Civil War Countdown: Thor: The Dark World

So, naturally after Avengers, we were treated to more expositional filler films. Some of which were really, really good, as we'll see soon. But, some kind of lacked amongst the others. Now, I like Thor, as many people do. He's a great character, a great addition to the Avengers, and the first Thor movie was pretty damn great. Naturally, Marvel wanted to follow up with a new Thor movie, and naturally, everyone was very excited. It was going to tell the story of Malekith, it was going to delve deeper in the mythology of the Norse gods, and bring upon the Infinity stones plot line. So, why does everyone say this movie fucked it all up? I have no fucking clue.

So, the movie begins with Odin telling the tale of the Asgardian fight with the Dark Elves, led by Malekith (Christopher Eccleston), who controlled with the power of the aether, a magical element that provided great power. However, the Asgardians eventually won the battle, sending Malekith and the rest of his elves into exile until the aether found a new host. It then cuts to modern day London, where we find ourselves with the lives of Jane Foster, Darcy, and Erik Selvig (or, some of him, turns out for the first half of the movie he's gone batshit crazy). They find a huge spike in energy that takes them to an area that's experiencing some mad gravity fluctuations. Jane does a little exploring and finds herself in contact with the actual aether, which uses her as a host, and, of course, awakens the elves. This chain of events grabs Thor's attention, and he flies down to Earth to investigate, bringing her back to Asgard eventually to let their doctors investigate.

Meanwhile, Loki has been put in prison for his crimes against New York. Thor, Frigga, and Odin are trying desperately to seek some sort of apology from him, but it's not working. All the while, a soldier of Malekith takes the cell across from him, meaning there's a spy in Asgard. While the doctors in Asgard try to take care of Jane (hint, they can't), Thor shows her around the place, much to Odin's dismay. Their free time is immediately cut short as a huge prison breakout happens, led by the spy. This all leads to Malekith marching onto Asgard, killing millions, including Frigga. The whole place mourns as Malekith goes on to search for the aether. After some mourning, some fighting with Odin, and all that, Thor hatches a plan to get the aether to Malekith and ending the suffering. Using Loki, they escape Asgard and meet him on an abandoned planet. While Malekith gets his precious aether back, Loki dies (seemingly), and Jane and Thor are trapped on the planet until she finds the gravity pocket from the beginning, which leads them back to Earth.

When back on Earth, Jane and Thor learn that Malekith is on his way to begin his reign with the aether as a convergence, an aligning of all the reams through means of portals, begins. They have a way of fighting back, however, as Selvig has a certain amount of machinery he can use to control the portals and gravity pockets and use them against him. The fight begins as Malekith's ship crashes into a London university and the portals open. Thor and Malekith begin their tussle, but are heavily distracted by the changing gravity and portals. They transverse different realities back and forth from Earth, with their weapons and other things around the place being transversed with them. However, Thor gets the upper hand as the aether begins to consume Malekith, using his hammer to blast him into oblivion.

After the fight, Thor returns to Asgard, where Odin offers him the throne. Thor denies, stating he'd rather stay and protect the Earth with the Avengers as well as be with Jane. Odin is displeased, but accepts his wishes, before we find out that Odin is actually Loki in disguise, having survived the fight on the planet and now controlling Asgard. The movie ends there, but of course, you have your standard credits scenes. The first introduces Taneleer Tivan, aka the Collector (Benicio Del Toro), as Sif and a warrior bring him the Aether to keep closely. The second just features Thor returning to Earth to be with Jane.

So, yeah, you know, this movie is kinda disliked amongst the populace, but, I don't really see it. While it's by far not the best Marvel movie ever made, it still has some clever moments that you can't help but get a chuckle out of. The humor is pretty great, even three years later it still manages to make me laugh a little, and certain performances are better than others (Loki), which make the movie all the better. Another small personal preference is that I like the way that The Dark World is filmed vs. the original Thor movie. For some reason, Kenneth Branagh chose to use so many dramatic and tilted shots that seemed like Michael Bay filmed Battlefield Earth. This one is much more steady, and features a good amount of bright scenes to go along with the gritty scenes, with some gorgeous establishing shots to boot. Good job, Alan Taylor.

On the bad side of things, the plot is kind of forgettable. Besides the aether, none of this is ever referred to again (so far) in the rest of the lore, and honestly, going into it, I kinda forgot part of it myself. Malekith, although played by a class actor, is very forgettable, and can almost be described as kind of wimpy and nearly unlikeable, a huge contrast to Loki from the originals. Throw that all together with some aspects that seem to much like Star Wars: Attack of the Clones, and yeah, it's not very clean.

But honestly,  it does its job well, opening up the lore of Asgard, and establishing some events in the future, tying in with some good humor and clever parts. I'm giving Thor: The Dark World 3 out of 5 stars for that reason, and thanking my stars that at least it's not as bad as The First Avenger. But, speaking of Captain America...we're getting something amazing here soon...so stick around.





Hail Hydra