Thor: The Dark World - A Decent Yet Disappointing Sequel

When it comes to super hero movie sequels, it’s often difficult to get it right.  When they’re bad they’re awful, and when they’re good they’re fantastic.  Thor: The Dark World amazingly manages to fall right between the two.  The movie picks up two years after the first film left off, with Loki (Tom Hiddleston) imprisoned in the dungeons of Asgard and Thor (Chris Hemsworth)  fighting to regain control of the nine realms whilst gaining further admiration from his father Odin (Anthony Hopkins) and preparing to take the throne.  Dr. Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) is left on Earth trying to pick up the pieces of her life while endlessly searching for Thor and hoping that one day he will return.  Her search brings her to an abandoned building where portals in time and space allow for objects or people to move between realms.  After getting sucked in to one of the portals, Jane finds herself face to face with the ancient artifact Aether which was created thousands of years ago by the dark elf Malekith in an attempt to take over the nine realms.  Once the Aether has attached itself to its new host Jane, Malekith awakens and returns to defeat Asgard and bring destruction to the Universe.  While the movie was as entertaining and action filled as you would hope any super hero movie would be, the plot didn’t feel as cohesive as the first film and Natalie Portman’s character was largely useless apart from being the vessel for the Aether.  Her sidekick Darcy and colleague Erik are even more useless, showing up at random times to make some sort of comment for comedic relief.  The movie does see Thor asking for the assistance of Loki which is fun to see as the brothers execute an elaborate and tricky plan to try and stop Malekith.  Overall, the film felt forced and didn’t feel like a natural progression from the first movie.  A small Captain America cameo was appreciated and reminded us that the Avengers were and are still around, despite working on separate projects at the moment.  At the end of the day, if you’re a big Thor fan than the film will not disappoint because the hammer wielding brute is his same old heroic self.  But for someone looking for some substance, Thor: The Dark World shouldn’t be at the top of your list.