After a shaky start, the MCU generally trended upward during Phase One, culminating in Avengers Assemble, one of the biggest movie events in years. Phase Two started strongly with Iron Man 3, a film whose reputation seems to improve year on year. Thor: The Dark World, however, was the first MCU film to really feel like a disappointment.
If I were to sum up this film in a single word, it would be “inertia”. Nothing seems to happen, especially compared to the first Thor film. The first Thor introduced us to some iconic characters, showed us their growth and their failings, and brought our attention to a larger world. We have none of that here. All the characters feel like hollow shells of their former selves, especially Thor himself; unlike the first film he isn’t funny, isn’t relatable, never actually rises to any height of emotion despite witnessing the deaths of two members of his immediate family (though one does get better).
From the off, the script feels…weird. In our first non-exposition scene, Jane is completely ignoring Roy-From-The-IT-Crowd on an embarrassingly awkward date. Into this situation drops Darcy, who served an important purpose as an audience surrogate and comic relief in the first Thor film, but in this film seems to exist purely to be a complete asshole (she has an intern of her own in this film, who she invariably treats like crap until he saves her life in the finale, whereupon she kisses him because sex is a reward. Ahem). Between them they continue to ignore him and talk about science until Roy-From-The-IT-Crowd subtly suggests she should go with Darcy so he can at least enjoy lunch on his own. It’s a scene that’s supposed to be funny and establish Jane’s motivation going into this film, but instead makes her and Darcy look like inconsiderate dicks.
The dialogue in this film is possibly the weakest in all the MCU, with Odin getting the lion’s share of bad lines — “You must think I’m a piece of bread, that needs to be buttered so heavily” is the standout groaner. Unsurprisingly, the film’s MVP is again Tom Hiddleston, who tempers Loki’s newfound psychotic and megalomaniacal edges with moments of real anguish and remorse, and even some laugh-out-loud lines — “evidently, there will be a line,” comes to mind, and his deadpan “Ta-da” when the ship bursts out the portal to crash into Svartalfheim is a genuine tea-through-the-nose moment, as is his sequence of transforming into different people during his escape from Asgard (and props to Chris Evans for replicating Hiddleston’s performance so perfectly). He even sells Loki’s untimely “death” so well his return in the last shot of the film is a genuine surprise.
On the subject of deaths, Frigga’s feels like an incredibly weird moment. Thor, in the immediate aftermath of seeing his mother murdered before him, seems almost unmoved by it. I don’t mean he’s in shock or denial; he shows no emotion whatsoever and barely seems affected by it for the rest of the film, even during his later argument with Loki. We’re really rushed through the grieving process, too, shown a CGI-heavy funeral scene for not just Frigga, but all the Asgardians who died in the Dark Elves’ attack. There’s no dialogue, and no sense of loss either. Thor continues to not react. Of the many character deaths in the MCU, this one feels the most unnecessary, the most egregious; a proper, old-school “fridging” for Frigga. One of the few moments of impact we see is when Loki — who indirectly caused his mother’s death by directing Kurse to his parents’ chambers — drops his glamour to Thor later to reveal his cell in ruins, his hands and feet bloody from (presumably) beating the walls and kicking his furniture to pieces. It’s probably the best moment of the whole film.
Where the film really falls down is the weakness of its villain. The MCU having poor villains has become something of a meme, but even by its own standards Malekith is an absolute waste of space. His plan — to destroy the entire universe — is laughably unrealistic and he never feels capable of achieving anything even close to that. He’s under-characterised to the point of almost not existing, and during the final battle never truly feels like a threat, despite the fact he’s literally holding a goddamn Infinity Stone. Christopher Ecclestone has gone on record multiple times stating how much he hated working on the film, and that apathy and antipathy really translates into a sterile, empty performance.
There’s still things to like about this film. Stellan Skarsgård is predictably wonderful upon his return, with Erik Selvig having gone slightly insane following his brainwashing at Loki’s hands. This being Stellan Skarsgård, there is inevitably full-frontal nudity. I have almost no doubt that the script made no reference to Selvig being naked, but Skarsgård suggested, nay, insisted upon it. It also leads to one of the funniest exchanges in the whole series:
SELVIG: Your brother’s not coming, is he?
THOR: Loki is dead.
SELVIG: Oh, thank God. …I mean, I’m so sorry.
The overall effect of this film is to make you feel like the MCU is starting to lose steam a bit. That it’s settling into an endless cycle of sequels and prequels like the superhero films of the last decade; made to pack theatres with spectacle without bothering too much about character development. If it has one saving grace, it’s a post-credits sequence that quietly sets up the entire next decade-or-so of films: Volstagg and Lady Sif delivering the Aether — or, as it’s now properly called, the Reality Stone — to Taneleer Tivan. With a whisper, the Infinity Saga has begun.
