THOR: THE DARK WORLD
The first Thor movie was disappointing to me. Even when the name of Kenneth Branagh was attached to it, very little of his style could be seen. The things that happened in Asgard and other realms was very good, but when the story happened on earth, it became awfully dull and uninspired, with a most generic love interest (a bland Natalie Portman) and an absolutely needless comic relief (a painfully unfunny and forced Kat Denning). The only one doing some effort to justify his existence in that trio was Stellan Skarsgård.
Fortunately, director Alan Taylor has a much better handling of these elements. On the one hand, he manages to make this a much more fun movie, with a nice pace and lots of action. But all of the old problems are still there. When it's about Asgard and its enemies, the movie flows smoothly. When it's about the earth, scenes and relationships are barely sketched out and the rest filled in with jokes of any kind that add little to nothing. Once again one is left to wild guess what Thor and Jane's relationship is about, why they attract each other so much and how this relationship evolves. In fact, it doesn't actually evolve. The characters just limit themselves to throw cliched jokes about trivial situations such as jealousy, face-slapping, introducing the girlfriend to the boyfriend's parents and one kiss here and there. There's some hint of a love triangle with Syf, but nothing is developed at all. Where the movie works in terms of the characters is within Thor's family. Thor and Loki, Odin or Frigga in the same scene provides some fleshed out interaction and becomes instantly interesting. What to say about Hopkins's Odin. He is absolutely comfortable and good in such a role that achieves effortlessly a great performance.
Of course, one of the hearty meals is Tom Hiddleston as Loki. But he takes a lot of time to reach a scene that allows him to deliver great acting. Before that, the movie abuses of the humor the character can produce. It's how complex and vengeful this character is what makes his humor work, not the other way around.
The action is Thor 2's strong suit. Amazing, entertaining, it keeps the movie moving on and it makes up for all the sketchy relationships. Even so, the final battle - which is very entertaining and frenetic - is interrupted to show us how funny Thor [BLACKOUT]is forgetting the world is in danger and taking the subway to get to the place of the battle[/BLACKOUT], or how [BLACKOUT]Darcy, the unnecessary sidekick falls in love with her own unnecessary sidekick[/BLACKOUT] (yes, such an awful concept is now taken to the next lower level). The character of Erik Selvig is now depicted as a deranged scientist (apparently he lost his mind after the events of The Avengers), but his new condition is only an excuse for cheap laughs (the TV clip joke with him naked is repeated twice for no reason and without a change, undermining its initial potential) and nothing else is explored about him.
All in all, Thor 2 is a better movie than its predecessor and a joy to see, it works for the most part, but it doesn't feel the need to flesh out its characters.
3/5
t: It was his line delivery that bothered me a little bit. I'm not saying he turned in a ****** performance, just that it wasn't as good as in the first Thor movie.
Sorry but after seeing TTDW it's going to be impossible for me to sit down and watch Thor 1..
