Avengers would take place simultaneously preventing the Avengers from helping each other in their stand alone films. This film would be the first where we get to see Thor alone in a full feature length film with his powers as an Asgardian. What enemies could be so terrible that Thor would go looking for Loki's help? The bifrost has been repaired since being destroyed in the first film, we dont know how or why... but it's back. Jane Foster and the whole crew return from the first film, they unlock a door way that unleashes a power so destructive that Thor must take Jane back to Asgard with him, for her own protection. I saw this in theaters and it was a fun ride, this was long before the days of "PaulY's Five Stars" so I've seen the film multiple times but never watched it with my critical eye. When do we start? RIGHT NOW! and here... WE... GO!
Immediately after the opening title we see Loki being brought before Odin for sentencing, implying this is immediately after The Avengers. During sentencing he is informed that the only reason he is not sentenced to death is because of his adoptive mother, and he will spend the rest of his days in the dungeon. We immediately jump to a battle where we see the true strength of Thor, this scene only exists to demonstrate just how powerful Thor is, which in turn will then administrate how powerful his enemy will be, a hero is only as great as the power of his villain. After the scene it would appear that Thor can easily defeat any enemy proving just how powerful and dangerous this Either is going to be. The 18th century acting and and world of Thor are beautiful and and extremely well acted. As well as meshing the 18th Century world of Thor and Asgard with the 21st Century world of Earth, just as the last film proved they can mesh the worlds beautifully and with ease.
Its made abundantly clear that Thor is still very much in love with Jane Foster, and he always will be. However its also clear that "Sif" one of the members of his team, is very much in love with Thor, and also always will be. Love triangle... two women one man and what a man he is, I'm sure we all wish we were Thor. Quickly we are reintroduced to Jane, Darcy, and Eric and we pick up right were we left off with the last Thor as well as the Avengers. As with all the films in the cinematic universe it plays its own film with it's own theme while at the same time connecting to the group universe. Having seen Iron Man 3, Thor: The Dark World, and Captain America: The Winter Soldier (reviews coming for all of them soon) They are masterfully painting the same picture they did in phase one. Jane and Darcy stumble upon the convergence, where a series of strange and crazy things are happening. Bum...Bum...Bum! Things are about to get crazy real quick.
Jane follows her readings to a place where she stumbles upon the Either... Yup the Either that no one would ever find cuz everyone on earth is Banana Balls. The Either is essentially a parasite that attaches itself to a host until the host can no longer hold it, which is bad for Jane Foster because without a way to get it out of her she will surely die. Jane ends up in between realms and is lost for a good five hours, but it seems like only a few minutes to Jane who is completely unaware that anything has happened. It's not long before Thor shows up to save the day because he's all in a panic because he can't see is baby boo and gets slapped across the face for it. Typical... for a man who vanishes and never comes back to see his true love. Shame on him, for shame... but he does have an excuse that isnt terrible, since he was off fighting battles and all. When they try to arrest Jane and her crew for trespassing, the Either doesnt take too kindly to that and blows everyone to smitherines. Thor grabs her and breaks all the rules of the galaxy and brings her to Asgard... Daddy isn't going to be happy...
So Daddy isn't happy, completely ignores Thor until he sees the Either get angry again, but then it's story time, which seems pretty irrelevant since we already know the story since we opened the film with it, only to find out that Odin has no idea how to get the Either out of Jane. So... whoppdy do... The only thing that is becoming more and more clear is that Odin and Thor seem to have switched places. Odin becoming more of an ignorant arrogant King, Thor being that of an assertive warrior ready to take on all challengers, should they present themselves. Odin's arrogance will lead to war... the very thing that he tried to preach to Thor about in the previous film... this seems like a bit of a flaw. They seem to have altered his character to fit the story, which is unfortunate. Loki's time in his prison cell is shown several times throughout the opening of the film, to keep him an active part of the film because he will become important later on.
A battle is waged in the dungeon as one of the dark elves disguised as a prisoner uses one of the powers of the dark elves to release every prisoner in the dungeon... except Loki... because he's Loki and no one likes Loki... The Dark Elves invade Asgard under the cloak of inadvisability, Asgard tries to lock out the forces of the Dark Elves but just as they look like they are going to lock them, out their defenses are destroyed. Oh... I should have pointed this out earlier... but off topic, I've always felt like from the first Thor film till now that Asgard looks almost exactly like the Emerald City from the Wizard of Oz... Now that I've said it, lets move on. As Asgard attempt to fight against the Dark Elves it's a wonder how they ever defeated them in the first place...on account that the Elves kick the ever loving shit out of the Asgardians, not only defeating them, but destroying them. But Odin shows up just in time to use his shiny staff to kill the few Dark Elves that are left, because he's awesome like that. Shortly there after Thor shows up just in time to see his Mother get murdered, and is just moments too late. This will be an important plot line later on. When informed of his mother's death, Loki becomes furious, her having been the only mother he had ever known, as he despised his father.
With the forces all but destroyed, Asgard all but defensless something must be done to save Asgard. Odin is foolish, and wants to bring the fight to Asgard, where he is all but defenseless. Is arrogance will lead to only death, Thor's plan is to bring the fight to the Dark Elves and have Maleketh draw the Either out of Jane, and when he is vulnerable he will destroy Maleketh and the Either. A ambitious plan indeed but better than fighting an invisible enemy. His plan is treason of the highest order, success will bring them exile and failure will ring them death. However, the only way off of Asgard, is with the help of Loki, who knows the only way off without the Teseract, or the Bifrost. This is where Loki gives the infamous line... "You must be truly desperate to come to me for help". The part here that is really disappointing, is that the fact that Loki just happens to know a way off Asgard that is only just some random way he knows off. This is simply created for the sake of getting off, it's a bit uncreative on the part of the story tellers.
