We have finally hit a speed bump in the MCU. After several films that ranged from excellent to good, I find myself finding one to be a bit mediocre. Thor: The Dark World has moments of entertainment but all of it feels a bit obligatory. It was hard for me to care about a lot of the characters and it suffers from taking itself way too seriously (something successfully rectified in Thor: Ragnarok). The film is pretty to look at and has the typical straightforward action that most will appreciate but the film is lacking in ways that make it a rough patch in an otherwise steady universe.
The enemy this time around is Malekith (Christopher Eccleston), the King of the Dark Elves, who may be the worst developed villain in any Marvel movie. His motives are villainy 101: use the power of the indestructible Aether to blast the nine realms back into primordial darkness. Having failed once in the time of Thor’s grandfather, he’s back to try again. He has a henchman or two and drives around in space in a really big ship equipped with a cloaking device.
Buried under pounds of prosthetics and makeup, Christopher Eccleston is unrecognizable. He growls his lines with appropriate Bane-like menace, although there aren’t many of them. It begs the question of why the filmmakers bothered with a “name” actor when not even his family will recognize him. As a character, Malekith is about as one-dimensional as a villain can be. His backstory is truncated and he’s not given enough screen time to be more than passingly menacing. The only thing interesting about him is when he goes one-on-one with Thor (Chris Hemsworth) in an admittedly fun battle that has the two of them popping through space from planet to planet (with Thor’s hammer desperately trying to catch up).
Two characters enable Thor: The Dark World to occasionally transcend the generic mediocrity that defines this endeavor. Tom Hiddleston’s Loki, making his third appearance, has grown so comfortable in the role that he’s able to steal every scene in which he appears. Thor: The Dark World comes to life when Hiddleston is on screen and his interaction with Hemsworth evidences far more chemistry than the rather feeble spark evident between Thor and his lady love, Jane Foster (Natalie Portman). Then there’s Kat Dennings’ sharp-tongued Darcy, who is by far the most interesting secondary character not named Loki. She has top-notch comic timing and is also a grade-A scene stealer.
Hemsworth, like Hiddleston, has grown into the role thanks to previous appearances in Thor and The Avengers. It’s hard to deny his charisma and the scenes he shares with Hiddleston and Anthony Hopkins (as Odin) represent the best Thor: The Dark World has to offer. Unfortunately, his confrontation with Malekith is CGI dominated. Meanwhile, Natalie Portman is disappointingly bland. The actress, who is capable of delivering strong performances in the right material, is as utterly defeated by the role of Jane Foster as she was by that of Queen Amidala. Stellan Skarsgard has been transformed into pure comic relief, running around in his underwear (or less) and acting like a lunatic. Anthony Hopkins and Idris Elba are criminally underused, but that was also the case in the first Thor. Their presence provides Thor: The Dark World with cinematic legitimacy, not unlike Marlon Brando’s inclusion in Superman.
Thor: The Dark World does do a couple of things right with the narrative. The screenplay neatly dispenses with the elephant in the room of “where are the rest of The Avengers?” (an issue that was evident in Iron Man 3) by having most of the action take place off-planet. Asgard is nicely rendered although it seemed more grandiose when Kenneth Branagh envisioned it in the first Thor. This time around, director Alan Taylor sees it as a smaller, less majestic place. Perhaps that’s necessary to the story. The kinds of indignities suffered by the gods this time around might not have worked in Branagh’s version of the realm.
Thor: The Dark World is occasionally elevated by the moments when it plants tongue in cheek and decides not to take itself too seriously. Hiddleston and Dennings’ dialogue is often representative of this as are scenes when Thor literally hangs up his hammer or boards a train in the London underground and asks directions. In fact, it’s possible to make a compelling case that the film is at its best when it’s taking a break from the primary storyline and allow to have a little fun.
Affected by the success of The Avengers, more than Iron Man 3, is this film. It’s hard to go from such highs and then present a film such as this that doesn’t deliver on the same level. Once a franchise enters the realm of the epic, it’s hard to satisfy by backtracking and there are only so many times a hero (or group of heroes) can face Armageddon without it becoming redundant. There are sparks of entertainment but ultimately the film is stale and all too familiar.
