Thor: The Dark World

My expectations for Thor are never high. Let's get real here. It's about a norse god in a sci fi action movie, where he lives in a technologically advanced alien society that banishes him to Earth  If this was from anything other than Marvel studios, I would have burst out laughing. It's like reading the plot to I, Frankenstein or Hansel And Gretel Witch Hunters.

I didn't like the first Thor. And it fell to the same problems so many action movies do with silly premises such as this. It didn't let the audience soak in how silly it was. It was too serious for far too long, letting us feel the length of it. Sure, these guys are pretty serious in their own legends. But it's a Marvel movie, setting up a universe where this god was going to fight alongside a man in a robotic suit, a giant green muscular Jekyll/Hyde monster, and a frozen WWII soldier. Only a few scenes really let the audience laugh at the situation, but none were really funny enough to have made up for any of the lengthy stretches of no laughs.

So I guess the ultimate question is, did Thor: The Dark World improve on any of those problematic traits? Absolutely. There was a lot in this movie that the audience was allowed to laugh at and allowed to experience for the silliness that it was. It had a decent amount of genuinely funny moments. It was a lot less political, which left more time for awesome action scenes and fun moments of character development.

...Buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut...

For every awesome action moment, there was one that was TOO silly. That's right. Too silly. I was laughing at the ships that chopped buildings in half. I had kindof a hard time taking the villains too seriously, mostly ending up making me chuckle to myself. The moments that had me laugh took away a lot of the drama, which took away any suspense previous Marvel movies so wonderfully set up. Even the first Thor film brought about a few moments I didn't expect, or at least had me thinking about what was going to happen next. This film didn't totally succeed in that regard.

I guess I can give the movie credit. It works on a lot of levels. It's an awesome blockbuster action movie. It keeps itself in check, never becoming so dramatic that it becomes stupid or boring. It has moments of laughter. It has a decent amount of drama and a story that doesn't make zero sense. And I had fun. I guess that's the most important thing. I had fun.

...But can someone PLEASE explain to me what that red stuff was?!

Rank - 3.5/5