10 years later, it's almost quaint to think of Thor: The Dark World as the MCU's nadir
Neither a lost masterpiece nor poison garbage, the first Thor sequel now lies somewhere in the middle of the Marvel pack
In 2013, the Marvel Cinematic Universe was going through a transition. With the help of new owners at Disney, the studio had successfully pulled off The Avengers the year before, and two of the undeniably greatest entries in the long series were just ahead in 2014. But the two movies released in 2013 struggled under the increasing pressure of the MCU. Iron Man 3 was criticized for feeling a lot like an anti-Iron Man movie that made some of the actual superhero action feel weirdly tacked on (but that’s what makes it good, actually). And the much-derided Thor: The Dark World seemed like all of the still-young MCU’s worst impulses being brought to light for the first time: A forgettable villain, a largely pointless MacGuffin, and a tiring dependence on Infinity Stone mythology that wouldn’t pay off for several more years.
But the MCU has grown a lot creakier in the last decade. Those worst impulses are more noticeable than ever, even when there are still good movies coming out of Kevin Feige’s marvelous machine, so it’s the perfect time to consider reappraising Thor: The Dark World. Is it really worse than, say, Black Widow and Eternals and Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness and Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania and Thor: Love And Thunder and Avengers: Age Of Ultron? (Just to name a few random examples.) Or was it just one of the first MCU movies to feel like a real stinker, beyond even the general disappointment of Iron Man 2, and that feeling has stuck with everyone ever since?
It would be nice to think of Thor: The Dark World as a lost, hidden gem of the MCU; a great work of superhero art that nobody appreciated at the time and has become more special in retrospect. It’s not. What it is, is perfectly fine. The Dark World is no longer the low point of the MCU, and by comparison to some of the lesser films that followed, it is very watchable—almost annoyingly so.
The main plot, wherein a villain from another dimension is trying to steal some amorphous space blob that will allow him to whatever, is exceedingly dull, and it no longer has the relative uniqueness and fish-out-of-water comedy that buoyed the first movie. Even Chris Hemsworth’s Thor, who didn’t really come alive until Taika Waititi took over the series with its next movie, only shows the slightest spark of his generally abundant charisma (his best moment is just minutes into the movie, when he makes a joke at the expense of a monster and grins at the mocking laughter he gets in response).
