Thor: The Dark World (Movie Review)

The best thing, worst thing, and main thing about Marvel's latest "Thor: The Dark World" in about the time it takes to watch the trailer.

 

REVIEW TEXT:

 If I had a hammer, I’d hammer in the morning, I’d hammer in the noon time, all over this land.
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“Thor The Dark World” is our second dedicated journey into the world and mythology of the Marvel comics super hero Thor. We rejoin mostly the same crew, as Thor and the gang from Asgard once again team with some earthlings to prevent a new super baddie from doing damage to the universe. Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Anthony Hopkins, Tom Middleston, and many more all reprise their roles with Christopher Eccleston joining the cast as the evil Maliketh the Accursed, who wants to take over some mystic element called the Aether and plunge the realms into darkness. Not that any of that really matters, what we really care about is does it deliver on the big action, big scenes, and funny one liners that made the first movie such a great watch. And the answer? A pretty easy yes.
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Ths is a fun movie. If there’s one thing I’ve come to count on when seeing a new Marvel movie it’s that sense of humor. And these laughs are the best thing about this one. In fact, I’m pretty sure if somebody filmed me while I was watching this I’d just have one big goofy grin on my face. And the laughs weren’t just from jokes either, there were some funny plot devices that were quite clever. I should also mention that Tom Hiddleston is a big part of that as Loki, bringing much of the afore mentioned humor to the screen. I just heard recently that they brought him in for a couple extra scenes after shooting had finished and you can see why, his wit and mischivious charm just light up the screen. I also really enjoyed Zach Levi hopping in on this one to as the swashbuckling Fandral, a role he passed on in the first one due to his committments to finishing “Chuck”. To be honest, I’m kinda in love with this entire cast right down to the hilarious Chris O’ Dowd whose brief scenes courting Natalie Portman’s Jane are some of the funniest in the film.
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The movie certianly isn’t perfect though. It falls into the same trap of plot convienance that so many of these intricately ploted super hero flicks do. There are coincidences here that stretch believability about as thin as I would stretch the elastic cord if I went bunji jumping. Now, I don’t want to give anything away so I’ll refrain from specifics, but just be prepared to go along for the ride when the unlikely continues to happen over and over again. The other issue I had, and we’ll call it the worst thing, is with Loki’s power of illusion. It’s a nifty trick when it’s used once or maybe twice, but this movie seems to use it so much it strains my patience to ever believe anything I’m seeing is real. His power is the “boy crying wolf” of super powers. Use it too many times and eventually I’ll won’t come running. Having said that, neither of these things is close to enough to keep me from enjoying the movie, more of just minor annoyances.
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Overall, “Thor The Dark World” is another fast, fun flick from the the geniuses in charge of the Marvel universe. Even the occasional plot coincedences are easy to forgive when I’m having such a blast. I give it a B+.
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