Thor: The Dark World: Film Review

The saga continues in Marvel’s second solo outing for Chris Hemsworth’s brawny superhero and Tom Hiddleston’s wicked Loki, picking up where "The Avengers" left off

Nobody gives good sneer like Tom Hiddleston, back once again in the pleather leggings and goat-horned helmet to play bad guy Loki in Thor: The Dark World and pretty much steal the whole show. Amiable hunk Chris Hemsworth may play the title character in this subset of Marvel's meta-Avengers franchise, but this well-intentioned "witless oaf," as his evil foster brother describes him at one point, is practically a guest at his own party here, as scads of new characters and millions of dollars worth of CGI crowd the screen. Most of it pales into insignificance when Loki takes the stage, which isn't often enough given how wildly uneven the sections without him are. Although directorAlan Taylor manages to get things going properly for the final battle in London, the long stretches before that on Asgard and the other branches of Yggdrasil are a drag, like filler episodes of Game of Thrones but without the narrative complexity, mythical heft or all-pervading sexiness.