I have a confession to make. I really enjoyed the first “Thor” movie, and I enjoyed it far more than everyone else I know. 

It gets a lot of negative attention compared to the other “Phase I” Marvel films, and personally, I disagree. I enjoyed it probably the third most out of all of the films, after “The Avengers” and “Iron Man.” It had comedy; it had action; it had Norse mythology; and well, it had Thor. Like a lot of people my age, I first heard about the God of Thunder from watching “Adventures in Babysitting,” which lead to discovering the Marvel version. I think that film was received as well only because he was not as well known as the rest of the Phase I heroes.

So, “Thor: The Dark World” (Trailer) has an upward battle to climb.

This film takes place just as Thor, played by Chris Hemsworth, is proving why he deserves the “Mighty” adjective, by bringing peace again to The Nine Realms after the Bifrost was destroyed in the first film. He has been very busy, and could not return to Earth except for exceptional circumstances for that reason.

Unfortunately, the Convergence is about to occur, where the Nine Realms line up perfectly. It happens every 5,000 years, and causes all of the realms to be a bit wonky, creating portals to each other and messing with gravity/physics. It has also awakened an old threat, King Malekith, played by Christopher Eccleston, of the Dark Elves, who tried to destroy the universe at the last Convergence. He used an ancient magic source called the Aether, which has been hidden for thousands of years, but guess who found it? Oh, that meddling Jane Foster, played by Natalie Portman, and her team (Kat Dennings, Jonathan Howard)!

At the same time, monarchy-based drama in Asgard is occurring, as Odin, played by Anthony Hopkins, and Frigga, played by Rene Russo, are planning on making Thor the next king, given the recent actions of Loki, played by Tom Hiddleston. But Thor’s love for a mortal is worrisome and a cause for concern that he might be focusing too much of his attention on just one realm.

It is not too bad for Thor, I guess. He just has to save his very fragile love from the powers of the Aether, watch out for Loki while he is imprisoned in Asgard, deal with potential enemies on all sides, and try to stop an ancient race from destroying the universe. Probably just another Wednesday for him.

“Thor: The Dark World” features a whole lot of other actors, including the returns of Sif (Jaime Alexander), Heimdall (Idris Elba), Erik Selvig (Stellan Skarsgard) and The Warriors Three (Ray Stevenson, Zachary Levi, Tadanobu Asano). Well, Asano really was not in this movie much, and Levi replaced Josh Dallas, but hey, Stevenson is still there. Also introducing Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje as the second in command to Malekith.

One thing I learned from watching “Thor: The Dark World” is that Chris Hemsworth definitely helped cement himself as the only man who can play the God of Thunder. Over the summer, huge contract negotiations were taking place between Hemsworth and Marvel, the latter who claimed that they do not need him in “The Avengers 2: Age of Ultron,” they could just hire someone else, and refused to budge. Well, eventually, they budged, thanks to the help of Robert Downey Jr., so presumably both sides reached a worthwhile agreement.

“Thor: The Dark World” more or less gave me everything I wanted in a sequel movie, expanding on a lot of areas that the first film established. It still has the same level of comedy, so we are not just dealing with a serious space fantasy drama. The chemistry between Hemsworth, Portman and Hiddleston is electric, allowing the story to flow just a little bit better. The film also takes place a lot more off Earth compared to the first film, allowing the use of new landscapes and helping separate the franchise from the rest of the Avengers movies.

This does come with a downside, however. With a lot of the film set off world, we are given many more scenes that are heavy with CGI in order to create the scene, which gets tiresome after awhile. I would like more of it to be grounded in areas that are not created by green screens.

My biggest issue from the film actually has to do with the editing. I found the scene transitions really distracting, as on more than one occasion it felt like we were cut far too quickly to another scene, almost cutting off lines by the characters. We were not always allowed the appropriate time to even acknowledge what was just said, before having to focus our attention elsewhere. It made the pace of the film seem a bit off to me, and not what I would expect from a film at this scale.

Most likely, “Thor: The Dark World” will not get anywhere as close to touching the amount of money that “Iron Man 3” brought in. I hope that does not detract Marvel Studios from eventually bringing us more Thor outside of The Avengers.

This film had an excellent amount of drama, action and comedy to help create a fantastic theater experience, but has some technical aspects that distract me from giving it that perfect rating overall. 

4/5