Movie Review: ‘Thor: The Dark World’

By Kyle Osborne

There are so many dudes walking around in caftans and weird shaped helmets, speaking with Middle Earth accents,  that I thought I was watching “Thor of The Rings” for a moment, and not “Thor: The Dark World,” the sequel to the 2011 superhero flick.

But just when things would get bogged down in vats of exposition, along would come a smart-ass quip or a self-referential line that made me chuckle. It’s that kind of irreverence that makes the latest God-With-A-Hammer adventure worth taking, if just barely.

There is so much “plot” to keep track of, that I worried there’d be a written test at the end of the film—something about 7 (or was it 9?) realms lining up? And there are old enemy elves coming back for more battle—oh, and a red smoky “ether” kind of stuff that is NOT good if it gets you. It’s all ludicrous hooey and strictly for the nerd set. These kinds of exposition shenanigans would tend to make the Thor franchise way, way less accessible than, say, Iron Man.  But for a few things, and they are:

Chris Hemsworth as Thor is as much of a rock star as he was in the excellent, but not widely seen, “Rush.”  His wholesome charisma mixed with a hint of self-deprecation makes him easy to root for. As the villains, Thor’s half-brother Loki is the most interesting character in the film. Tom Hiddleston, seemingly going for high camp, sneers and snarls and still, somehow, makes us kinda like him—though we should never, ever trust him.

Our crew of earthlings returns for the B story: In London, we are reunited with Natalie Portman as Thor’s possible squeeze, the eccentric (and pantless) scientist,  Dr. Erik Selvig  (Stellan Skarsgård) returns for a few laughs, and Kat Dennings serves up a hot helping of cute and sassy as Marcy, the intern. One would have liked to spend more time with this lot and less with the CGI inhabitants of, well, wherever the hell Asgard is located.

As seen in 3-D, I can’t recommend spending the extra money for glasses—not much happens that wouldn’t be just about the same in a standard format. What we have here is a half and half film. Half is filled with too much boring history and set-up, the other half is brightened by the charms of the cast and the film’s willingness not to censor the silliness.

That makes this worth 2 ½ out of 4 Thars. Uh, Stars.

“Thor: The Dark World” is rated “PG-13” and runs 1 hour and 52 minutes.