In episode two of the Marvel adventures this year we are given the extended look at what was easily the riskiest piece of completing
The Avengers. Thor is by and large a fantasy character with a fair amount of fun to offer and fortunately director Kenneth Branagh was able to elicit those shining qualities the first time around to assemble a Thor film that while not necessarily overly impressive offered a fine enough preliminary set-up for the Norse God that was able to find just the right tone to make him credible rather than the goofy, over-indulgent mess it could have easily turned into. I credited much of the success of things being done the best way they could on 2011's
Thor to director Branagh and a cast that was more than capable of delivering lines about bifrösts and frost giants with Shakespearean prestige. All of this is still in tact in the much grander, more expensive and thankfully more ambitious sequel, but Branagh has been replaced by
Game of Thrones-helmer Alan Taylor and there is a new threat in the world that will of course make cause for our titular hero to jump back into action. While I am completely enthralled with seeing films overlap and build on one another we have now reached a point in our culture where we are taking in these films with such rapid consumption that we don't give them the individual focus they sometimes deserve. We are excited to see Iron Man or Thor back on screen again, but more than that we are looking forward to what will come next that the current film might hint at. I touched on this briefly in my
Ender's Game review, but it is all the more relevant in the Marvel universe. The reason this has become a problem is that while these are still trying to be individual stories there isn't enough of a connection from film to film besides short mentions or familiar character pop-ups here and there. That and the fact these films aren't willing to commit to any tragedy they allow the audience to assume has occurred. Director Taylor and his film are not to blame for this issue as
Thor: The Dark World is a more than worthy sequel and is generally a lot of fun to watch, but it also doesn't do much more than add evidence to the pile that Marvel is content with quantity over quality.
