Movie Review: Thor: The Dark World

This sequel has a somewhat flabby plot and a mechanical feel to it, but some of the set-pieces are spectacularly executed by director Alan Taylor, who is best known for his TV work on multiple episodes of The Sopranos, Mad Men and Game of Thrones.

One of the key villains is Loki (Hiddleston) who is kept isolated in a luxury prison and is prevented from getting up to his old tricks. It’s left to obnoxious little “Dark Elves” to create the requisite havoc.

Thor: The Dark World is a robust, but impersonal, follow-up to 2011’s Thor where viewers would have expected, instead, an epic and terrifying ordeal. The film is all over the place and the focus is lost early on and never regained.

One alarming apparition is the sight of 62-year-old Stellan Skarsgård running naked around Stonehenge – and his connection to the plot only unfolds towards the end. This scene gives some indication of the film’s uneven tone.

An ancient prologue at the start recalls the battle between the noble forces of Asgard and a wicked race known as the Dark Elves. Their reprehensible plans are blocked when they fail to detonate the Aether, an “ancient force of infinite destruction” translated visually as a mass of writhing red energy-tendrils.

The surviving Dark Elves, led by the villain Malekith (an unrecognisable Christopher Eccleston), are sentenced to centuries-long slumber, while the Aether is buried deep down in a place where nobody would ever find it.

Centuries later, on earth, Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), an astrophysicist and mortal soulmate of Thor, unwittingly becomes the Aether’s host, making her the target of the newly revived Malekith. The story has Jane spirited away to Asgard by Thor, who is due to succeed his father, Odin (Anthony Hopkins), as king of the realm. But the coronation will have to wait, given that the Dark Elves’ plot to activate the Aether could have devastating consequences for all Nine Realms.

Loki (Tom Hiddleston) & Thor (Chris Hemsworth) in a scene from “Marvel’s Thor: The Dark World”. © 2013 Marvel. All Rights Reserved.

Director Taylor introduces elements of dark humour.

This is the film’s saving grace and keeps the action sufficiently lively and so diverting that audiences may not recognise the amount of recycled material on offer.

Chris Hemsworth’s Thor is a dull entity, but it’s not really his fault – the script doesn’t help. Portman makes a becoming damsel in distress and manages a frown now and again as she views the meteorological gadgets in front of her.

Rene Russo is touching as Odin’s brave wife, Frigga, a welcome respite from the many brooding males on view, while stoic Idris Elba presents a largely inexpressive Heimdall, the all-seeing guardian of Asgard.

Thor: The Dark World will appeal to die-hard fans, but it seems the franchise is fast running out of steam.

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