The sequel to Thor has finally hit the screens and while critics' reactions to "Thor: The Dark World" are mixed, the movie is currently at 70 percent on Rotten Tomatoes.
Directed by Alan Taylor, "Thor: The Dark World" stars Chris Hemsworth (as Thor) and Natalie Portman (as astrophysicist Jane Foster) and Tom Hiddleston (as the villainous half-brother Loki). This time round, Thor needs to stop the ancient race of Dark Elves from plummeting the universe into darkness. Things pick up when one of the elves occupies the body of Jane Foster, Thor's beloved, leaving him with no choice but to team up with Loki to save the universe from evil's shackles.
The universal criticism seems to hinge on the fact that the movie is replete with tacky 3D effects, some of which seem unnecessary and forced. We take a look at what the critics have to say.
New York Daily News
Joe Neumaier of New York Daily News waxes eloquent about Hiddleston's villainy and labels it the show stealer. The movie is entertaining but is not without faults.
"'Thor: The Dark World' may not be thunder from the movie gods, but it is -- shock! -- an entertaining journey into mystery, action and fun," says Newumaier.
Rolling Stone
Peter Travers opines that the sequel to Thor is full of unwanted 3D effects and the movie does not have much of a novelty factor
""Not enough Loki. Too many tacky 3D effects. And then there's the hard fact that everything old isn't necessarily new again just because the bottom line wishes it so," says Travers.
The Wall Street Journal
According to Joe Morgenstern of the WSJ the action-adventure sequel is a disappointment and soon turns "so dumb and 3-D murky that it hurts."
"Most of the action is generic, though sufficiently straightforward to provide relief from the incoherent storytelling. Which realm are we in now? Where were we a moment ago, and how did everyone get here? Such questions seem not to have troubled the writers or producers." As for Taylor, a veteran TV director, "there's no sign he has a feel for feature films; his emphasis is entirely on big set pieces at the expense of narrative flow," says Morgenstern.
The New York Times
Jeannette Catsoulis of The New York Times is not impressed by the movie and opines that "repackaging a Norse god as an alien superhero takes chutzpah."
"If the multiple idiocies on view strike you as neither here nor there, it's probably because your eyeballs are too busy recoiling from the onslaught of disorienting 3-D effects, or else too distracted by the title character's Popeye arms and really big mallet," writes Catsoulis.
Los Angeles Times
According to Michael Phillips of LA Times, the sequel "Thor: The Dark World" is "hammered by repetition" with only performances by Portman, Hemsworth and Dennings being the silver lining.
"So how's this 'Thor' sequel? Same old threats of galaxy annihilation spiced with fairly entertaining fish-out-of-water jokes." Director Alan Taylor "handles the battle sequences dutifully and without much visual dynamism," Phillips says, noting that the 3-D version doesn't add much. He continues: "By now, in this Marvel world, we've seen everything twice, and it's hard to impress audiences with something new," writes Phillips.
