MCU Retrospective: Thor: The Dark World
I’m really tempted to just write “It’s bad” and be done with it. But that’s not really fair. Thor: The Dark World isn’t bad; it’s just not good.
So many questionable decisions were made going into this movie. Why was Darcy written as such an asshole in this movie when she was the comedic relief in the first movie? Why were the Midgard (thanks to all of the Final Fantasy 7 Remake hype right now I almost wrote Midgar...) scenes set in London? Because Jane’s hitherto unmentioned mother has a lab in London (and who, despite hearing that line in the movie, we never actually get to meet)? Why do the physics of these inter-realm portals change from scene to scene?
There were also just some things I couldn’t help but say “Wait, hold up” while I was watching. When Jane gets pulled into Svartalfheim and gets the Aether absorbed into her, how does the portal actually pull her in when it's not shown that they can have their own gravitational pull? When Thor ends up in London he kind of just blinks into existence but then has to make a big flashy exit to get back to Asgard. Why is there a discrepancy? In Norse mythology Freya/Friga is a strong witch so why did she appear so pathetic in this movie? Why are you making me question so many things movie?
The movie itself also doesn’t look that great either. It doesn’t look bad but the graphics definitely could have been better. The scene where the dark elves are invading Asgard made me think about Star Wars: The Phantom Menace for some reason. Something about the whole aesthetic of the scene just reminded me of that movie, so thank you for that as well movie.
And the villain. So bad. Just so bad. Their motivation was boring. Their dialogue was boring. Christopher Eccelstein is a decent actor but the writers in this movie just did him so dirty.
I didn’t intend for this post to be a bunch of questions but I do have one more. So ancient civilizations left clues as to the location of The Convergence point, but why were all the clues conveniently located in the UK? And then the point is just on the other side of the city? Man, plot convenience and minimizing filming locations sure is a hell of nicety.
If you’re planning on doing an MCU re-watch do yourself a favor and skip this. You won’t miss much which is all the more confusing because it introduces one of the Infinity Stones (Infinity Juice?). This movie was so forgettable that it honestly felt like I was watching a new movie for the first time when I sat through this. Just don’t.