Predicted Rating: 3.5 Stars
Directed by: Aaron Taylor (The Emperor's New Clothes). Starring: Chris Hemsworth (Cabin in the Woods), Natalie Portman (V for Vendetta) and Anthony Hopkins (Silence of the Lambs)
Taking place in phase 2 of the Marvel Universe, set just after the events of The Avengers, Thor: The Dark World sees Asgard coming under threat from a doomsday weapon. Thousands of years after the Dark Elves were defeated by Thor's grandfather, they return lead by Malekith after their weapon, The Aether, is trapped in the body of Jane Foster (Portman). It is up to Thor (Hemsworth) to save the 9 realms from imminent destruction, but not before enlisting the help of his exiled brother, Loki.
There are essentially only three reasons why the stand alone Thor movies exist: 1. So Stan Lee can add another level to his house, 2. So 99% of the population will know who the hell Thor and Loki are before they watch The Avengers and 3. So women can oogle at Chris Hemsworth with no shirt on. However, I think the stand alone Thor movies are my favourites in the Avengers universe. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed Iron Man, Captain America and The Avengers but all in all I enjoyed Thor the most.
I think the reason why I like Thor is that it is the most science fictiony movie of the franchise. The plot would not be out of place in a Star Trek episode/film. The have flying cars and everything! This installment of Thor also tries to be the most comedic of the series as well (even though I thought Iron Man was supposed to provide the jokes for the Avengers). I don't think I am a fan of this, not just in this film, but in action films in general. I always feel very awkward laughing because a couple of minutes ago all those people got killed and now you are cracking jokes? There is also that one guy in the cinema that laughs way louder than everyone else and makes everyone feel uncomfortable. Maybe I don't like it in this film due to my severe dislike of Kat Dennings. She is supposed to be the comic relief but whenever she comes on screen I just want her to shut the hell up and leave. Some of the Loki jokes are funny, for example when he changes to Captain America to make Thor "feel more comfortable", but they only come in a short 3-4 minute burst.
Like most commercial films, it is very easy to nit-pick the errors. The hiding place for the Aether was not too well thought out. It was essentially found by accident by Natalie Portman acting like a stupid white girl from a 1980's horror film. She then claims that the reason why the world almost ended was her fault suggesting that she purposely found the Aether, we all know happened Natalie. Some better suggestions for hiding spots include in Kat Dennings cleavage, in the warehouse from Raiders of the Lost Ark, or as my friend suggested "They hid it in the title of the movie! No one will look in there". Since when did Thor's mum become a master of karate? And why didn't she use her skills previously? The technology of these supposed ancient societies also confuses me. For most battles, the Asgardians decide to use swords and shields. However, when the dark elves, or the Michael Myers fan club (not Austin Powers, but the main protagonist from the Halloween franchise. Interesting fact, the mask used in that series was originally supposed to be a William Shatner mask but John Carpenter found it in the shop and thought it looked creepy) turn up, the have freakin lasers despite being in exile for thousand of years! At this point I thought oh no! We are doomed. Then the Asgardians used their lasers! Where were these before?!
Overall: This is a very entertaining popcorn movie. However, the real reason I usually watch Marvel movies is to see the spoiler revealed during the credits and I was not disappointed this time. 4 stars
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