I could tell that Chris Hemsworth was playing Thor, because he carried a big hammer and kept flinging his blond hair around and had that big, red cape, but those are the only connections I could make to anything logical in this big, beautiful conundrum of a movie that left me dazed. There must have been some kind of garage sale going on at Marvel Studios because everything plus the kitchen sink went into this movie, including every possible movie genre trope, from gladiator movies to science fiction to cheesy romance movies to superhero movies. Throw in every relationship stereotype from mother/son to father/son to brother/brother, even intern/boss and this screenplay feels like it was written specifically to be translated into all the other languages of the countries where it will make its real box office money. All the real effort was put into the effects, of course, which are stunning, but none of it made a bit of sense to me because I had absolutely no clue what was going on. Still, none of that matters if this is your cup of tea. Tom Hiddleston is a delight, no matter what he’s doing, as are Idris Elba, Stellan Skarsgard and Kat Dennings, so the experience was far from a total bust.
Don’t get me wrong, Thor: The Dark World is escapist entertainment in its purest form. It’s kind of like jazz: a whole lot of noise, but completely nonsensical.