Thor: The Dark World (2013)

The next film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe has arrived and it's the God of Thunder's turn. And following everyone's love-it-or-hate-it feelings towards 'Iron Man 3' (Personally I don't see anything wrong with it), 'Thor: The Dark World' faced a bit of an uphill struggle to show the Marvel Universe still has it.

With Loki's (Tom Hiddleston) imprisonment following his actions on Earth, Thor (Chris Hemsworth) is bringing order back to the Nine Realms. Jane (Natalie Portman) meanwhile is trying to find Thor but comes up a weapon known as Aether, which causes an ancient race known as the Dark Elves, lead by Malekith (Christopher Eccleston), to rise from an ancient slumber. Now Thor reluctantly needs to join forces with Loki in order to defeat Malekith before he causes the Nine Realms to be consumed by darkness.

With this film we see a lot more of the Marvel universe being repaired after the events of 'Thor' and 'Avengers Assemble', primarily with the Seven Realms, with the reconstruction of the Bifrost and bringing the other realms back under control. But then again we get to the end of this, so we don't really see a lot more of the aftermath of Loki's actions.

While there isn't too much wrong with the story, it does feel rushed at times, mainly because the film hops around from location to location. It works late on in the film, but at first it's sort of meh. That and you feel most of the scenes on Earth, mainly the ones involving Eric Selvig (Stellan Skarsgard), feel pointless. But the film does flow and it does still manage to blend humour, action, and dark moments really well.

One of the main problems though is the relationship between Jane and Thor. In 'Thor', you can see a really good relationship between the two, in this one, not much has happened. Jane is angry one second that Thor took so long to come back to her, but then completely forgets about it a second later. Heck, the film seems to have been building up to a rivalry between Jane and Sif (Jaimie Alexander), but they don't even share a line of dialogue together. In fact the main relationship that is focused in this film is between Thor and Loki, which is done really well, particularly when Loki morphs into a certain figure. It kind of makes sense actually that the film focuses more on the relationship between Thor and Loki, it's certainly the one we care more about, but it makes the other connections feel dull.

The effects are good for the most part, the main problem is that they do look like they belong in a video game. But for the most part they do look stunning, in particular the Dark Elf ships and the fight scenes, especially the climatic battle. The Elves themselves look good and the scenes involving the Aether look well done too.

The acting is fantastic, everyone is great in their roles, though Hiddlestone leads the pack with his charm and prowess. Hemsworth does great as Thor and Ecclestone brings a great dark persona to Malekith. Portman, I must admit, I felt was quite anonymous. It's like her intern Darcy, played by Kat Dennings, had a bigger role than Portman did. I think it was more what the film did with her character rather than Portman's acting though, I want to stress that.

Overall, it is a fun film to watch. It's got the odd problem but it's certainly one of the better films this year has seen. The acting is great, the effects are fantastic, the story is really well done, and the battle scenes are brilliant. The strained relationship between Thor and Loki and the rebuilding of that relationship is the main focus point of the film and it is extremely well done, but that's not the only thing you have to enjoy in this film.