Thor: The Dark World

Image: Marvel’s Thor: The Dark World website

In a comic book universe in which wealthy entrepreneurs build robotic suits, where scientists are both hindered and helped by genetic manipulations of their emotions, and super-charged super-soldiers travel through time to wage a different war, Asgardian warrior Thor stands apart. In his plainly-titled introductory cinematic chapter, his was a story of Earth; however his broader narrative of feuding realms, mystical myths and lengthy lives ranges beyond one planet. For the long-locked Norse-inspired legend and his continuing intergalactic saga, his is a story of space.

When last our hero (Chris Hemsworth, Star Trek into Darkness) was sighted at the conclusion of The Avengers, he was headed back home with his brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston, The Deep Blue Sea) in tow, the former a saviour, the latter a scourge. In Thor: The Dark World, their status remains the same, their father Odin (Anthony Hopkins, RED 2) mirroring the sentiment in his treatment of his duelling progeny. As their world comes under threat from a re-awakened energy source and the Dark Elves obsessed with its destructive potential, the divide between brothers is reinforced.

Of course, Thor: The Dark World may be a tale of the mighty and lofty, the otherworldly strong and the supernaturally brave, but it also remains one of people. In love interest Dr Jane Foster (Natalie Portman, Your Highness), the link to humanity is always felt. In her comedic intern Darcy (Kat Dennings, TVs Two Broke Girls) and eccentric mentor Erik (Stellan Skarsgård, The Railway Man), the science fiction-loaded scenario is grounded in ordinary interactions. In the efforts of a god to do everything he can, not just for his own kind, but for the brethren of the woman he loves, the film finds its emotional resonance.

So it unfolds that Thor must fight and thwart the latest sinister threat in the form of the elven Malekith (Christopher Eccleston, Song for Marion), in a rampant display of lively, busy action and brooding, moody brow-furrowing. The expected and the entertaining come together under the guidance of the extensive creative team, director Alan Taylor (Game of Thrones) bringing to life a screenplay written by Marvel veteran Christopher Yost (animated series The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes) with Captain America: The First Avenger’s Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, based on a story by Don Payne (Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer) and Robert Rodat (Falling Skies) – not to mention the original comic creation by Stan Lee, Larry Lieber and Jack Kirby, of course. There’s a good-versus-evil battle, brotherly resentment and patriarchal posturing, scientific gimmickry, and an old-fashioned god-and-human love story.

Few surprises may lurk in the celestially-situated Thor: The Dark World, now the eighth film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and yet within the constraints of formula comes the freedom to have fun. Visually, the film unravels in the unsubtle manner befitting its budget, ample displays of carnage and careening images included – and without the restrained touch of the previous instalment’s helmer, Kenneth Branagh, it must be said. Narratively, the adherence to the anticipated has already been established, with over-eager editing in the execution. Thankfully, an unmistakable undercurrent of humour adds zest and zeal; so too, do the central performances.

Of late, Hemsworth has been flaunting his charisma in Rush; soon, Hiddleston shows his own appeal in Only Lovers Left Alive; together, as adversaries flirting with revenge and redemption, their respective strengths are at their pinnacle. Fine turns surround the pair, but the feature’s peaks and troughs match their efforts, with nothing more pertinent or impressive than their shared scenes. Indeed, for all the film’s stories of space and its franchise cohorts’ evocations of Earth, at their heart the combined Marvel oeuvre is all about character. Thor: The Dark World offers that in spades, amusingly, enjoyably and undemandingly so, even when the rote surrounding details waver in personality.

Rating: 3