Thor 2: The Dark World completely misses the mark

The last decade or so has seen a great resurgence in the once nearly-dead genre of comic-based film. After decades of questionable writing, tired plots and campy acting — to say nothing about the culmination of these factors in the disastrous Batman and Robin — recent, new directions of comic franchises have breathed new life into this genre, seeing the returns of such greats as Batman, Spider Man,  and the Man of Steel Himself.

However, while their competitor DC has taken a decidedly darker tone with their films, such as Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy, Marvel Comics has instead opted for a more lighthearted, easygoing atmosphere for their films. This keeps with the traditional “spirit” of comics and superheroes. Full of camp, sarcasm and quirkiness beyond compare, Marvel has carved out a very successful niche in the market, exemplified by the success of The Avengers.

However, Marvel’s success in this field leaves this reviewer with some measure of confusion, not as to why they are successful, but as to why they would willingly move away from what made them successful in the first place. This, unfortunately, is the case with Thor 2: The Dark World.

The film begins with a largely expository opening sequence, detailing an ancient feud between Asgardians of ages past over a weapon called the Aether, which contains the power to destroy the entire universe. Past warriors of Asgard (to the uninitiated, a realm home to godlike characters based on Norse mythology) seal the Aether away, after defeating the evil Dark Elves, led by a character named Malekith (Christopher Eccleston). Cut to Thor (Chris Hemsworth), godlike prince of Asgard, thousands of years later. Following the events of The Avengers, titular character Thor, amid a conflict amongst the various realms, learns of the coming of the Convergence, a supernatural “alignment” of the realms, which causes portals between them to appear seemingly at random. Unfortunately for Thor, his love-interest Jane (Natalie Portman) ends up stumbling into one such portal, absorbing the Aether’s power, and prompting Malekith to return from self-imposed exile in another bid to reclaim the ancient power for himself.

The issues with this film may not be apparent to fans of the franchise, but from an outsider’s perspective, they quickly become manifold. To begin, Thor 2’s title is something of a misnomer. Rather than picking up from the prequel, Thor 2 picks up directly following the events of The Avengers. While not a particularly large problem, this movie operates wholly on the assumption that audiences have seen both films; The Dark World will be extremely unforgiving to those who have seen neither film, or have even just seen the first Thor. It’s a brilliant marketing strategy on Marvel’s part, ensuring that audiences will see their other films, but an issue nonetheless; without the backstory of those two films, audiences will have no way of following what is going on in the plot. Even with such information, the plot juggles so many subplots, established over the course of multiple films, that audiences will still be left questioning what happened, or how or why events unfold as they do.

The plot’s content, however, is nothing particularly extravagant to behold. While it certainly has its interesting moments, Dark World sadly lacks much of the energy to be found in other superhero films, particularly those made by Marvel. It simply tries to move in too many directions at once. It tries to be darker, upping the stakes of the first Thor film, incorporating much more action and a villain with far darker end goals. However, it doesn’t successfully push all the way with its darkness: characters remain quirky and light, even when the situation at hand doesn’t call for it. Likewise, in situations in which it would be appropriate to let the film breathe and lighten its tone, the film opts instead to press on with its overbearingly serious tone. The end result is a film which is very confused, unsure whether to be light or dark, and thus it resides somewhere in between. This “in between” however, ends up simply being lukewarm, muddled and uninteresting.

The characters do little to help matters in this regard. Hemsworth, despite his best efforts, does not carry much power in his role as Thor. Outwardly, he looks the part, giving the powerful aura of a Norse god of thunder, and the earth-shattering potential that comes with it. As soon as he opens his mouth, however, that image visibly depletes. He speaks in monotone throughout the entire picture; the closest he gets to emoting is limited to raising and lowering the volume of his voice, which sadly, does little to endear us to the character. Eccleston as Malekith fares better, conveying a feeling of menace, fear and arguably hints of sadness and tragedy. Despite Eccleston’s efforts, the character of Malekith unfortunately comes off as too one-note for any of these emotions to leave much impact; he simply feels like a standard villain, nothing more, nothing less. The standout performance is given by Hiddleston as Loki, who, true to form, plays the scheming and maniacal villain with all the quirky charm for which he has become well known. While Loki’s role in this film is relatively small, it is portrayed extremely well. Fans of the series and the character will be excited to see him return with another excellent performance.

The visuals, similar to the acting performances, are hit-and-miss. While there is nothing particularly wrong with the effects — which range from the digitally-rendered Asgard to the lightning for which Thor is well renowned — unfortunately they leave little actual impact. Everything is very obviously CGI rendered; audiences will never be fooled for a moment into thinking that they are looking at anything real; as a result, the hard-hitting action scenes, which rely heavily on such effects, lose a good deal of the raw, physical power behind them. Everything simply looks too computer-rendered.

Thor 2: The Dark World lacks all of the power other films of its type have. While it is serious, it doesn’t push itself hard enough to leave much of an emotional impact. While it has light, quirky moments, they are too few and far between to define the film properly. With a jumbled plot, questionable acting and CGI-laden visuals, the film feels like a decided step backward for comic book films. If you’re a fan of Hiddleston’s Loki from previous Marvel movies, you may be able to enjoy the film for the 30 to 45 minutes he’s on screen. Otherwise, give this one a pass.