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Thor: The Dark World

Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddleston, Christopher Eccleston, and Anthony Hopkins
Directed by: Alan Taylor
Screenplay by: Christopher Yost and Christopher Markus

     I have to say, that if I were a person in the world where The Avengers exist, I'd wonder about why aliens love to attack Earth of all places.  It seems like Earth is being attacked so much throughout all of these movies.  Wouldn't you agree?  It would seem quite strange to live on a planet that gets attacked by some weird threat every few months.
     But more importantly, we have heroes like Thor (Chris Hemsworth) to save the day from enemies we know nothing about.  After the battle of New York in The Avengers, the 9 realms of Asgard have fallen into chaos and Thor must make peace among them before the worlds align in what's called the Convergence, an event in which a portal opens linking all of the worlds, including Earth.
     Meanwhile, there's a race of people called Dark Elves (of whom not many Asgardians, including Odin (Anthony Hopkins) know about), led by a warrior named Malekith (Chrisopher Eccleston), who are in control of a liquid weapon called the Aether.  This weapon has the power to send the entire universe into darkness and cause mass destruction if used during the Convergence.
     One day in London, scientist Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) discovers a strange event that turns out to be a sign that the Convergence is approaching.  This discovery sends her to a strange place in which the Aether enters her body.  Thor finds her on Earth after this event and then takes her to Asgard where she can receive better help than she can get on Earth.
     A great war is coming and it's a race against time to try to defeat the Dark Elves and destroy the Aether before the universe is all but annihilated.  Fortunately Loki (Tom Hiddleston) knows how to stop the Dark Elves before it's too late, but in the wake of past events from Thor and The Avengers, can Loki truly be trusted?
     So as you can probably tell from my synopsis, this is a rather lengthy and complex storyline.  I'm pleasantly surprised at the complexity of the plot for a superhero movie.  It is not since The Dark Knight trilogy have we seen a complex plot in a superhero movie like this.  There is enough plot that we can be entertained by the whole film and almost get lost in the film itself.  It makes for a truly epic cinematic experience, something that I find quite rare these days.
     The special effects of this film aren't quite as good as I had hoped they would be.  I don't like to be able to tell the difference between what's animated on a green screen or in editing.  There are plenty of instances where one can tell that things have been added in post production.  The worst of the special effects is the animation of the Aether.  It's a red, floating liquid that sometimes just doesn't look right.  You'll have to see the movie to notice what I mean.
      That's probably the worst of the movie.  The best part of the movie is probably the characterization of Loki.  For the first time in a long time, we're led to believe that he's not as bad as we had originally thought, but again, that's what we're led to believe.  He's the character in this film that you want to be a good guy in the end, but you also want to see him be a truly evil character.  Sadly, we can't have both.  It's taken a while for his character to grow on me because I didn't really like him in the first Thor nor did I like him much more in The Avengers.  But my favorite portrayal of Loki is in this film.
       This brings me to the acting performances.  Chris Hemsworth plays Thor very well and it seems to be a fitting role for him, but we already knew that.  Natalie Portman does a fine job as Jane Foster once again, but Tom Hiddleston delivers the best performance of the film.  He delivers a performance you'll just have to see to believe.  It's hard to describe, but see the movie for a better idea of his performance as Loki.
       Overall, this film is another pretty good installment in the Marvel universe, leading up to another Avengers movie that's sure to be as awesome as the first.  Thor: The Dark World proves to have an epic feel to it that we haven't seen in a relatively long time, and it's great to see an epic film like this once again.
       I give Thor: The Dark World a B+.

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