Is ‘Thor: The Dark World’ as Bad as People Remember?

"The first one is good; the second one is meh."

Those reviews came from the Norse God himself, Chris Hemsworth, in a discussion about the first two installments of his Thor franchise. Hemsworth's thoughts are on par with the viewing public, with 2013's Thor: The Dark World not just viewed as a step down from 2011's Thor but often cited as a bottom-tier MCU film.

With Dark World turning 10 this week and the MCU in a downward spiral that the upcoming The Marvels doesn't seem likely to snap it out of, it's fair to wonder if time has served the sequel well. To steal a short answer from Hemsworth: Meh.

The Case Against Dark World

Director Kenneth Branagh helped bring his Shakespeare-like sensibilities to Thor, the fourth official MCU release, which was a nice bounce back for Marvel following the disappointing reception to Iron Man 2 and The Incredible Hulk. As brothers-turned-nemeses Thor and Loki, Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston delivered star-making performances alongside strong and amusing turns from established stars like Natalie Portman, Stellan Skarsgård, Rene Russo, and Anthony Hopkins.

And yet, two years later, the magic was gone with Dark World. Much of the comedy from the first film came out of Thor's status as a fish out of water on Earth, but there's little fun to be had in the mostly-Asgard set follow-up (at least, outside of an all too brief Chris Evans cameo). And unlike many MCU outings to come, there wasn't a starry big bad to carry the load or supply some scenery-chewing. Instead, we got a couple of unmemorable elves. Oh, and don't even get me started on how wasted Idris Elba is in these movies.

As evidenced earlier, Hemsworth is pretty open about his lack of affinity for Dark World. "I wasn't stoked with what I'd done in Thor 2," he said. "I didn't think I grew the character in any way. I didn't think I showed an audience something unexpected and different." The actor's frustration led to the franchise and character getting retooled and reinvigorated with 2017's Thor: Ragnarok by director Taika Waititi. "I said to Taika, 'I'm really bored of Thor,' and he said, 'Yeah, I'm really bored of Thor, too.' And then we decided not to be bored, and any time that feeling came into play, we'd go in a different direction."

In Dark World director Alan Taylor's defense, he was fighting a bit of an uphill battle. Future Wonder Woman filmmaker Patty Jenkins initially came on board, only to leave the project before filming began. "I did not believe that I could make a good movie out of the script that they were planning on doing," Jenkins has said. "It would have looked like it was my fault." Welp, it did end up looking that way for Taylor, who says Marvel boss Kevin Feige hired him to "bring some Game of Thrones to it," referencing Taylor's previous gig. But alas, Taylor's vision was overruled.

"My regret was that the movie that got released was changed quite a bit," he previously shared. "The version I had started off with had more childlike wonder. There was a slightly more magical quality. There was weird stuff going on back on Earth because of the convergence that allowed for some of these magical realism things. And there were major plot differences that were inverted in the cutting room and with additional photography — people [such as Loki] who had died were not dead, people who had broken up were back together again. I think I would like my version."

While admitting that he cheered Zack Snyder on when he was given the opportunity to release his infamous cut of Justice League, Taylor smartly knew he was unlikely to get the same chance. And, no offense to him, but with his next gig being the truly terrible Terminator Genisys, there's not much hope for Alan Taylor's Thor: The Dark World.

The Case for Dark World

Now, there is some good stuff, whether it be the deployment of Kat Dennings, the debut of Benicio del Toro as the Collector, the aforementioned amusing Evans pop-in, and an emotional goodbye between Loki and Thor when the former appears to have sacrificed himself for his brother. In fact, the only time that Hiddleston and Hemsworth truly shine is in grief, between the real death of mother Frigga (Russo) and the not-real death of Loki.

What Taylor and Dark World have benefited from is a two-year Marvel run that has included disasters such as Eternals, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, and possibly an even worse Thor sequel in Thor: Love and Thunder.

The bonkers third act of Dark World actually feels like a finished, if imperfect, product, especially visually, as the recent special-effects issues at Marvel are well-documented. Come to think of it, the MCU might currently be in its darkest world yet.

The Final Verdict

While Dark World will never be worthy of earning cult status as a slept-on masterpiece, it has many marvel-ous people to thank for helping it climb out of the basement of the MCU rankings. Quantumania and Love and Thunder will likely not be so lucky in 10 years!