Thor: The Dark World

The Thor saga continues with this terminally underwhelming entry that details the title character’s (Chris Hemsworth) efforts at preventing Christopher Eccleston’s Malekith from destroying the galaxy, with the overstuffed narrative also detailing the exploits of several one-dimensional (and thoroughly dull) periphery figures – including Natalie Portman’s Jane Foster, Anthony Hopkins’ Odin, Stellan Skarsgård’s Erik Selvig, and Kat Dennings’ Darcy Lewis. Thor: The Dark World kicks off with an impossibly tedious prologue and grows more and more uninvolving as it progresses, with the movie’s reliance on over-the-top (and entirely unremarkable) special effects holding the viewer at arms length virtually from start to finish (ie there’s hardly a single shot here that isn’t bathed in subpar computer-generated imagery). Hemsworth’s competent yet charmless turn as the bland protagonist remains a serious problem within this apparently ongoing series, as the actor, despite his best efforts, is simply unable to transform Thor into a character worthy of the viewer’s interest or sympathy – which, in turn, ensures that his various scenes with Portman’s Jane fall completely flat (ie there’s not an ounce of chemistry between these two). (It’s ultimately interesting to note that Tom Hiddleston’s Loki, arguably the weakest aspect of Marvel’s The Avengers, turns in the movie’s only interesting/compelling performance.) It doesn’t help, either, that the movie, devoid of anything resembling momentum, lurches from one ill-conceived (and aggressively noisy) set piece to the next, with the interminable climax faring especially poorly and ensuring that Thor: The Dark World ends on as underwhelming a note as one could possibly envision.

*1/2 out of ****