Movie Review - Thor: The Dark World

Thor: The Dark World ** (PG-13) Chris Hemsworth returns from Asgard and the pages of Marvel Comics to play the mighty Norse deity, saving our present-day existence from ancient evil forces. He’s still got issues with his father Odin (Anthony Hopkins) and nasty brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston), balanced with believing Earthling Jane (Natalie Portman) is his soul mate, despite the fact that his life expectancy is about 5,000 years longer than hers. Most of the cast from 2011's Thor return for this bigger, but not better, sequel.

An elf from the time before there was light in the universe, whose race was almost extinguished by the Aesir under the generalship of Odin’s daddy, re-surfaces when a an ancient source of unspeakable power called the Aether is accidentally unearthed in London, putting nine worlds in jeopardy of permanent lights-out. The script sets up all sorts of epic action, with a number of welcome bits of levity (including the inevitable, but always welcome, Stan Lee cameo), but the package is short on coherence - even for adapted comix content. 3-D adds surprisingly little to the adrenaline levels generated by the proceedings, compared to other recent sci-fi and fantasy opuses. Hemsworth bears an unfortunate resemblance to the late Heath Ledger. More precisely, he looks like the product of a deal between the Devil and Ledger’s spirit to acquire a superhero’s physique in exchange for coming back with less charisma than Paul Walker. Always read the fine print, folks.

Those who are not hard-core genre fans might be at risk for boredom through the middle. The big battle sequences would seem more impressive if not for the glut of similar clashes displayed in other recent blockbusters, raising the bar for a Wow! Factor too high for this set of CG designers. The inevitable closing set-up for a third installment seemed particularly contrived and annoying to me, though your mileage may vary. (11/8/13)