Thor: The Dark World

                Let’s face facts; Marvel has pretty much dominated the big silver screen since the first “Blade” film back in 1998. Since then, the only big competitor it’s had from DC was the “Dark Knight Trilogy,” “Watchmen,” “V For Vendetta,” “Superman Returns,” “Kick-Ass 1&2,” and “Man of Steel.” Marvel has taken over as the movie-goers true comic book entertainment for families alike. This time, it’s Thor’s turn to jump back into solo-mode for “Thor: The Dark World.”

                In this film, Jane Foster is on the search for Thor in London, where she comes across a portal that leads her to the Aether, one of the Infinity Stones, like the Tesseract. When she comes in contact with the stone, it fuses into her body which makes her a target for the Dark Elves, a race of beings who were long thought to be dead by Thor’s grandfather. Now in order to defeat the survived Dark Elves, Thor must make a truce with Loki and make sacrifices that will possibly lead to victory and the survival of the nine realms. There’s much more to the plot, but that’s the basics of what you need to know so far going in. Now while watching this film, I had about a few questions on my mind:

1.       Did this prove to be a much more suitable sequel than either “Iron Man 2 & 3”?

2.       Was this better than the first “Thor”?

3.       With all the hype it had on being the biggest project Marvel had since “The Avengers,” does it rank up there with it?

And the answers to that were as follows: HELL yes, definitely, and surprisingly yeah, but let me explain all those.

First off, unlike the “Iron Man” sequels, there is no forced in your face Avengers tie-in moments that are pointless, nor is it some rehash of another film, and the villain built up IS the villain and not just some cop-out they pulled at the last minute. Those were all problems I had with both “Iron Man” sequels, and the more I think about them, the worse they get. I still like them, but you see my point.

                This film also manages to update on what made the first “Thor” good, and also gives the people who don’t think much of it what they wanted. One of the problems that I had with the first film was that I was so engulfed in seeing such different worlds that I wanted more; while the first film gave out a nice concept, and did a fine job building up to the first “Avengers,” it made me want the next “Thor” film first. This new film expands on the 9 realms that connect to Asgard, giving us a wonderful world to expand on more with every passing second. The production design in this film was spectacular, and it really does make it feel like a comic book come to life.

                Now as for this ranking up with “The Avengers,” I really do think this topped it by a long-shot. I know they’re two different films, but since they’re part of the same series, I have to come clean here. The action scenes, the dilemmas brought up, and practically everything else makes this a strong film for comic book fans. This proves that Marvel can not only learn from past mistakes, but also bring forth much more than what was bargained.

                The cast from the first movie who've returned for this film do a great job as always. Natalie Portman as Jane Foster was a very likable character, and it’s nice to see her character have much more involvement with the story at hand here. Anthony Hopkins as Odin really did a number on this part, and much like Portman, he has more involvement other than just being asleep through most of the movie. When shit goes down, he just goes Mentor Zorro on all their asses. The only ones who don’t have that much bigger role to play are some of Thor’s allies; don’t get me wrong, they do have a good amount of screen time and they do have much with the film, but I felt like there wasn’t enough of it. I grew to like them from the first film that I hoped to keep seeing more of them in this film, but that’s just a minor nitpick for me.

                The main attraction here in terms of the casting are pretty much Thor, Loki, and Malekith. Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston really made these characters their own, and taking these roles made their careers strongly. Their personality, their speech patterns, pretty much everything makes them these characters. Then we also have Malekith the Dark Elf king played by Christopher Eccleston, who you may remember as the 9^th Doctor. He is by far one of the best villains in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and thankfully is the ACTUAL villain built up from the trailers, unlike what “Iron Man 3” pulled. Eccleston was everything that made a great villain, from presence to look to the amount of challenge he has against the hero.

                Does the film have problems? Yes, and they can be summed up in two words: Kat Dennings. I’m sorry, but her character is OBNOXIOUS in every sense of the word. Every time she popped back in, I groaned in disgust; granted, she’s not as bad as she was in the first film, and I’ll admit she did get a few laughs out of me in the third act, but that’s only because of her intern, Ian. Most of the stuff on Earth that did feel a bit tacked on just for comedic effect, which is very hit or miss on occasion. Other than that, not much else I can say wrong about this film.

                Overall, “Thor: The Dark World” is one of my favorite films of the year, and I’m now REALLY hyped for the third film. This film is an accomplishment to most comic book films, and by far my favorite installment of “Avengers: Phase Two"...so far, anyway. If you haven’t seen it yet, I highly recommend it…AND buying the t-shirt if it’s at your movie theater.

Rating: 9/10