Official Synopsis
In the aftermath of Marvel’s The Avengers, 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.
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The film starts out really well. We get to see another history lesson (much like the first film) from Odin, which sets the stage for the eventual return of the dark elf, Malekith — he is in the history lesson. From this point on the movie jumps back into Thor’s business, we get to see him cleaning up the nine realms, which are in total chaos thanks to the mess Loki made in New York. Thor’s first introduction seems like he is worn from trying to set things right. In addition to this wear/tear of war, the movie does a great job with creating the burden of Thor wanting to go back to earth to see Jane Foster and getting constantly nagged about taking over Odin’s thrown. Thor is at a crossroads with doing what he should do as Odin’s son and doing what he wants to do. Chris Hemsworth nails this burden perfectly.
Then the movie shifts a bit.
We’re put back on earth with Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), who is also coping with her lonely heart, and also coping with a new found anomaly where things in London have begun to change on their own (trucks floating, items falling in/out of the sky, etc.). All of it leads back to an item that Foster gets tangled with called the Aether (which is one of the infinity gems — an important element in the upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy film and future Avengers films). Her exposure, and ingestion of the Aether, gets her a surprise visit from Thor, and sadly Malekith. The movie gets rolling from this point on, but stubs its toe a little bit in the process.
The introduction to the Aether is never fully explained, though you get why its there later (but not fully). The Aether becomes this thing that has great power, but because of its lack of description, it doesn’t really act as a threat. In fact, by the end of the film you’re going to be convinced that its only purpose was to push this film towards the next Avengers, and maybe that’s enough for you, but I enjoy my plot points with a purpose. For me personally, I felt like it needed a bit more explanation, just something that makes it fully clear and understandable for its purpose in the scheme of Thor: The Dark World’s…well…world.
Of course, if you can look beyond that hiccup, the rest of the film is full of action, which the first lacked quite a bit (though origin films need time to explain the characters — thank you for that, Kenneth Branagh). One big positive about the film is that Loki gets put back into the spotlight, as he deserves to be. This time around, in comparison with his deviousness in the Avengers, he is a neutral character that you can’t label as a villain or a hero. His act at the end of the film will most certainly be considered villainous by most people, but you’ll still be in the middle with him.
I don’t want to give too much away, so I won’t really tell you anything else about the story. Just know that while it seems a bit more disjointed than the first, and the main villain doesn’t spend enough time in the story. Also, the movie is far better paced and contains greater action than the first film. Again, you can expect that because this film didn’t have to sit around and explain almost anything at all about the main characters, sans Malekith. What also appears to be a considerable upgrade over the last film is the right director was chosen for this particular story. I couldn’t honestly see Branagh going this dark with his movies (don’t give me Shakespeare examples, those weren’t his stories). It’s nice to see that Marvel/Disney didn’t skimp on bringing in a very capable person to keep Thor’s story rolling.
Director Alan Taylor did a fantastic job with making Thor’s world a lot less hokey in comparison to Kenneth Branagh’s vision (not that it was a bad vision, but it seemed a bit too ‘fantasy’). Taylor, who is no stranger to fantasy-based fiction thanks to Game of Thrones, made this world into something darker, edgier, almost as if an impending storm is on the horizon even after the movie concludes. It was appropriate for Thor: The Dark World and it helped to magnify the importance of the enemy and the enemy’s motivation, which will come in to play in Avengers: Age of Ultron. Everything in the film felt important, which is a great thing when this movie is more of a bridge to a bigger story than a stand-alone.
Overall, I highly recommend this film for your Marvel movie collection. It will fit in perfectly.
As for the Blu-ray portion of this film, lord it’s beautiful. There isn’t a single imperfection in the movie’s visuals at all. It’s gorgeous in HD. While the film is a bit dark (thus the name), when the colors come through you see them in all their glory. As it stands, the movie features a lot of yellow, brown, black, white and red tints for its visual theme. All of these stand out without one bit of compression issue, fault or blemish. Disney and Marvel did a fine job of transferring the film to Blu-ray in 1080p and should be commended for consistency of quality. Love how this film looks.
The audio comes to you in Dolby Digital and the film has an aspect ratio of 1.85:1.
Finally, the features you get with this one are fantastic. Here’s what you’re looking at:
– Extended/Deleted Scenes (good stuff)
– Gag Reel (funny, but I’ve seen better)
– Exclusive Look at Marvel’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier
– A Brother’s Journey: Thor & Loki
– Scoring Marvel’s Thor: The Dark World with Brian Tyler
– Audio Commentary
– Marvel One Shot: All Hail the King
All of these features are worth your time, with the exception of the gag reel (again, it’s humorous, but nothing over the top). I particularly liked the dissection of the relationship between Thor & Loki and the extended/deleted scenes. I absolutely loved All Hail the King, though I know there are going to be some fans out there that think this is a redo for the Iron Man 3 Mandarin debacle. It’s a good way to cope from some disappointment and I sincerely hope they make good with their promise from it (not giving details away, sorry).
When all is said and done, you get some solid features with this release.
