Thor: The Dark World — What Did You Think?

On Friday, Marvel released its latest superhero blockbuster, Thor: The Dark World. Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, and Tom Hiddleston reprise their roles as Thor, Dr. Jane Foster, and Loki. Christopher Eccleston, best known for his role as the Ninth Doctor on BBC's Doctor Who, portrays Thor's nemesis in The Dark World: Malekith, ruler of the Dark Elves of Svartalfheim. Despite a strong opening weekend at the box office, critical reception has been lackluster. The movie averaged 66/100 on Rotten Tomatoes and 54/100 on Metacritic, but user reviews rated it higher, at 86/100 and 8/10 respectively. io9's review calls the plot "completely forgettable," but also said, "at a time when superhero films are gravitating towards Christopher Nolan-style darkness, it's really nice to see a movie go swinging into adventure with a song in its heart." Comic Book Resources also commented that the movie was a lot of fun, but added, "the film doesn't quite reach its true potential due to a villain who never truly feels like much more than an amorphous bad guy." Those of you who went to see it over the weekend: what did you think?

Re:Meh

[Anonymous Coward]

Because in all the other possible universes in which they ran into the wrong cave, they perished and thus there was no movie?

Re:Thor?

[Opportunist]

No, what that movie really needed was a script. And maybe a story where the synopsis doesn't fit on a post-it.

30 extra seconds is all it would take.

[Dr. Manhattan]

The phone rings when they're outside seeking shelter. They can even keep the existing dialogue, but you get two or three quick shots of them triangulating based on signal bars. Maybe even show Thor isn't a total doofus and has more than three brain cells, by having him notice that they lose signal when they are aren't in line with that cave up on a ridge.

Re:Character development

[dpilot]

An interesting aside, if one for a moment suspends disbelief and takes the plot as something real, and isn't that what we're supposed to do in fiction books and movies???

The Asgardians had technology... Jane Foster and her cohorts had science. When she was on the medical table in Asgard, those working on her explained what they were doing, but it was more of a "work-the-machine" level explanation. Jane understood what was happening.

Ultimately the Asgard machines weren't able to do the trick, because they didn't really understand them or know what any underlying capabilities might have been. The duck-taped-together things did the trick, because there was knowledge there, if not craftsmanship.

Also, Thor did what Jane needed him to do at the end. Without question he accepted her competence. My wife liked that.

Re:Meh

[crakbone]

*Spoilers* Loki ran them through a portal to that world. It would make sense that other points of convergence on the planet would be in the same area. Similar to the overlaying of the portals above Greenwich. The chances of something coming through a portal would be extremely low and they might have crossed a couple of them and not known as they are invisible. As it was they were only able to track the earth portal by her cell phone signal. Of course you are talking about a movie based off a comic book about a mythical demi god, on another planet, that the main characters only got too by riding a rainbow and running away from elves.