Thor: The Dark World (2013) Directed by Alan Taylor

 

Sif: I had things under control!

Thor: Is that why everything's on fire?

 

It’s been two years since the alien attack on New York…two years since Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) last saw her love, Thor (Chris Hemsworth).  However when gravimetric and quantum anomalies begin cropping up, she and her intern Darcy (Kat Dennings) and HER intern, Ian (Jonathan Howard) investigate interesting floating trucks and strange teleportation phenomena.  It is of course a prelude to bigger problems, the convergence, a 5000 year event where the nine worlds converge, and the veils between Asgard, Midgard (that’s us), Jotunheim, and even Svartalfheim become very…permeable.

 

And because Jane is who she is, she is sucked through a portal directly into the most secret vault Asgard ever built, and infected with a Dark Elf weapon of mass destruction, the Aether.  That’s like thee or me being sucked into the warehouse where they put the Ark of the Covenant, or into NORAD’s launch code room.  And then hitting the launch button.

 

Anyhoo, the very act of touching the Aether awakens the last of the Svartalves, and their leader Malekith (Christopher Eccleston) is on his way to do battle with Asgard, find the Aether, and use it, and the Convergence to blot out all light in the universe.

 

And since they are subtle creatures of high magic and immense power, Thor will need help in the sneaky department….his brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston) God of Mischief.

 

It is a great set up; the McGuffin is a WMD, and it’s in Thor’s girlfriend.  The fate of the nine realms is at stake as well as the throne of Asgard.  And Thor is presented with  a choice; the throne of Asgard, or the life of a hero.  The expected duty of marriage to the lovely Sif (Jaimie Alexander) or the brief doomed affair with Jane.  Remember, Thor is Asgardian.  His life span is measured in millennia.  Jane will wither and die in decades. 

 

And that is what moves this above the simple action flick with killer special effects (and oh my, it does have those in abundance!)  No, this is a very human drama; a father with two sons, one who ulcerates for the throne, and is totally unfit for it, the other who is perfect for the job, who by definition, wants nothing to do with it.  It is about a mother, Frigga (Rene Russo) who must watch a beloved child suffer his well deserved punishment, who must balance her desire to soften her husband’s heart against her duties to support him as her king.  It is about a father, Odin, (Anthony Hopkins) who must first be King, no matter the dictates of his heart.  And it is about a heart, Thor’s, which must find a path that serves the people who count on him, but is also true to itself.

 

It is also funny.  Intern Darcy, Intern’s intern Ian, and frequently nude astrophysicist Eric Selvig (Stellan Skarsgård, what is it about the Skarsgård men that they just can’t keep their clothes on?) makes sure that the movie doesn’t drown in its own weight of splendor and gravitas. 

 

Honestly, this is a superior movie to the first.  They listened to the feedback on the first film, and took out the elements that did not serve, and strengthened the movie over all.  If this keeps up, the third could win an Oscar.  One of the biggest complaints about the first was a lack of Chemistry between Thor and Jane.  I don’t know what Portman and Hemsworth did to address the issue, but it has been addressed, and the chemistry works.  In a year rich with Superhero Movies, this last one stands out as one of the finest.