The back-to-back billion-dollar box office takes of Marvel’s The Avengers and Iron Man 3 meant that Thor: The Dark World had even more pressure to live up to than the Tony Stark three-quel that preceded it. After all, Phase Two of what has been dubbed the Marvel Cinematic Universe is in full swing leading up to the 2015 release of Avengers: Age of Ultron, and since Iron Man 3 served as more of an epilogue to The Avengers than a driving force propelling the story into the future, it has fallen to the God of Thunder to save the (Marvel) universe.

Thor: The Dark World essentially picks up right where The Avengers left off. Having just led an alien invasion in New York City, Loki (Tom Hiddleston) returns to the kingdom of Asgard to pay for his crimes and is promptly locked away while Thor – his adopted brother (and heir to the throne) – is off defending the Nine Realms from assorted creatures, including the rock monster featured so prominently in the film’s trailer. However, a far greater threat soon arises as Malekith (Christopher Eccleston) and his Dark Elves launch a plan to recapture an all-powerful mystical object called the Aether, which has just so happened to fall into the hands of Thor’s unrequited love Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) on Midgard (aka Earth). Continue reading Review: ‘Thor: The Dark World’ →