Thor 2 Electric Bugaloo

Where Iron Man 3 felt like an epilogue to the Avengers movie, Thor- The Dark World is the first chapter on the way to another Avengers adventure.

I was pleasantly surprised by the first Thor film. I went in with mild expectations and left feeling pretty damn impressed.

Ok so.......we all know the Avengers and Thor stuff right. This starts us out with a look back some 5,000 years ago with Malekith  and his dark elf cronies trying to wipe out the universe during a conjunction of the nine realms ( it was during the great conjunction when the crystal cracked and all that great stuff). He is using a reality destroying substance called Ether (or Aether). Hmmm....reality warping stuff. I wonder what that is about? Asgard shows up and of course ruins his plan. Malekith bails and kills his realm and most of his people along the way. The Ether/Aether is locked away where nobody can find it and all is well.

We jump ahead to now and Thor is getting the nine realms back in line post the first movie and the Avengers stuff. Loki is locked away in space Viking jail. Odin is looking to pass the crown onto Thor. Yeah everything is coming up the Odin son. However, Thor pines for Padame (Jane Foster/Natalie Portman).

Meanwhile on Earth, Jane Foster and the Scooby gang discover a lot of anomalies and wyrd physics. Hmmm reality warping events are happening. She of course stumbles upon the Ether/Aether and gets it on her. Typical woman always messing with stuff. Am I right fellas!

This causes the dark elves to wake up as they know the Ether/Aether is still around. Malekith shows up and slaps people around. Thor has tragic loss. Loki is set free. A buddy cop comedy ensues while trying to stop Malekith. There are a battles. A trip around the universe and the eventual show down between Thor and Malekith.

If there is a third party model company out there, make the creepy masked heads to fit 28 mm models. A Dark Eldar army would look great painted up like the Dark Elves in this movie. The faceless elf warriors looked great.

The dark elf aesthetic was really cool. The Forsaken (warped and big punchy dark elves) were ok, but at times kind of felt like a B-movie monster. Their ships and weapons were pretty cool. The look of the dark elf soldiers was very interesting. Their face masks or helmets gave them a great look. Faceless killers that can actually hit a target, well unless it is Thor. They put storm troopers to shame when it comes to faceless minions and shooting. All the dark elves have great look and it is so much better than the comic version. Malekith is really a big improvement from the pages of Thor. In the comics he looked damn silly, but here they gave him a reason to have a split black/white face. They even kept his trademark star on his chest and it didn’t look crazy lame.

Speaking of Malekith, I could have used more of him. It was great to see Christopher Eccleston again. Sure he wasn't my Doctor, but he was damn cool as the leader of the Dark Elves. I know this is a Thor movie, and at time a Loki movie, but more Dark Elf story would have been cool.

We should all be thankful this was not the look used for Malekith!

Loki, well he pretty much stole the any scene he was a part of. This is not really a surprise as Tom Hiddelston is a good actor and Loki is a much deeper character than Thor (and the majority of the actors in the film). There is a lot of predictability with him, but it comes with the character. Still his time in the film is great, much like the previous two movies. Is there a Loki standalone coming? I could see it happening with how popular this guy is becoming.

The action is fun and the plot predictable, but it still works well. The second Thor starts the build to the next big Marvel event. The mid credit scene is testament to that. We all know Thanos is going to be involved sometime in the future. The end credits just drive the point home. It also added a bit of a "SQUEEE!" moment when they confirmed my original thoughts about the McGuffin in the film.

Two great villains, fun and smashy action, just a little comedy thrown to lighten the mood, a foundation for the Marvel movie future and even some stuff for the ladies: all make Thor- The Dark World a damn good time!