Marvel Studios knows what it is doing with these films. Like the first Thor film, this one was quite good. The movie mixes the right balance of action/romance/humor. Marvel also realized from it’s mistakes with Iron Man 2 and did not have a ton of tie-ins with the next movies (until the end, which I will get to).
The plot of the film was fairly simple. Back before the universe was created there were Dark Elves and no light. Then they battled the Asgardians and lost, losing their main weapon, the Aether. Now it is back and so are the Dark Elves.
Jane, Darcy, and Eric are all back as well. They even added a new member. They are trying to find Thor, who eventually returns to save Jane. He also needs to save the entire universe. And he has to turn to his imprisoned brother, Loki, for some help. I will say that from here on out there will be spoilers.
The Good
-I saw the movie in 3D with the Atmos sound, let me just say that it looked and sounded amazing. Asgard is perfect for 3D. There was also a scene at the end, when the Aether is seen going out towards the universe they used the 3D to follow the Aether. Instead of having it come at you, it went outwards and you could actually feel the depth. I enjoyed that.
-The mid-credits scene sets up the Guardians of the Galaxy movie. The Collector is given the Aether because Asgard does not want to keep it near the Tesseract (Volstagg and Sif comment that it would be bad to keep two of the Infinity Stones together). After they leave, the Collector says “one down, five to go.” So I think we know what that movie will be about.
-Loki was awesome yet again. I knew that he was not actually dead. Especially when the guard comes back and says that there was a body found and Odin says “Loki…” The guard gives a smirk. I knew that when he betrayed Thor that it was all an illusion. When Loki sacrifices himself to save Jane though, that shocked me. Especially when Thor then saves him.
-Speaking of Loki, when he was changing forms and turns into Captain America, that was pretty hilarious. Chris Evans is fantastic.
-I love the little jokes in the movie. Like when Thor is at the subway and asks how to get to Greenwich, and the girl says that it is the third stop so he just gets on. She stumbles into him and feels his chest and he just gives a little smile. That stuff is great. Or when he hangs the hammer at Jane’s apartment. Little things like that make me giggle.
The Bad
-Why do the Asgardians use swords when they have guns? They are fighting in these different realms with spears and swords, yet their enemies have laser cannons? And then we see that Asgard has guns! Does that make any sense?
-So Odin’s father had the Aether hidden on Svaralfeim? The world where Malekith is from? I get that the place is pretty much a barren wasteland, but c’mon, you could not hide it somewhere else? Unless the Aether was hidden somewhere else, but that is not what it seemed like.
-At what point will these movies tone down the destruction? An alien spaceship crashes into a building in Asgard, takes out all the columns (Loki makes some great jokes when they still the ship to leave Asgard about Thor missing a few columns). Then another alien ship comes to Greenwich and destroys the entire plaza area (or courtyard). They need to make a movie about how much the damage from these battles costs the taxpayers. Superheroes lead the world into a new recession.
-The post-credits scene was not worth sticking around for. Yes, we get to see Thor and Jane reunited, and some monster chasing birds in England. It was nice and all, but I think they should have switched the two scenes. The scene with the Collector is what the hardcore fans want to see and they will wait a few minutes for it. The ladies in the theater wanted to see Thor and Jane kiss, give it them early.
Like I said, I really liked the movie. I hope they make a third movie, but who knows if that will happen.
Comic Book Movie Grade: B+
