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What happened in thor the dark world


what happened in thor the dark world

The new Marvel movie “Thor: the Dark World” opens in just a few days, so for those who have been following my “unbiased” review series (and for those interested in starting) here is a brief refresher on the “real” plot of the Marvel movies.

Alternately, you can read my full-length analyses of the earlier films: Thor, Avengers,  and Iron Man III.

(And before I receive any more comments or e-mails attempting to correct my “mistakes”: this series consists of tongue-in-cheek, in-character reviews of these films, intended for fun and to add extra zest to watching.  Please relax and enjoy my reviews it in that spirit.)

We will begin, as Aristotle would recommend, with some syllogisms:

    1. Loki is brilliant
    2. Brilliant people produce brilliant plans
    3. THEREFORE: Loki produces brilliant plans

Second syllogism:

    1. The plans Loki attempted in the Thor and Avengers movies were bad plans
    2. Loki produces brilliant plans
    3. THEREFORE: those were not Loki’s real plans

Hereby we arrive at the single guiding principle which must inform our interpretation of the films: Loki’s activities so far were, in fact, a brilliant plan

Perhaps the most surprising plot thread revolves around Thor and Loki’s relationship with Frigga, something that’s great to see particularly in the context of a cinematic landscape dominated by father-son narratives. It’s a shame we don’t see more of it, given how her story concludes, because it asks us to fill in rather more about her importance than we’re capable of doing comfortably. More than most, this arc is saved from failure by Hiddleston, whose strengths are such that when Frigga asks if she’s his real mother, he says “no”, but we can tell that he’s thinking “yes”.

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What’s intriguing is that even as Marvel’s naming conventions attempt to break free of the ‘trilogy’ mentality – this isn’t called ‘Thor 2’, nor will we see a movie named ‘Captain America 2’ – the film itself has the distinct feeling of a middle-instalment. It’s downbeat. Bad things happen to good people because they do the right thing. The victories are pyrrhic. Threads are started then dropped ̵

Thor: The Dark World is—rightfully—regarded as one of the low points in the MCU; although how much worse most people assume it is than the first Thor, I cannot say. I have warmer feelings toward 2011’s Thor (or at least the potential of 2011’s Thor) than others—but the same cannot be said for The Dark World. In fact, I might dislike The Dark World more than your standard MCU viewer, if only because I hate how it totally destroyed whatever chance the original Thor franchise had at success before Taika Waititi revived it with Ragnarok in 2017.

The first Thor film was far from perfect, but it had its moments and an admirable overall vision (despite rather shoddy execution of said vision). The way I see it, the second Thor film could have steadied the story if it put in the moment and effort to fix its predecessor’s weak points—the biggest of which would be the Ground components and Thor’s relationship with the human scientists. Unfortunately, Thor: The Dark World takes the opposite path and irrevocably sucks out whatever could have worked from the original Thor, and the result is a deadly dull film where you basically hate everything on

The Love Pirate

Of the Phase One movies of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor was the one that seemed least likely to succeed.  Iron Man felt familiar as a superhero story, while Captain America had a mass appeal, but Thor was unusual.  It had a Shakespearean family drama involving gods combined with a fish-out-of-water story and a bit of romance.  The question was whether viewers could buy an immortal, Norse god as a superhero on the big screen.  It was a surprise success, however, and in my view was the key film in setting up The Avengers, both in laying the plot foundation and in expanding the expectations of audiences.

So here we are two years later with Thor: The Dark World.  After a Lord of the Rings-style prologue that tells the story of the Dark Elves, inhabitants of one of the Nine Realms who desire to return the universe to the darkness of its early days, we are caught up on where are heroes are now.  Thor and Loki have returned to Asgard after Loki’s attack on New York was stopped by the Avengers, while Jane Foster and company are continuing the research that first brought her and Thor together.  Thor spends his days trying to bring peace to

Thor: The Dark World

Inciting Event: While reluctantly out on her first date post-Thor (she thinks), Jane Foster is alerted by her assistant Darcy that her equipment is showing anomalous readings. Although Odin’s narration in the prologue alerted us to the impending conflict with the Aether and the Dark Elves, this is the first time the story brushes the main conflict. So far so good, but it would have been better if it had also allowed the protagonist—Thor—to brush that conflict here as well.

First Plot Point: Jane steps through a “hole” between planets, ends up in the Aether’s millennial hiding place, and is “infected” by it when it inhabits her body and uses her as a host. Again, Jane is the primary actor here. But the conflict also touches Thor when Heimdall alerts him that he can no longer see Jane. In essence, we have both Jane and Thor leaving their respective Normal Words here, if only briefly: Jane leaves Earth for five hours, long enough to encounter the Aether, and Thor leaves Asgard long enough to find Jane and take her with him back to Asgard.

First Pinch Point: One of the Dark Elves, sent to infiltrate the prisons of Asgard, turns himself into an unkillabl