Thor: The Dark World (3D)

Plot: Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) and her friend Darcy (Kat Dennings) are looking for Thor with astrophysics instruments when Jane stumbles across some Aether, and gets infected with it.  Aether is the primordial stuff that Dark Elf Malekith (Christopher Ecceleston) is planning to use to destroy the universe. Thor (Chris Helmsworth)  manages to find Jane and bring her home to Asgard, where she meets his parents. Soon Malekith attacks, and after a battle, Thor takes Jane and estranged brother Loki (Tim Hiddleston)  to defeat Malekith with stealth and deceit. This leads to the final battle which happens to be on Earth.  [imdb]    [photos]

Review: Thor: The Dark World is a big, splashy movie with likable characters, some humor, some action, a little dialog, and without much romance. The love story between Jane and Thor is flat -- they  are more like siblings or distant relatives.  The interesting drama is between Thor and his Dad Odin (Anthony Hopkins,) and his brother Loki. I also liked the subplot with Darcy back on earth with sarcastic commentary.

Visually there are high points and low points. High points are the "gravity tricks" early in the movie and at the end.  I also liked the imploding hand grenades -- clever -- why hasn't someone thought of that before? There are several good action scenes, but the dark elves were not good -- like Imperial Storm Troopers -- just masked guys who are there to get killed by the good guys.

I am tired of superheroes bashing each other all around the landscape and not getting hurt -- I am still sick of it from the last Superman movie -- it is just not cool anymore.

The soundtrack was dull. I did not notice any cool 3D effects, and I usually am a fan of 3D. 

Cast: Chris Helmsworth, Natalie Portman, Kat Dennings, Anthony Hopkins 

Directed by: Alan Taylor and James Gunn

Rating:  2.5 stars: an enjoyable movie that doesn't challenge the intellect too much.

More: Did you notice that Stan Lee was the old man whose shoes Erik was waving around while he reviewed the plot points? 

..

.