Phase 2 of Marvel's Cinematic Universe took flight earlier this year with "Iron Man 3" and now continues with "Thor: The Dark World". Both of these films had a difficult task set for them: how to wow audiences with a film centered around a single superhero after last summer's $1.5 billion-grossing juggernaut, "The Avengers". "Iron Man 3" chose to scale things back and craft a dark, personal quest for Tony Stark. "Thor 2" takes the opposite approach, trying to match the grandeur of "The Avengers" by sending the hammer-wielder on his biggest adventure yet.
Does it work? Yes and no. Thor was always the hardest of the MCU's main characters to develop for the screen, given the more fantastical nature of his story. His first outing in 2011 was shaky, too afraid to delve fully into the realm of Asgard and thus spending much of its runtime stranded in a dusty New Mexico town. "The Dark World" gets bonus points, then, for committing 100% to the magical roots of its source material, immersing the viewer in characters with names like Malekith and Frigga and sending them to planets with names like Svartalfheim. The designs are beautiful, the effects are top-notch, and so "The Dark World" at least looks beautiful. And the stakes are certainly upped from the first film: instead of a journey of self-discovery, Thor is now on a mission to save the entire known universe from annihilation at the hands of Dark Elves. This all leads to an exciting, uniquely-choreographed climax that involves planet-hopping wormholes.
Unfortunately, Thor is arguably the most boring of the MCU heroes. He's a brawny, gorgeous, all-powerful god whose only flaw was hubris -- and since that flaw was taken care of in the first film, Thor has no personal transformation to undergo this time. Now he's dealing exclusively with conflicts outside himself (warmongering elves, an imperiled girlfriend, a treacherous brother), which doesn't make for a compelling character arc. Natalie Portman as Jane Foster is a dull love interest, spending 99% of the film in need of help/protection/rescue. And Christopher Eccleston ("Doctor Who") is perhaps the most bland of all the Marvel antagonists thus far. His face is almost literally a blank slate, exhibiting little in the way of personality or emotion, and his one-dimensional mission to bring darkness to the universe is little more than a MacGuffin.
But if Thor is the least interesting hero, at least his brother Loki is by far the most enjoyable villain the MCU has produced. As the god of mischief, Tom Hiddleston steals the show once again, after dominating both the first "Thor" and "Avengers" with his gleeful villainy. Hiddleston has charisma to spare, and it's truly a delight to watch him scheme and plot. Someday the MCU will have to learn to operate without Loki as its main "big bad." Hopefully James Spader ("The Blacklist"), who's playing the titular maniacal robot in 2015's "The Avengers: Age Of Ultron" will finally be able to craft another memorable villain for Marvel fans to love to hate.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npvJ9FTgZbM[/youtube]
