Thor: The Dark World (2013)

Marvel delivers another confident blockbuster that mixes darker tones with consistent humour and inventive action. The final London-set showdown is a highlight for its creativity and laughs.

A gloriously entertaining film delivering spectacle, action, humor, and fun, with strong performances and brisk pace.

The sequel pads its battle-to-battle structure with humor, visual artistry, and emotion, flipping the fish-out-of-water dynamic and elevating Loki's role for laughs and poignancy while delivering epic imagery.

The sequel keeps the fun of the original while adding some grittier elements, with Loki providing the best moments and witty banter. The film never stays dark for long and zips along entertainingly.

Loki steals the show with his subversive wit and charm, making the rest of the film watchable despite its flaws. Hemsworth delivers the laughs effectively amid the spectacle.

Thor has become too mature and square-jawed to be interesting, and the villain is bland, but the film improves on action staging and comedy while making the Loki-Thor sibling dynamic its emotional core.

The film is a buoyant if derivative ride that benefits from humorous approach and strong setpieces in Asgard, though the material feels recycled and stakes low.

The critic finds it a consistently enjoyable but uneven and derivative comic book sequel, praising its humor, visuals, and Tom Hiddleston's Loki.

The film is more busy than exciting with too many subplots and characters, but it is a step in the right direction thanks to the strong chemistry between Hemsworth and Hiddleston.

The film lurches between grand spectacle and self-parody in a jarring manner. Tom Hiddleston's Loki stands out as a far more compelling figure than the lead character.

A deeply silly, noisy action movie drowning in CGI but enormously entertaining, with strong action sequences and humor.

The sequel offers the same old threats of galaxy annihilation spiced with fairly entertaining fish-out-of-water jokes, but it is hampered by repetition and lacks visual dynamism in battles.

The film is uneven, with long draggy stretches on Asgard that feel like filler and a ramshackle script, but it perks up whenever Loki appears and finds its balance in the final London battle.

The film is uneven, with an unconvincing villain and tedious plot despite upping the comedy. Tom Hiddleston’s Loki receives special praise as a five-star performance amid the two-star overall verdict.

Alan Taylor’s direction is butterfingered and the film fails to impress as a workmanlike Marvel sequel. The critic singles out Stellan Skarsgård’s mad scientist streaking at Stonehenge as the best thing about it.

The film is witless and lacks humor, with battle scenes lacking heat and coherence and a central love story that fails to engage, though Hiddleston provides some relief.

The critic praises the film's humor, strong character relationships especially between Thor and Loki, and non-stop action, calling it one of the best Marvel films to date. The villain Malekith is noted as underwritten and forgettable.

The film is entertaining enough with plenty of excitement and panache, making it more fun than the first Thor. Director Alan Taylor strikes the right balance of action, humor, and character moments while delivering the goods above and beyond its predecessor.

The critic finds the film overly enamored with otherworldly production design and a thin villain plot in the first half, leaving Thor himself sidelined. It improves markedly once focusing on the Thor-Loki dynamic, delivering fun, quips, and a unique climactic battle.

The review praises the strong cast, especially Tom Hiddleston's Loki and Chris Hemsworth's Thor, along with the lush production design and humor that make the space opera enjoyable. It notes that while the plot has some incoherent elements, the film remains outlandish, silly, and surprisingly fun overall.

The film starts as a busy muddle with too much exposition and jumping between genres and characters, but finds its feet in the second half with strong humor and performances. The critic singles out Kat Dennings' Darcy for praise while complaining that Christopher Eccleston's Malekith receives too little development and screen time.

The review finds the film entertaining in spots with good humor and action but ultimately haphazard and unsatisfying due to an under-developed villain, thin script, and lack of distinction. It is called the most deeply flawed Marvel movie since Iron Man 2.