THOUGHTS ON
WARNING: SPOILERS
It's Darker But Funnier
The first Thor was a much lighter film tonally and this movie follows sequel protocol in making it darker in tone than its predecessor. The film also offered more in the way of comedic moments and one-liners (the hand of Whedon?) which played off the darkness of the film.
Alan Taylor
The director brings a grittiness to Asgard that seems a lot less shiny than the first film, which is more apt given the overall darker tone. Taylor's Game of Thrones work definitely helps when it comes to a lot of the battles sprinkled throughout and makes the armies feel more real and battle. Whilst keeping some of the visual cues set up by Branagh, Alan Taylor also brought himself to the look and feel of the film which created some wonderful visuals.
The Warriors Three
Even more pointless in this film that the first. So much so that you don't notice that one goes missing for the majority of the film and that Zachary Levi has replaced Josh Dallas as Fandral. They could, and should, easily be left out of the the Thor threequel.
Sif, Jane And The Missing Subplot
It seemed that, at the start of this film, the writers were setting up a love triangle between Jane, Thor and Sif. And maybe it made it through until the editing stage. However, it did not turn up within the running time of this film and, sadly, Sif got somewhat pushed to the sidelines. If the rumours are true and Alexander is the WB's choice as the new Wonder Woman then there'll be no complaints from me.
Haven't We Seen This Somewhere Before?
Much like the first movie, this film has an epic Asgard vs dark threat opening sequence narrated by Hopkins Odin. Whilst there is nothing like listening to the tones of Hopkins narrating (only Freeman can match him), it did feel a tad to like the opening of the first movie.
Marvel Have A Real Star
RDJ has long been seen as Marvel's star property. But it is Tom Hiddleston as Loki who is Marvel's real star turn. Villainous, suarve, conflicted. Hiddleston is having a blast inhabiting the character and that real seeps out to the audience.
Death
Given the lack of character development over the two films of Frigga beyond she "look, it's Rene Russo as Thor and Loki's mom" her death is perfunctory and there is no real emotion to it all.
The Credit Sequences
The first, mid credit, just felt like a way to shoehorn in a tie in with next years Guardians of the Galaxy and was really out of place. Plus, is this saying that the Aether was an Infinity Gem? If not, then just having two Asgardian's show up with a macguffin for an overall studio-wide storyarc is equally confounding.
The second, post credit sequence, felt like the actual end to the movie and, much like the post credit sequence to Iron Man 3, added nothing beyond we have a reason why Thor'll be on Earth for Avengers: Age of Ultron.
The (Lack Of) Avengers
Okay, I get that a lot of events take place on different worlds. But, Selvig has been predicting this convergance for a few days and SHIELD seems to be ignoring it. Surely, Fury would be monitoring situations like this and having an Avenger or too on standby for when, I dunno, a giant space ship and army appear in London? Or is it they only care about New York? I hope that Captain America (which seems SHIELD-centric) or Agents of SHIELD try and explain the lack of involvement (and, for that matter, why Cap didn't show up given the nature of the threat in Iron Man 3). This, to me, seems to be the problem of having a shared cinema universe.
Missed A Trick
Given the London setting of the finale, it would have been a nice in-joke to have one of the fighter jet pilots called Captain Braddock as we don't seem to be getting a Captain Britain flick anytime soon. Heck, it would have been nice having Captain Britain show up and kick some arse.
Darcy
Whilst much of the comedy was on her shoulders, and Dennings is a fine comedy actress, my God she is annoying and takes up way too much screen time.
So, Explain To Me How That Worked
So whilst the Aether seemingly couldn't be destroyed throughout the film but by taking out Malekith in the way Thor did that stopped the Aether from consuming the light and bringing darkness to all the realms? Huh? Was the Aether destroyed too or is it the Infinity Gem handed to the Collector?
Verdict
An enjoyable film that lacked the charm of the first outing for the character.
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