Thor: The Dark World Review

Following Iron Man 3 was Thor The Dark World, a film I was a bit too excited about when it came out. I am a huge Norse Mythology fan and a huge fan of Loki and Thor in general, so I was excited for this film. I made my friends go exceedingly early in fear of it being crowded, but we had no issues because we live in a fairly boring city.  However, the film was not at all what I expected and was much darker than needed. I even dreaded rewatching it for this blog post because it really was one of the worst MCU films. As I rewatched it, there were small moments I found enjoyable and fun, but overall the film didn’t feel like a proper Thor film.

For the most part I enjoyed the scenes with Loki because he is my favorite character. His sarcastic human and comments made the film a bit more tolerable. It was also nice to see that he did care about Frigga, based on his reaction when she died, and that he is more powerful than the MCU leads us to believe. His magical reaction to hearing about Frigga’s death and ability to hide his sorrow when Thor comes shows just how powerful he really is. I feel that they didn’t give him the opportunity to really show what he can do, and I hope that in his TV show they go all out with his magic. I remember crying very hard when I first saw this film because I thought he actually died, and it does still make me tear up even though I know he’s not actually dead. It was an interesting twist at the end and I love how they made it seem like he was going to be all evil and do terrible things, when he instead pulled back Asgard’s harsh rule of others and focused on the arts. 

Something I didn’t enjoy was Thor’s character. I understand he was dealing with a lot, especially after his mother’s death, but this dark and brooding Thor isn’t who he is. It took away from a lot of his character development and overall personality. I think the only action he took that really made sense was him returning to Jane at the end of the film to give their relationship a proper chance. Though I do not overly care for Natalie Portman’s portrayal of Jane, there was a slight improvement in this film. Sif’s character also seemed off with her jealousy of Jane. Sif is superior to Jane and respects Thor, so there was no reason for her to display any jealousy she may have felt. Odin and Frigga’s characters seemed correct, with Odin generally not being that great and Frigga trying to be a good mother to her sons. Odin’s need for revenge also makes sense with his character, and his willingness to essentially let all of Asgard fall to seek revenge shows that he is not a good king. Heimdall was also still true to himself and his values, doing what he believed was best for Asgard even if it meant committing treason. 

A few things I found really interesting were Malekith’s ability to weird an infinity stone, the Convergence, the proper Viking funeral. First, Malekith clearly was strong enough to wield an infinity stone, but his inability to defeat Thor or even put up a good fight at times made it seem as if he didn’t really have full control of the stone. I would have liked to see more of this to know if he truly could deal with the power or if it was going to eventually destroy him. Second, the Convergence was a really interesting thing that was used well during the battle scene. The proper explanations of it alongside the inclusion of the other realms was well done. Finally, th Viking funeral for Frigga was absolutely beautiful. Yes, it was a sad moment in the film, but the respect that was paid to Viking tradition made me happy. 

There wasn’t much in the way of easter-eggs, but there were some character cameos or introductions throughout! Stan Lee was seen in the place where Erik was being held since he somewhat lost his mind, and had his shoe taken by Erik during his lecture on the Convergence. Loki changes forms into Captain America briefly which I’m sure was fun for Chris Evans to play. And we meet the Collector, who later plays an important role in Guardians of the Galaxy. 

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