SCORE: B-
Tom Hiddleston is again the best actor in this film. Chris Hemsworth did a good job again. I didn’t think that Anthony Hopkins did as good a job as he usually does. Kat Dennings as Darcy is funny again, but not as funny as she was in the first film. Natalie Portman was sort of phoning it in, but wasn’t as stiff as she was in the Star Wars Prequels. Stellan Skarsgard and Idris Elba did a good job again.
I liked seeing Thor team up with Loki in this film.
STORY NOTES:
So the original inhabitants of the Uni/Multiverse were Dark Elves. Their leader, Malekith, wants to destroy the other worlds using the Aether, a red liquid. Odin’s father defeats the army and puts the Aether into a rock column. Of course, some of the Dark Elves escape.
Part of this reminded me of the Red Matter from Star Trek, while the Dark Elves reminded me of Hellboy 2: The Golden Army. There’s some attempt to combine the “Dark World” with the idea of “Dark Energy”, but I don’t really think it’s pulled off that well.
Later, Jane is somehow teleported to another world and is infected with the Aether, which has seeped out of its rock prison. There’s a nice trick that Loki and Thor pull off at one point. Loki is fatally wounded, yet shows up later as Odin. I guess we’re to assume that Loki killed Odin and took his place?
The movie is VERY confusing while Thor and Malekith battle through the various portals and across multiple worlds. By the time Malekith is transported back to his own world and crushed by his own ship, I was too confused to care much.
There’s a scene during the credits where two of Thor’s Asgardian friends visit the Collector (Benicio del Toro?). There’s mention of the Infinity Stones, which made me groan. I don’t know the story of the Infinity Stones, but I remember the huge Marvel crossover mega-series called the Infinity War from the 1980s or ‘90s. Personally, I hate huge crossovers. Don’t they already have that in the films with the Avengers series of films? Perhaps they’re setting up something in either Avengers 2, or they’re setting up a potential story for a potential Avengers 3. Oy vey.