{"id":2266,"date":"2013-11-12T13:02:15","date_gmt":"2013-11-12T20:02:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/?p=2266"},"modified":"2013-11-12T13:38:53","modified_gmt":"2013-11-12T20:38:53","slug":"thor-the-dark-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/2013\/11\/12\/thor-the-dark-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Thor: The Dark World"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ThorTheDarkWorld\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Directed by: Alan Taylor
\nStarring: Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddleston, Rene Russo, Christopher Eccleston
\nRated: PG-13 for sequences of intense sci-fi action and violence, and some suggestive content<\/p>\n

The Marvel Cinematic Universe (which is distinct from but resonates with the comics) finished its first phase with \u201cThe Avengers,\u201d and phase two is on its way with \u201cIron Man 3\u201d and now \u201cThor: The Dark World.\u201d Marvel is crafting this franchise of films so that they all interlock with each other in various ways, and it works. You don\u2019t have to have seen every single other Marvel film to enjoy them individually, but they are much richer when seen as a whole.<\/p>\n

Two years ago, \u201cThor\u201d gave us the titular Asgardian god of thunder himself (Chris Hemsworth), his brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston) and their parents Frigga (Rene Russo) and Odin (Anthony Hopkins). Thor and Loki both appeared in \u201cThe Avengers,\u201d and the new film catches up with them a year or so later. Loki is a prisoner in Asgard after his shenanigans in New York during \u201cThe Avengers,\u201d Dr. Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) is studying gravitational anomalies in hopes of finding Thor again, and Thor is fighting to bring peace to the Nine Realms, which were rattled by the events of \u201cThor.\u201d<\/p>\n

The dark elves, believed to be long dead after a crushing defeat by the Asgardians, show up again on Earth \u2013 their leader, Malekith (Christopher Eccleston), has a plan to bring all the realms back to their original, dark state, back when the dark elves ruled everything. Thor, along with Jane, her intern Darcy (Kat Dennings), and Dr. Erik Selvig (Stellan Skarsgard), must find a way to stop Malekith before he destroys everything.<\/p>\n

Since this is a sequel, there\u2019s almost no setup required except for the things that are new to this film in particular. You can jump right in without seeing \u201cThor,\u201d because there\u2019s enough to go on in the dialog, but the characters arrive fully formed. The first film had a lot to do to establish Thor, Jane, and the rest; this one gets to hit the ground running. We get to see more of Jane and Darcy working (although there\u2019s definitely not enough Darcy, she\u2019s fantastic), more of Loki\u2019s mischievous side, more of pretty much all the secondary characters.<\/p>\n

The production values are as high as we\u2019ve come to expect from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and there\u2019s a good deal more humor in this film than in \u201cThor\u201d \u2013 but stronger pathos as well. This film feels much more solid than the first, in part because the actors have more fully-fleshed-out characters to work with.<\/p>\n

This is a film that fans of the other Marvel films can enjoy, but also one accessible to a newcomer. If you like superheroes, sword-and-sorcery, and strong characters both male and female, \u201cThor: The Dark World\u201d is for you. And, as with all Marvel films, be sure to stay until the end of the credits. You won\u2019t regret it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Marvel Cinematic Universe (which is distinct from but resonates with the comics) finished its first phase with \u201cThe Avengers,\u201d and phase two is on its way with \u201cIron Man 3\u201d and now \u201cThor: The Dark World.\u201d Marvel is crafting this franchise of films so that they all interlock with each other in various ways, and it works. You don\u2019t have to have seen every single other Marvel film to enjoy them individually, but they are much richer when seen as a whole.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2267,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[74,97,57],"class_list":["post-2266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-awesome","tag-marvel-cinematic-universe","tag-rated-pg-13"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/ThorTheDarkWorld.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2oSX4-Ay","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2266"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2266\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2269,"href":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2266\/revisions\/2269"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}