Thor: The Dark World

Currently leading the superhero genre through its highly appreciated era, the MARVEL universe is quite literally leaving its competitors in the dark with rivals ‘DC comics’ adopting a dark tone in their films as oppose to the contrasting upbeat traits of the MARVEL films. Following in this light-hearted tone is the second in ‘Phase 2’ of the MARVEL canon, Thor: The Dark World, staring the Avengers’ favourite mythological superhero in the series’ most surprising addition yet.

Following off the events of ‘The Avengers’, we return to ‘Asgard’, Thors home planet, and residence to Thors royal family including his misguided brother, Loki, who has been encapsulated in prison to serve his punishment after the destruction of New York. However just as Thor returns to normality on Asgard, a bigger and more vicious threat dawns on his planet and mankind. Gifting us with only the impressive ‘Iron Man 3’ before this release, Marvel’s phase 2 has shown to be oddly more comical than its previous instalments and Thor: The Dark World very much follows this trait being arguably the funniest MARVEL release to date. Not only is it hugely entertaining humorously but Thors newest outing is also hugely refreshing and original in a franchise that is undoubtedly triumphant but certainly wrapped in cotton wool. The sense of threat in this release is far greater than ever, feeling as though any pivotal character could be eradicated at any moment, destruction is evident as civilians are clearly intimidated by Thors most recent foe and a general sense of peril is far more in the forefront of the film in comparison to previous instalments. This is partly due to the impressive direction of Alan Taylor with his previous works of fantasy TV series ‘Game of Thrones’ and its similar sense of peril coming through in his direction as he recreates a mythological world of wonder and conflict.

This mythology drains through the pours of the film and soaks the film with hearty characters and back story of far more structure than its series’ predecessors.  That said however, the modern storyline which Thor: The Dark World is handed is one of fair confusion with technological jargon being blindly mismatched together in the hope that they make even the littlest sense. This doesn’t stop all understanding of the plot altogether however as it is made fairly easy to follow through its linear nature and unfortunately tame motives of the antagonist Malekith. Played by the fantastic Christopher Eccleston, he is given frustratingly little material to work with and although he certainly does the best with what he has, the character could have been a far more memorable one if the story had been adjusted accordingly.

Thor: The Dark World’s sense of ambition is hugely admirable, being the only cosmic hero of the current Avengers; the film does a fantastic job in introducing the cosmic universe which will no doubt play a huge part in MARVELS upcoming releases. With bags of energy and creativity to boast in its outstanding unique action scenes and original script it’s just a shame that that it didn’t create a more fathomable plot with a more memorable villain to match.

8/10- Thor proves to be the most exciting MARVEL superhero, daring to be different with surprising action sequences and pinpoint wit.

Calum Russell