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Thor: The Dark World

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MOVIE:

Thor: The Dark World

WHERE TO WATCH:

Disney+

OUR RATING:

3/5 Stars

WHAT IT'S ABOUT:

Thor, the Mighty Avenger, battles to save Earth and all of the Nine Realms from a shadowy enemy that predates the universe itself.

In the aftermath of the previous adventures, Thor fights to restore order across the cosmos, but an ancient race led by the vengeful Malekith returns to plunge the universe back into darkness.

Faced with an enemy that even Odin and Asgard cannot withstand, Thor must embark on his most perilous and personal journey yet—one that will reunite him with Jane Foster and force him to sacrifice everything to save us all.

WHAT WE THOUGHT:

I can start by trashing the plot line and how it smashes through every point, but in all honesty no one watches the Marvel movies for their plot line. Except maybe the comic fanboys.

Sometimes you wonder who the actual stars of superhero movies are – the cast or its computer graphics. Looking at all the other Avengers movies, the lead actors are pushed to the brink of obscurity by the bigger-than-reality computer graphics, with the exception of Iron Man 3, which actually had a convincing plot around Tony Stark trying to deal with his new sense of human fragility.

The Thor sequel follows in these footsteps and despite having a great lead with an amazing supporting cast (not that Tom Hiddleston could exactly be called a ‘supporting act’), their talents get squashed by spaceships, explosions and godly fight scenes. It would have been nice to have given Thor and his love interest Jane more time to rekindle their romance as well as explore Loki’s reasons for why he does what he does more in depth. One can dream.

But as I said, no one goes to a superhero movie for these kinds of plot elements. You’re better off rewatching Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight series.

However, we do see Thor’s character develop into a mature next-to-be-king from the previous movies and he has cultivated some very dry humour with some amazing one-liners. However, the best one-liners are reserved for Loki of course. His agenda in the entire movie is quite shrewd though and you are never entirely sure what he hopes to achieve. As far as anti-heroes/villains go, Loki is still top in the pack.

Although a male-driven plot, there are surprisingly very strong female characters in Thor. First we have Jane, played by Natalie Portman, who is a nerdy girl with an inquisitive mind that instead of being frightened of Asgard, is fascinated by it. Then there is Thor and Loki’s mother, who has a slightly bigger role than the first movie, and turns out to be pretty badass, proving why Odin married her.

And let’s not forget Sif, the female warrior in Thor’s band that can beat up the best of them. She shows some interest in Thor, but I am somewhat disappointed that she couldn’t be elevated beyond the status of a tough girl.

Thor: The Dark World is everything you expect it to be, with some awesome cameos from another Avenger and the always-present Stan Lee, but fight scene after fight scene could become a bit much after a while, and this could lead to a dangerous over-saturation in the movie business. Marvel will eventually need some dark Christopher Nolan-type magic if it wants to keep its blockbuster crown.

P.S. Like the other Avenger movies, stay until after the credits for some sneak-peeks.

WATCH THE TRAILER HERE:

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