Thor: The Dark World

You know we just didn't get enough of the action adventure films you saw aplenty of during the summer movie season, so Hollywood couldn't resist, and...well...brought us one more to round out the year's end. And what a better one to watch that that of Marvel Studios' "Thor: The Dark World".

Thousands of years ago, a race of beings known as Dark Elves tried to send the universe into darkness by using a weapon known as the Aether. But warriors from Asgard stopped them, however their leader, Malekith (Christopher Eccleston) escapes to wait for another opportunity. The warriors find the Aether, and since it can't be destroyed, it being pure energy, they try to hide it. In the present day, Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) awaits the return of Thor (Chris Hemsworth), but it's been two years, because he's been trying to bring peace to the nine realms. Jane discovers an anomaly similar to the one that brought Thor to Earth. She goes to investigate and finds a wormhole and is sucked into it. Thor wishes to return to Earth, but his father, Odin (Anthony Hopkins) refuses to let him. Meanwhile, Thor learns from Heimdall (Idris Elba), the one who can see into all the realms, that Jane disappeared. Thor then returns to Earth just as Jane returns. When approached, Jane emits a kind of energy that repulses, so Thor then brings her to Asgard to have her examined. Malekith comes after her realizing the Aether has come into her. At this point, Thor has no other option than to enlist his unmanageable brother, Loki (Tom Hiddleston) to help him.

Others to round out the cast are Jaimie Alexander as Sif, Zachary Levi as Fandral, Ray Stevenson as Volstagg, Tadanobu Asano as Hogun, Rene Russo as Frigga, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje as Algrim/Kurse, Kat Dennings as Darcy Lewis, Stellan Skarsgard as Erik Selvig, Alice Krige as Eir, Chris O'Dowd as Richard, Clive Russell as Tyr, and Jonathan Howard as Ian Boothby.

This was effectively directed by Alan Taylor ("Palookaville" '95, "The Emperor's New Clothes" '01, "Kill the Poor" '03, "1%" (TV movie) '08). He really brought the fervor out of Hemsworth as Thor while still allowing him to have a sense of humor. It was adequately written by Christopher L. Yost, Christopher Markus, and Stephen McFeely based on a story by Don Payne and Robert Rodat which is based on the Marvel comic book by Stan Lee, Larry Lieber and Jack Kirby. The problem here was the script hopped back and forth with little continuity, so bringing one up to speed was constantly occurring. I realize that there was a great deal going on here, but with more cohesiveness, it would not have had the feeling of it wandering as much as it did. Where this did excel was in the visual effects mostly created by Double Negative, Framestore and Luma Pictures, which were absolutely seamless all in a 3D process.

If you like Marvel comic books or any comic books, or more to the point Thor, you'll love this installment. There is a little surprise, but you'll have to sit through the entire end credits right down to filmed in panavision. Even if you're not a comic book affictionato, this is a fun flick with all the action, explosions, adventure that one will enjoy to help get you in the mood for the holidays coming up.

Out of 4 Stars: 2.5                          Rated: PG-13                            112mins.