Thor: The Dark World (2013)

December 28, 2024 8:37 AM

When the Dark Elves attempt to plunge the universe into darkness, Thor must embark on a perilous and personal journey that will reunite him with doctor Jane Foster.
posted by TheophileEscargot (10 comments total)

I'm slowly going through the MCU movies with my son and we're up to this. It seemed a lot better this time than I remembered. There's nice ship design, really creative action scenes with clever use of portals and gravity and illusion, Tom Hiddleston camping it up as Loki, Chris Hemsworth getting more comedy into the Thor role. I think coming after "The Avengers" and "Iron Man 3" it didn't stand out at the time, but it's actually a good example of the MCU in its prime.
posted by TheophileEscargot at 8:37 AM on December 28, 2024 [2 favorites]

I enjoyed this story and cast in many ways, but ultimately it's hampered by a completely uninteresting villain. The unintersting villain is sadly a Marvel staple, but it's surprising that it IS such a staple and I would love to be a fly on the wall when these decisions are made.

The big battle was interesting and enjoyable and delightfully unpredictable. The humor was good and not overpowering, this time around. But the Dark Elves were just completely uninteresting and boring.


That said, Darcy is always a great side character and should be in the MCU more.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 9:26 AM on December 28, 2024 [2 favorites]

Huh. I've been thinking of this one as the one that sets up the scene in Avengers: Endgame in which Shambolic Thor has to go get the Reality Stone with the help of Rocket. Maybe I'll revisit it.
posted by Halloween Jack at 9:26 AM on December 28, 2024

It's better than its reputation, mostly because of the overqualified cast, but I think that if no one had realized Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston are both wonderful comedic actors and leaned into it, this film illustrates that the Thor branch of the MCU wouldn't have lasted very long.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 9:46 AM on December 28, 2024 [3 favorites]

ultimately it's hampered by a completely uninteresting villain

That's definitely a weakness. It's Christopher Eccleston who can normally do a good villain (e.g. 28 days later) but between the script and the makeup there's not much he can do.
posted by TheophileEscargot at 12:38 PM on December 28, 2024 [4 favorites]

Echoing all the comments. When I went back to watch this not too long ago, I was surprised how much better it was than my own recollection. Perhaps what really struck me after the film came out was that this score actually sounds pretty great. Brian Tyler did the music and steps a bit up more than the first film which wasn't terrible, but didn't catch my ear the same.
posted by Atreides at 11:56 AM on December 31, 2024 [1 favorite]

Rewatched this yesterday and got angry all over again about the killing off of the queen, played by the ridiculously talented Rene Russo. Which places this movie in the Ike Perlmutter.

This is the executive who owned a toy line and hated female and POC heroes. He was probably pushing to have the Dark Elves be a toy line, hence their appearance, which really weighted down the movie, because they had absolutely no heft to their character or purpose.

I'm not sure what would have made this movie good. Honestly, it wasn't terrible, but wasn't memorable. The problem with the MCU villains is usually they want power, but there's no reason why they want power. If (Googles the cast to get the name of the forgettable villain)..Malekith has wanted power to save his people or a family member that might have worked. Plus the either? Aeither? was stunningly one note and made no frigging sense. Natalie Portman is no acting slouch, yet she doesn't have much to do here other than look sickly and in pain, at least until the end.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 3:04 PM on December 31, 2024 [1 favorite]

Could have watched a whole movie of Rene Russo just cleaning up with a sword.
posted by Atreides at 11:25 AM on January 2

Right?! Such a lost opportunity!!!
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 12:28 PM on January 2 [1 favorite]

I'm pretty surprised by the comments in here - I've seen this one approximately three times now, and the second and third watches were *both* because I had completely forgotten I had seen it already. Even more, the film was so forgettable and bland that it took me over halfway through the rewatches before I recalled that I had already sunk several hours into this operation months prior. Even today, it's only because the film description in the OP that I know any details about what happened in this installation... it's like the entire movie is a shot of brain novocaine.
posted by FatherDagon at 9:26 AM on January 4 [1 favorite]