Sometimes an actor in a film is so good that he or she makes up for the film's shortcomings. An actor that comes to mind immediately is Sean Connery. Throughout his storied career, Sean Connery was in a lot of fantastic movies. He was also in a lot of dumpster fires. For every Dr. No or Murder on the Orient Express, there was a League of Extraordinary Gentlemen or a Highlander II: The Quickening (which was a thing, quit trying to deny it). No matter how terrible the film was, however, Connery always managed to bring something to the table that made the film better, or at least more tolerable. Thor: The Dark World suffers from this same phenomena. Now, don't get me wrong, Thor 2 is nowhere near as bad as either of those two films. However, what it does end up being is a fairly flawed film whose actors and occasional flashes of great wit all but make up for what problems it does have.
Taking place after the events on the first film and 2012's The Avengers, Thor: The Dark World's story is a bit of a mess. We find out through the beginning prologue that long, long ago, before anything we know today existed, there was only darkness. And in this darkness, appropriately enough, ruled a race known as the Dark Elves who, after being displaced, sought to destroy this new universe, reverting it back into darkness using a substance known as "the Aether." Bor, Odin's (Anthony Hopkins) father, managed to defeat the Dark Elf leader, Malekith (Christopher Eccleston), who then sacrifices his remaining troops in order to escape. But now, ages later, the Convergence, a rare alignment of all 9 realms of the universe, is imminent. After Dr. Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) unlocks the Aether which has been deeply hidden away for millennia, Malekith is awakened and returns to harness its power with the hopes of using the Convergence to plunge the universe back into darkness. Thor (Chris Hemsworth), in turn, must fight to defeat Malekith and save his lady fair. (AND THE UNIVERSE AS WE KNOW IT!)
The main issue with this premise is that we as the audience have no connection to the Dark Elves whatsoever and the film makes no attempt to form one. Yes, they have this really interesting Guillermo del Toro/Hellboy 2 look going on. And yes, the technology they use is awesome. (They have these black hole grenades that are equally terrifying in concept and execution.) But we know nothing about them other than they're Dark Elves and they once ruled the universe. They could just as easily be swapped for the alien horde at the end of The Avengers or the armies of orcs, goblins and Uruk-hai in The Lord of the Rings trilogy. They are literally and figuratively a legion of faceless monsters. As such, all emotional impact is sapped from the large action set pieces that populate the film. There's no moral dilemma here. These are creatures that are evil personified and must be vanquished by our sterling hero.
The decision to present the Dark Elves in this manner might be understandable if their leader, Malekith, were interesting. As he is though, he is simply an extension of his army - a deplorable being who seeks to plunge the world into darkness simply because that's what Dark Elves do. There's no mention of any subjugation of the Dark Elves. We don't get any hint about how or why the universe was taken from them or whether or not the loss of his people had any effect on Malekith. There's not even a sense that Malekith holds any particular amount of ill will towards the humans or the Asgardians other than the blanket feeling of "I hate everything that's not a Dark Elf." Christopher Eccleston is a great actor. As Malekith, he looks and sounds incredibly intimidating. But the only thing he's given to do is to seek the Aether and look menacing. And though he does it well, it just doesn't amount to much.
It also highlights something most of us have known for a long time - Tom Hiddleston's Loki is one of the most fascinating characters in the cinematic Marvel Universe. Imprisoned at the beginning of the film for his despicable acts in The Avengers, Loki's interactions with his Asgardian foster family run the gamut from dripping with sardonic disdain to being surprisingly heartbreaking. Although the script renders much of Loki's motivation incomprehensible (Is he a betrayer? An honorable son and brother? A long-con genius?), Tom Hiddleston is so good that he makes it all seem like part of an insane Joker-esque plan (to borrow from Marvel's competitor) to seize control of Odin's throne while causing as much chaos as possible along the way.
The story arc between Loki and Chris Hemsworth's Thor is also easily the most compelling thing in the film. At this point in their runs, both men completely embody their respective characters and their charisma and chemistry with one another if off the charts. It's a shame then that more isn't done with their relationship. Something happens about halfway through the film that forces the brothers to work side-by-side, despite their obvious deep-seeded issues with one another, to achieve a mutual goal. "I wish I could trust you," Thor says to his brother. "Trust my rage," Loki responds solemnly. It's an intriguing dynamic that could have afforded to be unwound a bit. But, to its credit, the film deftly avoids going too far into any sort of a reconciliation and brings the narrative thread to a close in a way that's satisfying.
The most interesting juxtaposition in Thor: The Dark World is that no other character besides Thor (except, arguably, Loki) is given anything substantive to do and yet the acting and character interactions are easily the strongest part of the film. It's a credit not only to the superb abilities of the film's talent, but also to how the film, like its predecessors, fits organically into the firmly established aesthetic and tone of the cinematic Marvel Universe.
Perhaps best realized in The Avengers, Marvel has found the ideal balance of spectacular, big-budget action set pieces and intimate, hilariously quippy character-driven scenes. It's something that no one does better than Joss Whedon, but Alan Taylor (though primarily a TV director and in spite of the fact that he often appears unready for a task this large) holds his own in this respect, Thor 2 feeling like a perfect extension of this world. From Thor and Loki, to Natalie Portman's fish-out-of-water Jane Foster being thrown across unknown mythical landscapes, to Kat Dennings, Stellan Skarsgard and Thor's warrior friends (including Ray Stevenson, Zachary Levi, Tadanobu Asano and Jaimie Alexander) all of whom are criminally underused, even Kat Dennings's new intern and Jane's "potential" love interest (Jonathan Howard and Chris O'Dowd, respectively), who serve no real purpose in the movie at all, have some very funny and immensely entertaining character moments.
Thor: The Dark World is an odd film. It does little to improve upon what has come before it, yet it feels perfectly at home in this world. It's story doesn't hold much weight at all; the "rules" of the film are so loose that they're almost non-existent. Wormholes appear anywhere and at anytime on Earth simply because the story calls for them to be there. People can be holograms in the movie, to the point where you're not sure who is a hologram and who is real at any given time. (Which makes for some interesting surprises, but it's also hard to not see them as cheats.) Yet, the interplay between fantasy and science fiction in the film is actually well done, especially with the aforementioned Dark Elf spacecrafts and weaponry. It's a flawed film, to be sure. But it's one in which the acting and frequently witty dialogue does a lot to make up for those problems. Couple that with some expertly placed fan service (hinted at above), and although it isn't a must-see, it's really hard not to find something to like about it.
Thor: The Dark World might not be Highlander II: The Quickening, but it's still a lot of fun. (And there could only be one anyway, right?)
7 out of 10