Once off Asgard they find themselves in the Dark Realm, where Maleteth does just as Thor predicted, and it draws them out. Thor and Loki's mutual hatred for those who killed their mother gives them the ability to work together on this voyage and battle, and for once, you find yourself rooting for Loki. Dr. Selvig who has gone a bit crazy since his encounter with Loki in the Avengers, has been locked up in, an inpatient facility for the mentally ill, Darcy gets him out, as they find out that Eric isnt all that crazy after all, as the Convergence is starting. That's not to say he doesn't have a few quirky mentally ill things going on in his head, his tendency to strip naked and frequently be seen without pants is typically used as comic relief and a good one, and one that makes sense as well. During the first battle with Maleketh we immediately assume that Loki betrays Thor stabbing him just as he uncuffs him. Even going as far as to cut his hand off while reaching for his mighty hammer. We soon find out that this was a ploy all along between Loki and Thor to lure Maleketh out, and have him pull the Either out of Jane. Thor shouts out "NOW" and we find out that Loki had used his power to make it appear as if he had betrayed Thor. Which is a big smiling face to all the fans out there rooting for Loki. Thor destroys the Either, but only for a moment as it regenerates and then flows freely into Maleketh giving him infinite power.
Now just as we discussed before about the power of Thor and how they established it earlier in the film, we find Thor's fist true test, as a beast with the power of the Dark Elves bashes Thor over and over again, even knocking away the hammer with little effort. Loki saves Thor only to be stabbed himself, and appears to die in the arms of Thor. We say he appears to die, because within short order we get a quick glimpse of Loki's glowing green transformation into another being, hardly noticeable the first time watching it, but we'll get back to the point of his faked death later. Right when we think that Thor and Jane are stranded we find out that we find the convergence between the Dark Realm and earth. There's a little bit of comic relief between Jane and Thor as he asks "Why are there so many shoes in here" asking "Who is Richard?" watching Thor sit down into a tiny compact car, seeing him hang his trusty hammer on a coat rack. It's all good fun, as Eric comes out pants-less they say "It helps him think", nice little break from the action, exactly what you need in a film that contains so much of it.
The only downside here is when they discover where the convergence is going to be located based on Stonehenge, which is a "Map" as to where the convergence will take place, it conveniently takes place just outside London, where they just happen to be. We walk right into the final battle, between Thor and Maleketh, while Eric, Jane, and Darcy are trying to use their equipment to set up a way to manipulate the convergence. My biggest issue here is that this final battle, like Iron Man 3 has Thor up against an army all on his own, similar to the Avengers, so if Thor is strong enough to handle this army on his own, why did we need the rest of the Avengers to fight Loki and his army in The Avengers film? Just a tiny little question, your hero is only as great as it's villain, but when you have established that an army needs a team to defeat it, it makes it difficult to see how Thor on his own could defeat this army. Now he does have the help of Jane, Darcy, and Eric... but they are hardly Iron Man, The Hulk, and Captain America. Thor and Maleketh fight from world between world as the Convergence takes them from place to place, even the Hammer flowing from world to world.
In a nice little slow down between all the action, Thor ends up at a subway station, and rides it back to London. With Maleketh at his full power, Thor walks up into the Either throwing Jane's tools at Maleketh sending different body parts to different worlds, when his hammer finally shows up right when he needs it. Thor defeats Maleketh but is all but dead himself, as the giant craft Maleketh arrived in begins to topple over, Jane lays down on Thor to die with him, but Eric saves them just in time to send the craft back to the Dark Realm as the Convergence just ends. Suddenly we are brought into a nice little calm scene after all the action, but with the breaks in between the action it never felt like you needed a breath because they gave it to you. As we come to the end Thor tells Odin that he can not be king, he is a warrior not a king. But as Odin forgives Thor's treason for his sacrifice to save all the realms, Thor walks away only to see Loki's green glow as it's revealed that Odin is in fact Loki in disguise, the movie ends on that cliff hanger. We get a credit scene where the Asgardian's turn the Either over to someone known as the collector, this is a scene to set up the upcoming film, "Guardians of the Galexy"
Final Thoughts:
Thor: The Dark World was an improvement in every possible way over its predecessor, which is hard to do these days in the days of endless sequels, but the way Marvel is intertwining all their characters into one cinematic universe is a masterpiece and once it is finished it will more than likely be looked upon as one of if not the greatest cinematic achievement of all time. There are very few flaws in this film, but that's not to say there were not a few, there were places where they just made things happen because they needed to, like Loki's secret passage out of Asgard...ect. A tad lazy but as a whole doesn't really hurt the film, but in order to get a flawless 5 outa 5 you have to be just that, flawless this wasn't a perfect 5 outa 5, there were flaws here and there, but overall this was a great film, that not only progressed the "Thor Series" as a whole but the Cinematic Universe as well, what Marvel is doing is unprecedented and while DC is attempting to try and follow the Marvel blueprint it's hard to see even DC pulling this off as well as Marvel is. Even if they do, it will always be remembered that Marvel invented the cinematic universe. Thor: The Dark World gives you everything you could really ask for in a film, with only a few small flaws here and there and for that they get pretty damn close to a perfect rating, but miss it by just a hair.
Final Rating:
4.5 outa 5
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